'Kript Squad' roams, Vikings destroy
The “Kript Squad” roamed the sidelines, paying homage to the game in their own way, each with their own brand, marked by an injury that took them from the field to this “macabre society.”
Their numbers have grown from the start of the year. Jacob Hennen, Tanner Sterzinger, Austin Kloos and LaShad Smith earn their “badge of honor” on the field. Jackson Esping had shoulder surgery before the season, Joseph Rybinski hadn’t been able to play all year and for a time Ryan Vlaminck was part of the special group.
The “Kript Squad” has grown fast and it’s getting harder and harder for the Viking coaching staff to dig deep into their vat of talent and pull out another body.
Their rallying cry is, “Guys have got to step up.” Coach Chad Johnston and his staff have used that line so often they’re beginning to sound more like drill sergeants than football coaches.
Yet, with each and every injury, someone does, “step up.”
Take Friday night when Minneota and Ortonville played an up-tempo game that finally ended with the Vikings in control, 53-27.
Minneota’s running back corp led by Cole Sanow and his 178 yards rushing, has seen a world of changes … Sterzinger, Kloos, Smith had all stepped up — but all Friday night found themselves “Krypt Keepers,” roaming the sidelines.
So Johnston and staff dipped one more time into the reservoir and came up with junior Blake Reiss.
And again, he stepped up, ran for 112 grinding yards, scored two touchdowns and had eight tackles on defense, he gave Coach Johnston something to talk about. “Reiss had a great night, a great night,” said the coach. “That’s what we needed,” he added.
Then there was sophomore AJ Myhre. With little varsity action under his belt, he was thrown into the Vikings bent and partially broken defensive backfield.
Right after quarterback Thomas Hennen had broken off right tackle for a 35-yard touchdown run and 26-14 lead, Myhre went deep into the Vikings own territory and picked off a Tyson Powell pass to set up a 58-yard, nine-play, eight-yard touchdown run by Sanow for a 34-14 lead that put Ortonville on the outside looking in.
“AJ made some great plays. We’ve been trying to give him some reps (practice).” The coach used that line again. “Guys have got to step up.”
Even senior lineman Shawn Buysse added his own brand of “stepping up” to the Vikings backfield.
He was converted to a running back late in the game and ripped off runs of four and 22 yards. After Smith came up with a bad ankle in the Yellow Medicine East game, “We needed another option,” said Coach Johnston. So they threw Buysse into the mix. “We just put that in,” the coach said. “We were able to free him up because we had Layne Lozinski to fill in at tackle,” said the coach.
And with Smith unable to kick extra points, Landon Rolbiecki making good on just two extra point kicks — Johnston went one more time into his “Guys got to step up,” vault.
Out came junior foreign exchange student Sebastiano Beraldo. With Myhre flying into the air on the sidelines yelling, “Come on Sebastiano,” the former soccer kicker slammed his first kick through the goal posts for a point that brought a smile to his face.
MINNEOTA WAS embroiled in a “cat and mouse” chase that found them chasing the quarterback-running back combination of Tyson Powell and Peter Treinen. The two are so interchangeable they each got their turn at quarterback, running back and receiver.
You really had to have a program to know who was playing where.
“We knew that from watching the tape,” said Coach Johnston.
Treinen took a pass from Powell for their first touchdown, Powell ran back the second half’s opening kickoff 79 yards for a touchdown; Treinen scored on a five-yard pass from Powell late in the game and against Minneota’s second team, Treinen passed 25 yards to Powell for the Trojans final score.
“That Number 3 (Powell) is a great player,” said the Minneota coach.
But other than the run back, and couple of breakdowns due to what the coach called, “Alignment problems,” the Vikings were able to control the Powell and Treinen “dog and pony” show.
They did it with their own brand of explosive offense and one-jarring defensive plays.
At the core of the defense was sophomore lineman Beau Banish and senior Cole VanOverbeke.
Banish turned in an eight-yard sack on Treinen in the first quarter and VanOverbeke spent almost as much time in the Trojan backfield as did Powell and Treinen.
VanOverbeke recovered an on-side Trojan kickoff as they tried to rally and he collected seven tackles, a sack and a tackle for lost yeards.
Banish had six tackles, the sack and another tackle for loss. Logan Sussner added a sack to his six tackle.
On offense, Logan Sussner added is own brand of dramatics when he stood all alone in the flats and took a 27-yard Hennen pass for the first rouchdown. Reiss added a 30-yard touchdown run; Sanow burst off tackle for 42 yards and a score and added two more touchdown runs in the second half.
Even a 6-2 freshman running back got his hand into the mix.
AJ Josephson also “stepped up,” ran five yards for a second-team touchdown and added his name to the list.
Hopefully the “Kript Squad” list of “walking wounded” will begin to subside as they work their way back onto the field. But until then, Coach Johnston just keeps saying, “Guys have got to step up.”
Ortonville 0 7 7 13 — 27
Minneota 7 13 20 13 — 53
First Quarter
Minneota-Logan Sussner 28 pass from Thomas Hennen. PAT-Landon Rolbiecki kick.
Second Quarter
Minneota-Blake Reiss 31 run. PAT-Rolbiecki kick.
Ortonville-Peter Treinen 5 pass from Tyson Powell. PAT-Treinen kick.
Minneota-Cole Sanow 43 run. PAT-Kick failed.
Third Quarter
Ortonville-Powell 79 kickoff return. PAT-Treinen kick,
Minneota-Hennen 35 run. PAT-Sanow run.
Minneota-Sanow 8 run. PAT-Kick failed.
Fourth Quarter
Minneota-Sanow 15 run. PAT-Kick failed.
Ortonville-Treinen 5 pass from Powell. PAT-Kick block by Alex Saltzer.
Minneota-Reiss 2 run. PAT-Pass failed.
Minneota-AJ Josephson 5 run. PAT-Sebastiano Beraldo kick.
Ortonville-Powell 25 pass from Treinen. PAT-Treinen kick.
Team Statistics
Minneota Ortonville
26 First Downs 10
4-20 Penalties/Yards 1-5
1-1 Fumbles/Lost 3-2
48-419 Rushes/Yards 29-75
554 Total Yards 196
Individual Statistics
RUSHING (No., yds.) Minneota-Sanow 21-178; Reiss 12-112; Hennen 5-56; AJ Josephson 3-27; Kade Lozinski 1-13; James Gednalske 1-7; Alex Lacek 1-5; others 3-21; Ortonville: Jacob Rademacher 3-27; Treinen 10-23; Powell 12-21; others 4-4.
PASSING: (No., comp., int., yds.) Minneota-Hennen 16-8-1-135; Ortonville: Powell 16-9-2-81; Treinen 9-3-0-40.
RECEIVING: (No., yds.) Minneota-Tate Walerius 1-43; Reiss 2-35; Sanow 4-29; Sussner 1-28; Ortonville-Caden Wellnitz 3-43;Powell 2-34; Treinen 3-27; Rademacher 3-14; Leo Zedpeda 1-3.
KICKOFFS: (No., yds., avg.) Minneota-Rolbiecki 9-375-42.0; Ortonville-Treinen 6-155-25.8.
KICKOFF RETURNS: (No., yds.) Minneota-Sanow 3-16; Tate Walerius 1-23; Ortonville: Powell 7-161; Rademacher 1-10.
PUNTS: (No., yds., avg.) Minneota-Alex Saltzer 1-28-28.0; Ortonville-Treinen 2-98-49.0.
PUNT RETURNS: (No., yds.) Minneota-T. Hennen 1-0; Ortonville-None.
TACKLES: (Solo-assist) Minneota-Reiss 4-4; VanOverbeke 4-3; Banish 3-3; Sussner 2-4; AJ Myhre 2-0; Lacek, T., Hennen, Saltzer, Ty Lipinski 1-1 each;; Walterius, Mitchell Rost 1-0 each; Sanow 0-2; Grady Moorse 0-3. Others: 6-7. Ortonville-Angelos Schmidt 8-3; Rademacher 6-1; Powell 5-3; Hacob Hoernemann 5-2; Nate Miska 3-3; Zepeda 2-2; Treinen 1-2; Wellnitz, Tanner Wilke, Sergio Clark-Carbajel 1-1 each; Deaven Boots 0-5; Zach Kuechenmeister, Andrew Pillatzki, Specner Raffety and Tyler Elbert 0-1 each; Rest 1-0.
SACKS-Minneota-VanOverbeke,Banish, Sussner; Ortonville: Powell.
TACKLES FOR LOSS: Minneota-VanOverbeke, Banish.
INTERCEPTIONS: Minneota-Myhre, Rolbiecki.Ortonville: Schmidt.
FUMBLE RECOVERIES: Minneota: Hennen; VanOverbeke. Ortonville: Elbert.