Opportunistic Vikings pick Blackjacks pocket, 28-7
In another life, AJ Myhre might have been a pick-pocketer.
The 6-1 Minneota Viking junior seems to enjoy nothing more than "picking clean" his opponents.
Friday at Dawson he began his night of thievery when he stepped in front of a Dawson pass by Brenden Stutz for an interception in the first quarter.
By the time he was finished, Myhre would have two interceptions and a receovered fumble to help lead the Vikings to a 28-7 victory over the previously undefeated Blackjacks.
Myhre intercepted his second pass in the fourth quarter as Dawson-Boyd was trying to rally. And he jumped on a fumbled punt return with two minutes to go to put the finishing touches on the Blackjacks.
"Dawson-Boyd turned the ball over a few times. AJ was there for us. We needed to get those opportunities," said Coach Chad Johnston.
Myhre got some help from Tucker Thooft, who jumped on a first-quarter Blackjack fumble and from senior Logan Sussner, who sacked the Dawson-Boyd quarterback with Minneota leading 14-0 with time running out in the first half.
It was a game filled with big plays — and it was Minneota making most of them.
After a scoreless first quarter, senior tailback Blake Reiss took matters into his own hands. He took an 18-yard pass from quarterback Kade Lozinski to get the ball to Dawson's 10-yard line. He added an eight-yard run to allow Cole Sanow to run the ball into the end zone for a 6-0 lead.
It was Reiss again who came up with the big play to make it a 14-0 game.
He took a pass from Lozinski, broke loose and scampered 62 yards to paydirt at 2:47 of the first half. Lozinski ran in the two-point conversion for Minneota's other two points.
Minneota's biggest asset the entire game was a stonewall defense the Vikings put up at the line of scrimmage to stop Dawson-Boyd's speedy runner Josh Anyasike. The Blackjack senior had been putting up some awesome rushing numbers the first half of this season.
"I'm always nervous coming into a game like this one. But I felt confident we could do well against their running game," said Coach Johnston.
The first half Anyasike had only seven yards rushing as the Minneota defense slammed the door shut.
"We did a nice job in the line. I knew we had the ability to do that," said the Minneota coach.
The defense was led by linebacker Cole Sanow, who seemed to have a hand in nearly ever defensive stop the Vikings made.
Defensive end Sussner kept the Blackjacks from turning the corner and Anyasike couldn't get outside for added yards.
"We really did play well on defense," added the coach.
In the second half, a 62-yard, seven-play drive spearheaded by Sanow and Reiss running the ball, ended on a 12-yard AJ Josephson run into the end one at the 6:14 mark of the third period.
It was 20-0 and Dawson-Boyd was getting desperate. They'd tried using both Zach Durfee and Stutz at quarterback, but decided to use Stutz and send Durfee out for passes. But it wasn't until after Minneota scored again that Dawson-Boyd got anything going at all.
The Vikings made it 28-0 on another drive engineered by Sanow. A 23-yard pass from Lozinski to Alex Saltzer set up a three-yard Sanow touchdown. Sanow ran the conversion over for the 13-0 lead.
Dawson-Boyd finally scored on a 48-yard drive when Romell Horton caught a Stutz pass for a three-yard score to make it 28-7 with eight and half minutes to go.
But Minneota had pick-pocket Myhre standing by for an interception and a recovered fumble to end all the Dawson-Boyd comeback hopes.
Minneota 0 14 14 0 — 28
Dawson-Boyd 0 0 0 7 — 7
First Quarter:
None
Second Quarter:
M-Cole Sanow 4 run. PAT-Peyton Gillund kick failed.
M-Blake Reiss 62 pass from Kade Lozinski. PAT-Kade Lozinski run.
Third Quarter:
M-AJ Josephson 12 run. PAT-Gillund kick failed.
M-Sanow 3 run. PAT-Gillund kick.
Fourth Quarter:
DB-Romell Horton 8 pass from Brenden Stutz. PAT-Kick good.
Team Statistics
Minneota D-B
17 First Downs 8
10-70 Penalties/yards 2-20
0-0 Fumbles/Lost 2-1
42-214 Rushes/Yards 24-14
98 Passing Yards 105
312 Total Yards 119
INDIVIDUAL STATS:
RUSHING (No., yds.) Minneota-Cole Sanow 24-106; Blake Reiss 7-67; AJ Josephson 3-23; Tate Walerius 1-10; Conner Sik 3-6; Kade Lozinski 2-minus 13; others 2-15. D-B: Josh Anyasike 13-22; Zach Durfee 4-9; B. Stutz 4-minus 15; others 3-minus 2.
PASSING: (No., comp., int., yds.) Minneota-Lozinski 8-4-0-98. D-B: Stutz 18-9-2-105; Durfee 1-0-0-0.
RECEIVING: (No., yds.) Minneota-Reiss 2-80; Saltzer 1-13; Joseph Rybinski 1-5. D-B: Horton 4-60; C.Torke 2-18; T. Johnson 1-17; J. Anyasike 2-10.
KICKOFFS: (No., yds., avg.) Minneota-Gillund 6-193-32.1; D-B: Horton 3-66-33.0.
KICKOFF RETURNS: (No., yds.) Minneota Sanow 2-0; D-B Horton 1-11; Jastad 2-3; C. Swedzinski 1-0; Hahn 2-0.
PUNTS: (No., yds., avg.) Minneota: Saltzer 3-102-34.0; D-B: Torke 4-116-29.0.
TACKLES: (Solo, assists) Minneota-Sanow 5-4; AJ Myhre 4-3; Sussner 4-2; Reiss 3-1; Beau Banish 3-3; Thooft 2-0; Walerius 1-2; C. VanOverbeke 1-1; Jackson Esping, Joseph Citterman 1-0 each; Rybinski, Gillund, Jayden Gamrak, A. Rybinski 0-1 each. D-B: T. Johnson 6-3; Irvine 6-6; Anyasike 5-7; Durfee 3-2; Moen 3-5; Hastad 2-2; Spencer 1-1; Horton 1-1; Swenson 0-2; others 4-1.
TACKLES FOR LOSS: Minneota; Reiss, Banish, Esping. D-B Irvine 4.
SACKS: Minneota-Sussner 2, Banish 1.
FUMBLE RECOVERIES: Minneota-AJ Myhre, T. Thooft.
INTERCEPTIONS: Minneota-Myhre 2.