September 9, 2014

Wolves roll over Minot JV 36-8

By Neal A. Shipman
Farmer Editor

Keegan Thompson rushed for two  touchdowns and threw a touchdown pass to lead the Watford City Wolves to a 36-8 win over the Minot High School Junior Varsity on Saturday afternoon.
Watford City got on the scoreboard with 8:27 left in the first quarter as Brandon Sandvik capped off a Wolves’ scoring drive with a one-yard run into the end zone.
Thompson scored the Wolves’ second touchdown on a 35-yard run midway through the second quarter, and then Sandvik picked up his second touchdown of the game on a four-yard run with 41 seconds left in the quarter to give Watford City a 21-0 halftime lead.
“Against Minot High’s Junior Varsity, I thought we played better than the week before,” stated Justin Johnsrud, Wolves’ head coach. “We’ve talked about improving every week so that we are playing our best football at the end of the season, and we are seeing that happen.”
Johnsrud credits his offensive line with doing a better job on their blocking assignments and the hard running of his running backs with the win.
“Our option fakes have improved, and we were almost perfect on a handful of plays,” stated Johnsrud. “But we need more consistency. We will continue to work hard to improve the timing on our handoffs and option fakes.”
Minot would cut into Watford City’s lead in the third quarter as the Magi would score on a five-yard run, and then take on a two-point conversion to draw to a 21-8 deficit.
But that would be the only score for the Magi as Thompson would score his second touchdown of the game on a 42 yard run to put Watford City on top, 29-8, following a two-point conversion.
Watford City’s final touchdown of the game came with 7:55 minutes remaining in the third quarter when Thompson connected with Bo Cook on a 30-yard pass play.
Offensively, Watford City picked  up 230 yards on the ground and 30 yards in passing against Minot, while holding the Magi to just 141 yards of offense.
Thompson was the leading ball carrier for Watford City as he picked up 170 yards on 16 carries, while Bo Cook led the Wolves with one reception for 30 yards.
“Defensively, we played well. We were strong against the run game and did a good job of rallying up to the short passes,” stated Johnsrud. “Daniel Marmon led us in defensive points.
However, Johnsrud says that his defense will need to work on its pass coverages this week against Stanley as the Blue Jays throw the ball more than did Heart River or Minot.
The Wolves will open their Class AA West Region schedule on Friday when they travel to Stanley.
“Stanley has a lot of returning starters from last season’s team and should be a good test,” states Johnsrud.
                              1st       2nd    3rd    4th    Final
Minot High JV      0          0          8        0         8
Watford City        7        14        15        0       36


Individual Statistics:
Rushing: Keegan Thompson, 16-170 yards; Brandon Sandvik, 15-26 yards; Dalton Wright, 4-19 yards; Rait Elliot, 1-13 yards; David Kline, 1-4 yards; Daniel Marmon, 1-1 yard; Kyle Cook, 3- minus1 yard; Jarek Hogue, 1-minus 2 yards.
Passing: Keegan Thompson, 5 of nine for 30 yards.
Receiving: Bo Cook, 1-30 yards; Dalton Wright, 1-2 yards; Daniel Marmon, 1-2 yards; Brennan Leaming, 1-0 yards; Kyle Cook, 1-minus four yards.

WATFORD CITY WEATHER