Wolves shut down by No. 2 St. Mary’s 23-0
By Neal A. Shipman
Farmer Editor
St. Mary’s, the No. 2 team in Class AA football in North Dakota, used a strong defensive effort as the Saints shut down the Wolves, 23-0, on Saturday at the Bismarck Community Bowl.
“St. Mary’s is a very quick and physical team,” stated Fred Fridley, Wolves’ head coach. “They really beat us up on the line, and their pursuit to the ball is very impressive. We just couldn’t get anything done offensively.”
With the loss, the Wolves fell to 2-2 in region play and are now 4-2 overall.
“Our defense played very well but two big plays - a 52-yard run and a 49-yard pass - put the Saints in command,” stated Fridley on the loss. “And two big turnovers - an interception and a snap over the punter’s head - really hurt us.”
The Saints capitalized on those two costly Watford City turnovers by tacking on nine points.
“We played the two top teams in the state in two weeks and things didn’t turn out well for us,” stated Fridley. “But we’ll learn from it. We have three games left and we hope to win them and get into the playoffs.”
The Wolves will be back at home this Friday as Watford City hosts Turtle Mountain at 7 p.m.
“Turtle Mountain is a very good football team and we need to get back on track on offense,” says Fridley. “We played hard at St. Mary’s and we need to keep up with that intensity.”
1 2 3 4 Final
St. Mary’s 7 9 7 0 23
Watford City 0 0 0 0 0
Individual Statistics
Rushing: Dalton Wright, 8-17 yards; Keegan Thompson, 13-13 yards; Brandon Allex, 7-10 yards; Daniel Marmon, 3-5 yards; Bo Cook, 5-0 yards.
Passing: Bo Cook, 3-5-0, 55 yards; Keegan Thompson, 0-4-2, 0 yards.
Receiving: Keegan Thompson, 1-34 yards; Brandon Leaming, 1-21 yards; Dalton Wright, 1-0 yards.
Interceptions: Brandon Allex, 1.
Defensive Points: Brandon Allex, 39; Dalton Wright, 19; Andrew Sampsel, 13; Mitchell Liebel, 11; Brenden Leaming, 10; Clay Jorgenson, 10; Aaron Bigelow, 9; Beau Heiser, 8; Keegan Thompson, 8; Logan Fettig, 7; Daniel Marmon, 6; Heath Chaffin, 4; Derrike Hayden, 4; Jordan Townsend, 4.