Two quick shorthanded goals ignite Gophers past Bulldogs 5-1
MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. — It appeared that the UMD Bulldogs had climbed back into the game at the midway point in the second period of Friday night’s game, but then the University of Minnesota demonstrated what it’s like when lightning strikes twice in the same place, scoring two short-handed goals 10 seconds apart.
Arch-rival Minnesota, the unbeaten and No. 1 ranked team in the country at 9-0-1, sailed on from there to whip the Bulldogs 5-1 Friday night before a crowd of 9,899, which was the second largest crowd in the newly-expanded building’s history.
Parts of the game was often more hotly contested than the score would indicate, and it may be closer in tonight’s rematch, but it means the Bulldogs, now 4-6-1 overall, are 0-6-1 in the WCHA and have lost their last three games by 5-1, 4-1 and 5-1 scores. If that’s a familiar story, it has already grown tiresome, and coach Scott Sandelin seems weary of explaining it.
Indeed, the game was closer for a time, as UMD came back from a 2-0 first-period deficit to close it to 2-1, and had just gone onto a power play midway through the period. But at 10:05, former Duluth East defenseman Nick Angell, who is finally playing up to full potential as a senior, ripped a low, screened slapshot from the left point past Adam Coole.
The puck was dropped and Nick Anthony rushed up the left side, 2-on-1, and rifled a slapshot from the left corner faceoff spot that zipped under Coole’s glove at 10:15. In 10 seconds, the hopeful Bulldogs went from a 2-1 deficit with a 2-man power play, to a 4-1 deficit and too tall a hurdle to clear.
“Let’s face it, the first shorthanded goal wasn’t a good goal,” said UMD coach Scott Sandelin. “Adam knows he’s got to have those. Then they get another one right after it.”
With that, Sandelin pulled Coole and sent Rob Anderson into the nets. The two goaltenders have both played well at times, and now it just seems to be a question of when to play which, because after Coole gave up four goals on 21 shots, Anderson allowed just one on 19 shots.
“Minnesota is a good team, give them credit,” Sandelin continued. “They spread you out and use their speed, and they played pretty well going to the net. But I thought we were kinda passive, we watched them do some things.
“We’ve got to find a way to win, we’ve got to play with some desire, determination, and urgency. It takes using your head and heart.”
It’s become a familiar refrain this season, although Minnesota coach Don Lucia said he thought this UMD team was better than last year, when the Bulldogs upset the Gophers.
“We were good early tonight,” said Lucia. “We came into the game having beaten teams that we’re more talented than. But our high-end guys came up with solid games tonight.”
Being good early was aided and abetted when UMD’s Junior Lessard was called for what looked like a mild swat on the shinpads, but it equated to a slashing penalty just 19 seconds after the opening faceoff. At 0:43, Jeff Taffe slammed a one-time slapshot from the top of the right circle, and Grant Potulny got his stickblade on the shot to tip it past Coole.
The Bulldogs came back to play pretty well after that, and the game sped up and down the big ice surface, until Minnesota got a classic opportunist goal at 16:48. Johnny Pohl fed defenseman Matt DeMarchi, who broke in for a close shot. Coole dived, and DeMarchi’s shot went off the left pipe, landing in the crease, just out of the goaltender’s reach.
Big Steve Rodberg was the first Bulldog on the scene, and he tried to gently slide the puck to the outreaching Coole. But Minnesota freshman Barry Tallackson was racing in amid a crowd of Bulldogs, and as he passed, he jabbed at the back of Rodberg’s stick, nudging the puck into the goal.
Down 2-0, the Bulldogs came out for a strong second period, highlighted at 3:45 by a classic goal. Tim Hambly, a freshman defenseman from White Bear Lake, looked like he was especially fired up to be back in the Twin Cities for a game, playing his best hockey so far. On the goal, Hambly came around his net and spotted Brett Hammond, a former Roseville star, breaking behind the Minnesota defense.
Hambly lifted a perfect 110-foot pass that landed right on the freshman winger’s’stick, and Hammond zoomed in to beat Hauser on the breakaway.
“We didn’t play a bad first period, and we were better in the second, when we got right back into the game,” said Sandelin.
But then came the two shorthanded goals, after which the Bulldogs tried to stay in the game. Outshot 40-21, UMD was battling for another goal, but Hauser and the Gophers easily killed off a 1:45 stretch of two-man power play, then Hauser fired a 120-foot pass to Pohl, who was all alone at the UMD blue line. Pohl, the former Mr. Hockey from Red Wing, skated in to the top of the right circle and cut loose with a big slapshot that eluded Anderson for the final goal.
Cloquet-Esko-Carlton whips Duluth East girls in early 7AA showdown
CLOQUET, MINN. — Girls high school hockey is still in the growing stage in Minnesota, and particularly in Northern Minnesota. Cloquet-Esko-Carlton could be in perfect position to exploit that disparity in talent, and could rank as the early favorite in Section 7AA, if its opening-game 4-1 victory over Duluth East Thursday night is any indication.
Tamara Price, Danae Olean and Stephanie Gassert scored first-period goals for the Lumberjacks, and goaltender Johanna Ellison had little difficulty making the 3-0 lead stand up against the Greyhounds. Jenna Roberts made it 4-0 by whacking in a rebound early in the third period, and it wasn’t until 1:01 remained that Trista Cooke converted a Katy DeBoer pass at the crease for East’s lone goal.
“They’re solid,” acknowledged East coach Jack Shearer. “If you said we’d play Cloquet in the final, I’d take it, but we need to get by Central-Denfeld, and Grand Rapids. And we can’t count out Proctor-Hermantown-Marshall.”
Cloquet-Esko-Carlton coach Dick Bartholdi, who, ironically, grew up playing sports at Portman Square in Lakeside, an East breeding ground, said he, too, would accept the theory that the two teams could meet three months from now in the 7AA final. That’s a realistic possibility because Hibbing, the reigning power of the North, has opted to move down to Class A, where the Bluejackets are prohibitive favorites.
“I hope we could play East in the section final,” said Bartholdi. “But these things go in cycles. I remember the Cloquet boys beat East about 12 in a row, and then East got going and beat Cloquet about 15 in a row. But there’s always going to be that extra intensity in Cloquet when we play against East, and it’s the same for the girls.”
The Lumberjacks have some powerful skaters up front, and some strong defensemen who can take the puck end to end in a flash. That includes defensemen Olean and Michelle Mauna, the two most dominant players on the ice at Cloquet Thursday night. Olean is the only senior on the roster, and a powerful force who jumped on the puck in the right corner and stickhandled out to the slot before snapping a backhander past East goalie Jaime Crain at 10:43 of the first period to make it 2-0.
Maunu is an eighth-grade defenseman who assisted on the first goal, by Price, a sophomore who also was assisted by Liz Palkie on the play. Palkie, also a sophomore, just joined the hockey team after finishing second in the state cross-country run.
Cloquet-Esko-Carlton has four ninth-graders along with the one eighth-grader, plus seven sophomores and three juniors, so area girls teams can get used to seeing the same Lumberjacks getting better as they get stronger and faster in years to come. Ellison, who made 23 saves in goal, is one of the freshmen.
“Five years ago, we started girls hockey with an under-12 team in Cloquet,” said Bartholdi, whose daughter, Brigitte, is a freshman on the team. “At the time, we had five girls in that room, and we asked if anybody wanted to play goalie. Johanna Ellison said she would, so she’s always been a goalie. She started for us when we started a high school team. This is our third year, so she played as a seventh-grader, and now she’s a ninth-grader, so we’ve only got her for four more years.”
The coach was joking, of course, because the thought of having such a skilled and experienced netminder for four more years would warm the heart of any coach. On top of that, the Lumberjacks were missing two players, defenseman Whitney Roe and forward Jamie Warndahl, for the East game.
East, however, was missing star senior defenseman Becky Fisher, one of the strongest players in the area. Fisher is off on an official recruiting visit to St. Lawrence University in upstate New York, and the Greyhounds obviously missed her end-to-end rushes against Cloquet.
But East had opened with an 8-1 victory at Rochester John Marshall, and an 11-1 blowout against Greenway at Pioneer Hall, yet didn’t resemble a team that already had 19 goals on its resume when it played a Cloquet team that hadn’t played yet.
Shearer had a similar tale to tell about his goaltender, Jaime Crain, who made 25 saves for the ‘Hounds. Shearer coached the Duluth Dynamite to the region’s superiority and the state tournament four years ago, and became East’s coach when the Dynamite was split in two groups.
“Three years ago, when we started, we had to ask, ‘Who wants to play goal?’ And Jaime was the one who said, ‘I will.’ She’s a senior this year, and she’s come a long way.”
The same might be said of girls hockey in the Northland.
UMD scares Gophers, Williams Arena crowd, before falling
MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. — It was just an exhibition game, just a preseason tune-up for the University of Minnesota basketball team, but there it was on the Williams Arena scoreboard — the UMD Bulldogs were leading the Gophers 53-45 with 10 minutes remaining. Equally amazing, the Bulldogs were still clinging to the lead at 59-57 with 3 minutes remaining.
But, as expected, and much to the relief of 12,821 fans who had been stunned to something approaching silence, the Gophers came back to score the last 10 points in the game, which allowed them to catch the Bulldogs at 59-all, and claim a 67-59 victory in their historic nonconference season-opener.
Everybody thought playing their in-state affiliate was a good idea, although nobody in the Gopher dressing room really thought losing to a Division II team — even a very good Division II team — was possible. There were a few young men in the visiting dressing room, however, who thought otherwise. But the moment at which the Bulldogs vaulted from a 42-38 deficit to take that 53-45 lead, UMD coach Gary Holquist paused in his tributes to the Gophers to crack a smile and admit he glanced up at the scoreboard.
“It felt very good,” Holquist said.
“It was definitely surprising,” said Rick Rickert, the giant 6-10 freshman from Duluth East who is already an instant impact player inside and outside for the Gophers, but found himself in the difficult position of playing against some good friends from off-season ball.
“It was definitely scary when we were down 6-8 there, because usually our exhibition games are 50-point blowouts,” said Dusty Rychart, a 6-7 senior from Grand Rapids who applied some veteran savvy to help pull the Gophers through.
“We had some guys who were nonbelievers,” said Minnesota coach Dan Monson. “We told them what guys like [Chris] Stanley and [Jake] Nettleton could do, but they didn’t believe us.”
The disbelieving Twin Cities media, anticipating a blowout, questioned Monson about the Gophers misfiring and struggling so much.
“Put ’em away? We were fortunate to win the game,” said Monson. “I have a lot of respect for that program and how they play, and a lot of the problems we had tonight were due to how well they played against us. I was a lot more pleased with our team after tonight’s game than after the Harlem Globetrotter game. We stayed together a lot better tonight; a week ago, we would have gone five different directions.
“It concerns me that when we were up 16-8, we’ve got to understand that we can’t let a team get into a rhythm. When you let a team think they can win, they’re a lot tougher. They got back into it, and if they didn’t quite have the physical tools we did, they had the mental tools and the toughness. They weren’t getting the rebounds above the rim on us, they just wanted the ball more than we did and went after it.”
Rychart scored 17 points to lead both teams, while Jerry Holman had 13, with Rickert and Mike Bauer scoring 10 each for the Gophers. UMD was paced by Nettleton’s 13 and Stanley’s 12.{IMG2}
“We had ’em,” said Stanley. “We missed four shots at the end, there. When we got ahead, then they came back, but if we could have hit any shots during that last stretch, we could have won. But you can’t beat all of this, especially for a game that doesn’t count.”
The Gophers two Northern Minnesota players led the way at the start of both halves. Minnesota started out with a 14-8 lead, and Rychart had 12 of the 14 points. It got to the 16-8 margin Monson referred to when UMD’s Ben Raymond scored with an underhand scoop shot under Rickert’s arm, then Stanley hit a three-pointer and Nettleton scored on a drive. The 7-point spurt closed it to 16-15, and even though Jerry Holman’s two baskets boosted the Gophers to a 20-15 edge, the Bulldogs knew they could play with their talented but youthful adversary.
Marcus Jackson hit a field goal and Nettleton connected on a three to tie the game 20-20, then Jackson scored again for UMD’s first lead, 22-20 with 4:50 to go in the first half. The Gophers turned up the intensity then and scored 10 in a row themselves, capped by a long three by Rickert, and at 30-22 it appeared UMD’s flirtation was brief. But Nick Cheney hit two shots sandwiching another three by Nettleton, and the Bulldogs closed it to 32-30 at the half.
When the second half started, Rickert held off the aroused ‘Dogs by scoring the Gophers first seven points for a 39-34 edge, but again UMD battled back into it. And the Bulldogs did it with moxie more than slick shooting. While Minnesota shot a meager 26 for 60 from the floor, UMD was only 23-73. But a pair of free throws by Stanley tied it 42-all, and Cheney, a sophomore from Duluth Central, scored for a 44-42 UMD lead. Holman, a 6-10 junior rookie from St. Paul by way of Minneapolis Community College, tied it for the Gophers, but Stanley jammed in the fourth follow-up shot on one rugged attack, and Stanley and Matt Williams added buckets for a 51-44 UMD lead.
When Rychart made one free throw, Ben Raymond connected from the floor to put UMD up 53-45.
“I know they’re a good team, but I never thought it would be as close as it was,” said Rickert. “Our guys thought it was just another exhibition game, and they played like it was the NCAA championship. They started sticking with us, and we were making stupid plays and getting outhustled.
“I don’t think they wanted to beat Rick Rickert, they wanted to beat the Gophers.”
Once the Gophers got back to 59-all, the rugged and ragged game came down to free throws. Kerwin Fleming made two, Kevin Burleson hit two and Fleming hit two more during the final 2:15, which, combined with two field goals by Holman, was enough to outdistance the fading Bulldogs, who not only missed all three free throw chances but failed to score a point for the final 3:26.
“I was disappointed how we shot the ball,” said Holquist. “I had told our guys when we’re playing a Division I team, we wanted to play 4-minute games. If we could keep splitting those 4-minute games with them, we’d be OK. Sure enough, it came down to 3-something left, and it was a tie game.
“No question, we knew they’d make a run at us, and we had to try to play through those things. We did it for a while, but it became overwhelming. But this was a fun environment, and I think it was absolutely great for Minnesota basketball.”
UMD scares Gophers, Williams Arena crowd, before falling
MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. — It was just an exhibition game, just a preseason tune-up for the University of Minnesota basketball team, but there it was on the Williams Arena scoreboard — the UMD Bulldogs were leading the Gophers 53-45 with 10 minutes remaining. Equally amazing, the Bulldogs were still clinging to the lead at 59-57 with 3 minutes remaining.
But, as expected, and much to the relief of 12,821 fans who had been stunned to something approaching silence, the Gophers came back to score the last 10 points in the game, which allowed them to catch the Bulldogs at 59-all, and claim a 67-59 victory in their historic nonconference season-opener.
Everybody thought playing their in-state affiliate was a good idea, although nobody in the Gopher dressing room really thought losing to a Division II team — even a very good Division II team — was possible. There were a few young men in the visiting dressing room, however, who thought otherwise. But the moment at which the Bulldogs vaulted from a 42-38 deficit to take that 53-45 lead, UMD coach Gary Holquist paused in his tributes to the Gophers to crack a smile and admit he glanced up at the scoreboard.
“It felt very good,” Holquist said.
“It was definitely surprising,” said Rick Rickert, the giant 6-10 freshman from Duluth East who is already an instant impact player inside and outside for the Gophers, but found himself in the difficult position of playing against some good friends from off-season ball.
“It was definitely scary when we were down 6-8 there, because usually our exhibition games are 50-point blowouts,” said Dusty Rychart, a 6-7 senior from Grand Rapids who applied some veteran savvy to help pull the Gophers through.
“We had some guys who were nonbelievers,” said Minnesota coach Dan Monson. “We told them what guys like [Chris] Stanley and [Jake] Nettleton could do, but they didn’t believe us.”
The disbelieving Twin Cities media, anticipating a blowout, questioned Monson about the Gophers misfiring and struggling so much.
“Put ’em away? We were fortunate to win the game,” said Monson. “I have a lot of respect for that program and how they play, and a lot of the problems we had tonight were due to how well they played against us. I was a lot more pleased with our team after tonight’s game than after the Harlem Globetrotter game. We stayed together a lot better tonight; a week ago, we would have gone five different directions.
“It concerns me that when we were up 16-8, we’ve got to understand that we can’t let a team get into a rhythm. When you let a team think they can win, they’re a lot tougher. They got back into it, and if they didn’t quite have the physical tools we did, they had the mental tools and the toughness. They weren’t getting the rebounds above the rim on us, they just wanted the ball more than we did and went after it.”
Rychart scored 17 points to lead both teams, while Jerry Holman had 13, with Rickert and Mike Bauer scoring 10 each for the Gophers. UMD was paced by Nettleton’s 13 and Stanley’s 12.
“We had ’em,” said Stanley. “We missed four shots at the end, there. When we got ahead, then they came back, but if we could have hit any shots during that last stretch, we could have won. But you can’t beat all of this, especially for a game that doesn’t count.”
The Gophers two Northern Minnesota players led the way at the start of both halves. Minnesota started out with a 14-8 lead, and Rychart had 12 of the 14 points. It got to the 16-8 margin Monson referred to when UMD’s Ben Raymond scored with an underhand scoop shot under Rickert’s arm, then Stanley hit a three-pointer and Nettleton scored on a drive. The 7-point spurt closed it to 16-15, and even though Jerry Holman’s two baskets boosted the Gophers to a 20-15 edge, the Bulldogs knew they could play with their talented but youthful adversary.
Marcus Jackson hit a field goal and Nettleton connected on a three to tie the game 20-20, then Jackson scored again for UMD’s first lead, 22-20 with 4:50 to go in the first half. The Gophers turned up the intensity then and scored 10 in a row themselves, capped by a long three by Rickert, and at 30-22 it appeared UMD’s flirtation was brief. But Nick Cheney hit two shots sandwiching another three by Nettleton, and the Bulldogs closed it to 32-30 at the half.
When the second half started, Rickert held off the aroused ‘Dogs by scoring the Gophers first seven points for a 39-34 edge, but again UMD battled back into it. And the Bulldogs did it with moxie more than slick shooting. While Minnesota shot a meager 26 for 60 from the floor, UMD was only 23-73. But a pair of free throws by Stanley tied it 42-all, and Cheney, a sophomore from Duluth Central, scored for a 44-42 UMD lead. Holman, a 6-10 junior rookie from St. Paul by way of Minneapolis Community College, tied it for the Gophers, but Stanley jammed in the fourth follow-up shot on one rugged attack, and Stanley and Matt Williams added buckets for a 51-44 UMD lead.
When Rychart made one free throw, Ben Raymond connected from the floor to put UMD up 53-45.
“I know they’re a good team, but I never thought it would be as close as it was,” said Rickert. “Our guys thought it was just another exhibition game, and they played like it was the NCAA championship. They started sticking with us, and we were making stupid plays and getting outhustled.
“I don’t think they wanted to beat Rick Rickert, they wanted to beat the Gophers.”
Once the Gophers got back to 59-all, the rugged and ragged game came down to free throws. Kerwin Fleming made two, Kevin Burleson hit two and Fleming hit two more during the final 2:15, which, combined with two field goals by Holman, was enough to outdistance the fading Bulldogs, who not only missed all three free throw chances but failed to score a point for the final 3:26.
“I was disappointed how we shot the ball,” said Holquist. “I had told our guys when we’re playing a Division I team, we wanted to play 4-minute games. If we could keep splitting those 4-minute games with them, we’d be OK. Sure enough, it came down to 3-something left, and it was a tie game.
“No question, we knew they’d make a run at us, and we had to try to play through those things. We did it for a while, but it became overwhelming. But this was a fun environment, and I think it was absolutely great for Minnesota basketball.”
UMD falls to Winona State in wild 33-30 finish, still gets bowl bid
It was simply too good a game, too great an effort, to have Saturday night’s 33-30 loss to Winona State in the Metrodome end the season for the UMD football team. And so it won’t.
Just hours after the Bulldogs left their hearts and emotions on the Metrodome carpet, and long before the disappointment could subside from seeing Chris Samp pull in a one-handed, sideline-straddling catch of a Bruce Carpenter pass with 14 seconds to go for the game-winning touchdown, the ‘Dogs learned they will howl again by playing Dec. 1 in the Mineral Water Bowl in Excelsior Springs, Mo.
Going into the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference final game, Winona State ranked fifth and UMD sixth in the NCAA Division II regional rankings. Ahead of them were North Dakota, Nebraska-Omaha, Pittsburg State of Kansas and Central Missouri State. The NSIC champ goes to the Mineral Water Bowl unless a Northern Sun team gets a rare chance to enter the regional playoff, and this year that could only happen if one of the top four happened to lose.
Central Missouri complied by losing to Pittsburg State, creating a crack. Then Nebraska-Omaha lost to Augustana on Saturday, and the crack opened wider. Sure enough, on Sunday word came that Winona State (10-1) has been invited to the NCAA playoffs, which means UMD (9-2) gets to represent the conference in the Mineral Water Bowl — against, ironically, Central Missouri State.
The decision for both teams to advance is strictly a matter of protocol, although had it been by a vote of the 5,887 at the Metrodome, it would have been unanimous that both teams deserved to keep on playing. For the second year in a row, the two teams engaged in a captivating battle of big-play haymakers, many of them designed to wipe out an opponent, but none of them capable of stopping this particular adversary. Each team led four times in the game, and, after the first touchdown, neither team ever led by more than four points.
Even after Carpenter had brought the Warriors down the field and connected with Samp on a square-out pattern at the right sideline, UMD didn’t quit. Ricky Fritz, who already had put himself further into the UMD record books with four touchdown passes in the game, had one last chance, and launched a long bomb up the right sideline. His target was Steve Battaglia, who had caught six passes for 144 yards and a pair of touchdowns, but this time defensive back Steven Koehler came back to the turf with an inteception, and the Warriors ran out the final second of the game.
“I’m proud of our guys,” said UMD coach Bob Nielson, who had his Bulldogs well-prepared for their attempt to overthrow the Winona State regime but couldn’t prevent the Warriors from winning their fourth title in the last five years. “I told the players right after the game that we didn’t win the football game, but we played like champions. We played with great confidence today, but give Winona credit. They’re a real good football team, and they made the play at the end when they had to.”
Strong safety Kevin Westbrock, one of nine seniors on the roster, remained on the field, down on one knee and motionless for many minutes after the game. Westbrock, who had blocked two successive Winona State field goal tries in overtime a year ago in what wound up as a 34-31 Winona victory in two overtimes, had blocked an extra point this time around. The senior co-captain needed three tackles to set a UMD career record, and he did it by making four solo tackles and assisting on seven others.
The big-play marathon showed Winona State ahead statistically on most fronts, led by Carpenter’s 19-of-26 passing for 293 yards, and the explosive running threats of Kevin Curtin (108 yards/14 carries), Curtis Jepsen (54/14 runs), and Ryan Walch (29/8 runs).
UMD countered with Fritz, who was 14-for-23 for 223 yards and four touchdowns, ably complemented by Kevin Guillory who gained 53 yards on 12 runs and Jared Murray who gained 35 on 14 tries, taking up the slack for injured rookie running back Dave Rufledt, who has a sprained foot. Winona State outgained UMD 203-142 on the ground, and 293-223 in the air. But none of that mattered compared to the big plays.
Among the biggest was UMD sophomore Ryan Bailey, who intercepted two Carpenter passes, including a high-flying takeaway at the end of the first half that snatched a potential touchdown away from ace receiver Adam Lilla and allowed UMD to hold onto its 13-10 lead at halftime.
“Carpenter made some mistakes, but all I talked to him about was to throw the ball,” said Winona coach Tom Sawyer. “He’s a kid who recovered from two broken legs in the last couple years, so missing a few passes wasn’t going to bother him. I knew we could move the ball, but they were tough. Ricky Fritz was nasty out there, and the Battaglia brothers are always dangerous. What a great show we put on for the Northern Sun Conference today.”
The sizzle of the game was almost predicted when the UMD bus overheated and had to pull off at a weight station in Forest Lake for some repairs before getting the Bulldogs to the Metrodome. Not that it slowed the Bulldogs, who hit the Metrodome turf running, marching from the opening kickoff to a 7-0 lead when Fritz — with his grandpa, former Vikings coach Bud Grant, watching from the seats — fired a high and perfect 23-yard touchdown pass to Jamie Otterblad.
Winona State came right back, tying it 7-7 on its first possession, with Carpenter scoring on his second sneak from the 1. A 33-yard run by the elusive Curtin set up a Steve Opgenorth 28-yard field goal for a 10-7 Warrior lead at the quarter, but Fritz brought UMD back to the lead at 13-10 by hooking up with Steve Battaglia for a 15-yard touchdown pass on another high lob, perfectly arced to the left corner in the second quarter. That touchdown pass was Fritz’s 24th of the season, a school record.
Carpenter had the drive in place to retake the lead for Winona before the half, but his well-aimed pass to Lilla was intercepted by Bailey, but Carpenter opened the third quarter by fooling the Bulldog defense with a 52-yard bomb to Lilla to reach the UMD 4-yard line. Ryan Walch cracked the final yard for the touchdown, as the Warriors went up 16-13. Again, however, the Bulldogs countered, this time with Fritz moving the offense 65 yards in 11 plays, with three of his passes going to cocaptain Rob Tadych, including the touchdown toss from 13 yards out.
That sent UMD ahead 20-16, and the Bulldog defense came up huge on the ensuing drive, after a questionable pass-interference call had given the Warriors a first down at the UMD 32. Winona State got down to the 4, but the defense stiffened, hammering back the Warrior runners. When Brian Wenngatz smeared Carpenter on a rollout attempt, the Warriors settled for another field goal, this one from the 21, to close it to 20-19. Chad Gerlach boosted the lead to 23-19 with a 31-yard field goal for the Bulldogs to open the wild fourth quarter, but Winona State vaulted to a 26-23 lead when Carpenter hustled the Warriors 93 yards in 10 plays, finally faking a pass and sending Kevin Curtin around left end on a Statue-of-Liberty play executed perfectly
Fritz took matters into his own hands on the next drive, running a Brett Favre-like option for 2 yards and a first down, then sprinting up the middle on a scramble for a 22-yard gain to make it first down on Winona’s 35. Immediately, he tossed another perfect strike to Steve Battaglia in the left corner to push his season touchdown record to 26, and UMD led 30-26.
Time was running out, and UMD’s Mike Walters sacked Carpenter to start the next drive. But Carpenter picked himself and the Warriors up with a 78-yard march. He hit Samp for 17 yards, then found Lilla for 15, then threw to Jepsen to get to the UMD 14. He pitched to Samp again to reach the 8, and by then the Warriors were out of time outs and only 18 seconds remained.
That was when Carpenter sent Samp on his dramatic final route, and lobbed the game-winning pass. Samp wound up with 7 catches for 104 yards, and Lilla had five catches for 102, while Winona State prevented Tim Battaglia from catching a pass, although they couldn’t keep Steve Battaglia from six receptions for 144 yards and two touchdowns.
It was wide open, with Winona getting 28 first downs to 22 for UMD, as both teams went all-out. And fittingly, both will get another chance to put their considerable skills on display.
About the Author
John Gilbert is a lifetime Minnesotan and career journalist, specializing in cars and sports during and since spending 30 years at the Minneapolis Tribune, now the Star Tribune. More recently, he has continued translating the high-tech world of autos and sharing his passionate insights as a freelance writer/photographer/broadcaster. A member of the prestigious North American Car and Truck of the Year jury since 1993. John can be heard Monday-Friday from 9-11am on 610 KDAL(www.kdal610.com) on the "John Gilbert Show," and writes a column in the Duluth Reader.
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