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Late touchdown lifts Ely

Wolves survive defensive battle on Blaise Lah touchdown

Jay Greeney
Posted 9/6/17

ELY— A Blaise Lah touchdown in the final minutes proved the difference in a season-opening match-up between host Ely and the Ogilvie Lions. It was a defensive battle throughout, but Ely walked away …

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Late touchdown lifts Ely

Wolves survive defensive battle on Blaise Lah touchdown

Posted

ELY— A Blaise Lah touchdown in the final minutes proved the difference in a season-opening match-up between host Ely and the Ogilvie Lions. It was a defensive battle throughout, but Ely walked away with the 6-0 victory.

It was the Timberwolves’ first test after losing ten seniors from last year’s section-winning squad, and it proved a crowd-pleaser as Ely shut down the Lions’ offense.

“Overall the team played well, but we had too many mental errors,” said Head Coach Brian Lamppa. “We need to clean up our mistakes.”

Ely’s offense moved the ball on the ground throughout the game, but struggled to close the deal in the red zone. Twice they drove deep into Lions’ territory, but came away empty-handed. Ely finally finished the job with 4:52 remaining in the game, as Lah, a senior fullback, rushed the ball off tackle for the game’s only score.

The Lions attempted a late comeback, and drove deep into Ely territory before the Timberwolves’ defense stiffened and the ball went over on downs with less than two minutes remaining. From there, the Wolves just ran out the clock.

Elys offense was limited to the run. Sophomore runningback Eli Conaway and Lah led the rushing attack for Ely, Conaway with 87 yards on 20 carries, while Lah ran the ball 25 times for 86 yards. Senior quarterback Carter Gaulke added 33 yards on seven carries, but failed to connect on three passing attempts.

Conaway led the pack on defense as well, notching 14 tackles, followed by Lah with eight, and Tom Montana with seven. Jasiah Wigdahl contributed when he blocked and recovered an Ogilvie punt.

The Wolves will host Northeast Range on Friday, Sept. 8, in their conference season opener. The Nighthawks are coming off a 46-14 drubbing against Northome-Kelliher in their season opener last Thursday. Game time is at 7pm.