GRAND MARAIS — The North Woods Grizzlies saw their brief sectional playoff run come to a crashing halt on Saturday at Grand Marais, where the undefeated and top-seeded Cook County Vikings delivered a demoralizing 54-6 defeat.
The Vikings successfully attacked the Grizzlies’ defensive secondary early and often. After a fumbled pitch set the Vikings back to their own 46 with a third-and-21, a pass to the North Woods 24 gave them new life. Two plays later, quarterback Nicholas Spry hit wide-out Paker Backstrom on a post pattern for a 24-yard score, and the two-point conversion put the Vikings up 8-0 at the 9:21 mark of the first quarter.
In a sign of things to come, the Cook County defense shut down the Grizzlies’ first possession on three plays, then tackled North Woods punter Rogelio Noyes after a fumbled snap, taking over at the North Woods 23.
The Grizzlies turned disaster into opportunity by stopping the Vikings on four downs and taking over at their own 14, but after a short punt, Cook County began their next possession at the Grizzlies 24. One play, one pass later, the Vikings were up 14-0, courtesy of a Spry touchdown strike to MaCoy Fairbanks, and the extra point kick made the score 15-0.
While the Vikings continued to shut down the North Woods offense, they notched two more touchdowns in the second quarter and tacked on a safety to lead comfortably at the half, 32-0.
Trying to find any kind of momentum, North Woods tried to convert on a fourth-and-one from their own 22 to start the second half, but the Vikings held, then on the next play scored on a 20-yard pass. Two more big play scores put Cook County ahead 54-0 early in the fourth quarter before the Grizzlies’ Jett Lambert scored a token touchdown on a 39-yard run against the Vikings’ second-string defense with 2:53 left, accounting for the 54-6 final.
Tossing out Lambert’s big run, the Grizzlies’ normally potent rushing game amassed only 55 yards on 32 carries, a 1.7 yards-per-carry average. Lambert had 65 yards on 12 carries, while James Yernatich was the only other North Woods back with positive yards with 34 on nine carries. Resorting to swing and out passes to try for yards, Lambert was 11-of-17 passing for 38 yards. John Warren had six receptions for 18 yards and TaySean Boshey-Wilkerson had five catches for 20 yards.
Omari Muhammed led the defense with four solo tackles, four assists, and a forced fumble and recovery.
“Credit to Cook County, they came out and played well,” Grizzlies Head Coach Joel Anderson said. “I thought our plan coming in was going to be all right, but they put on a passing clinic. We did a great job of shutting down the run and forced them to go to the air and then they never left it. But that Cook County team that I saw on Saturday was nothing like I have seen on film, nothing like they have played any other time. If they can replicate that, I don’t see how Littlefork-Big Falls is going to be able to stop it.”
The Grizzlies finished the year with a record of 5-5, one that might have been better if the team had done a better job of taking care of the ball, Anderson noted.
“The missed opportunities come down to us holding onto the ball,” Anderson said. “We had 27 turnovers this year and lost the turnover battle by seven. But in the games that accounted for the most turnovers we had, we did not come anywhere near the turnover battle win. If we keep giving them chances and take away our own chances, we’re not going to be able to finish out drives and score points.”
Still, as Anderson puts this season in the rearview mirror and starts looking ahead to next year, there were some solid bright spots that will carry over into the next campaign.
“A lot of guys stepped up during the year, a lot of guys that could come back,” Anderson said. “We found two very viable options at quarterback and we’ve got a lot of lower classmen we get to bring back who will be a year older and a year stronger and help us compete again next year. And I have ten eighth graders out right now, and I’m hoping all ten of them stick with it. So we’ve got some bright spots to look ahead to and go from there.”