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Grizzlies crushed

Barnum wins 65-14

David Colburn
Posted 9/28/22

BARNUM- The North Woods Grizzlies faced a daunting task when they traveled south to square off against the Barnum Bombers last Friday. Barnum’s offense had put 95 points on the board in its …

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Grizzlies crushed

Barnum wins 65-14

Posted

BARNUM- The North Woods Grizzlies faced a daunting task when they traveled south to square off against the Barnum Bombers last Friday. Barnum’s offense had put 95 points on the board in its previous two games, and the Grizzlies had neither the chains to hold them down or the horses to keep pace, falling to 0-4 on the season with a 65-14 loss.
“They’re a tough team to stop,” Grizzlies Head Coach Joel Anderson said. “They’ve got a nice quarterback, good receivers, and good backs. You’ve got to kind of pick your poison with them.”
The potion the Grizzlies picked worked like a charm after Barnum received the opening kickoff. Facing a third-and-six, linebacker Olin Nelson stepped in and picked off a Barnum pass and took it 29 yards to the house for a pick six and the first lead North Woods has enjoyed all year. With Nick Abramson tacking on the two-point conversion, the upstart Grizzlies were up 8-0.
“We had them bottled up on the back side and were putting pressure on the quarterback and Olin just happened to read the back standing there and intercepted the ball.”
But the joy didn’t last long when the Bombers got back to work.
“It was 32-8 by the end of the quarter, let’s put it that way,” Anderson said.
The Grizzlies didn’t score again until early in the fourth quarter, with Nelson on the receiving end of a 40-yard touchdown pass from Jonah Burnett.
The Grizzlies were without the services of running back Jared Chiabotti, who was still nursing an injury from the previous game against Deer River. Chiabotti had been the team’s leading rusher through three games.
Anderson said there were too many miscues on defense, from missed reads to botched tackles.
“We had them bottled up for no gain or a one-yard gain, and our guys tried to throw them around instead of moving to the legs to tackle them, and they’d score a touchdown,” Anderson said. “And you cannot look at their backfield, and that’s what we did the entire game. We had guys step in the wrong direction, and they were beat.”
The offense was also out of sync, Anderson said, and time outs did little to correct the problems.
“A couple of them were doing one thing and a couple were doing another, and it was just one of those games that no matter how many times you tell them to do something they can’t put it together,” he said.
The Grizzlies were scheduled to face another potential juggernaut on Friday for North Woods homecoming. Braham beat rival Barnum 60-44 before blanking Chisholm 36-0 last week.
“We’ll go back to the drawing board, shake this one off, and try to come out with a clear focus and hopefully we can make some strides forward,” Anderson said.