FIELD TWP — If last Friday’s home game against the Kelliher-Northome Mustangs represents a trend, it may be time to re-brand the North Woods Grizzlies’ offense as “Air Anderson,” as three of the four North Woods touchdowns came through the air in the 26-12 win.
Starting quarterback Jett Lambert went five for seven, passing for 55 yards in the first half, including a touchdown pass to John Warren. Backup Cedar Holman came in after Lambert was sidelined with an injury in the second quarter, and the sophomore signal caller completed two-of-five passes, both going for touchdowns, one to Carson Johnson and the other to Warren.
The Grizzlies took control using their ground game to push the ball across the goal line on their first possession, with Johnson getting the score for a 6-0 Grizzlies lead with 8:18 left in the first quarter.
A 35-yard touchdown pass from Lambert to Warren early in the second quarter was nullified due to a holding call on North Woods, but the ensuing punt pinned the Mustangs at their own five-yard line. The Mustangs lost ground from there. On third down from the one, James Yernatich and Holman combined to drop a runner in the end zone for a safety and an 8-0 lead.
The Grizzlies received the kick following the safety and set up shop on the Mustang 43-yard line. After another holding call set them back to the 49, North Woods drove to the 24, where Holman connected with Warren on a third-down touchdown pass to boost the lead to 14-0.
The Mustangs responded quickly, with a 47-yard touchdown run to make the score 14-6 with 3:35 remaining in the half.
North Woods ground up the clock with its next drive, a ten-play effort culminating with a 13-yard Holman to Johnson pass for a touchdown with only eight seconds remaining. North Woods took a 20-6 advantage into halftime.
The Mustangs came out mixing the pass and run in the third quarter and marched right down the field in nine plays for a one-yard touchdown plunge to narrow the gap to 20-12 with 7:02 on the clock.
The Grizzlies looked like they might stall on their first possession of the second half after moving from their own 38 to the Mustangs’ 40. But facing third-and-16, Holman dropped back behind excellent protection and heaved the ball down the left sideline to Warren, who caught the ball in stride and streaked into the end zone for the touchdown and a 26-12 lead with just under four minutes left in the quarter.
That’s where things remained the rest of the game, as neither team could mount a serious scoring threat for the remainder of the game.
Head Coach Joel Anderson said that despite the wet conditions created by almost five inches of rain in the days leading up to the contest, the game set up well for the Grizzlies to exploit the Mustangs through the air.
“They did a really good job of stacking the box against us, and we kind of showed that we have more than one focus offensively,” Anderson said. “Nobody was as fast as they wanted to be because of the field conditions, but we took what they gave us and used it to our advantage.”
Anderson had words of praise for receiver Warren.
“He’s got good hands, he’s athletic, and he comes in a year older and ran really nice routes, didn’t panic, caught the ball and made good moves,” Anderson said.
He also lauded Holman’s effort coming off the bench.
“It’s hard to find (even one) single guy in small school football who is able to operate an offense, but Cedar stepped in, and we really didn’t miss a beat,” Anderson said. “A big part of that was our line. We were able to move the sticks there a little bit with our run game and just calm him down before we needed to rely on him, and he did a nice job of dropping back and throwing the ball.”
Anderson was also pleased with his defense.
“It’s a testament to the game plan and the defensive play calls that we had on,” Anderson said. “We swarmed to the ball. Overall, it was great team defense. I thought to this point that this was probably our most complete football game.”
While the Grizzlies put up points through the air, Johnson was no slouch on the ground, piling up 206 yards on 35 carries and scoring a touchdown. Yernatich added 37 yards on ten carries.
Warren caught six passes on the night for 95 yards and two touchdowns, while Johnson had the Grizzlies’ other reception for a touchdown.
North Woods was scheduled to move to a series of three Thursday night games beginning this week, a shift necessitated by a shortage of officials to cover a full Friday slate of games.
Anderson did note that it would be nice for the players to have the three-day weekends for family time and to recuperate.
Thursday’s game was against Littlefork-Big Falls.