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FERTILE-BELTRAMI FOOTBALL POWERS PAST THE NORTHERN FREEZE

The Fertile-Beltrami Falcons Football team returned most of their starters from last year’s team and their experience showed as they dominated the game in all aspects on their way to a 42-16 victory over the Northern Freeze in the season opener played in Newfolden.

FIRST-QUARTER – 
Fertile-Beltrami started the game with the ball and didn’t waste any time as they moved the ball down the field with some big plays, including an Everett Balstad nine-yard run, Rylin Petry found Balstad for an 11-yard completion, and Everett capped the seven-play drive with Balstad scoring on a 24-yard run for a 6-0 lead. “That was a good way to start the game,” said Falcon Coach Brian Nelson. “Our line did a nice job of creating some holes and that kind of set the tone for the game.”  The Falcons called Balstad’s number on the two-point conversion and he pounded his way into the endzone to give Fertile-Beltrami an 8-0 lead less than three minutes into the game.
The teams traded punts on the next two possessions before the Freeze had a nice nine-play drive that was stopped at the Fertile-Beltrami 30-yard line after a turnover on downs.
Fertile-Beltrami didn’t waste any time as they handed the ball off to Levi Qualley, who had a big block from Brandon Van Den Einde to free up Qualley for a 70-yard touchdown run.  The two-point conversion failed and the Falcons took a 14-0 lead into the second quarter.  “We had some nice blocking in the half and we were able to get a lot of guys in the game to keep them fresh,” said Coach Nelson. “They have a pretty good defense so that was nice to get a quick score. We had to rely on Levi to do some things for us and boy did he ever.  He had a great game.”

SECOND-QUARTER – 
The Freeze started the second quarter with the ball and were forced to punt as the Fertile-Beltrami defense continued their domination.  The Falcons got the ball back and ran two plays with Balstad running for four yards and Qualley picking up seven yards for a first down.  After a loss of one yard, Qualley ran for 14 yards and another first down. After another loss of a yard, Fertile-Beltrami looked like they had scored again as Petry rolled out and found Ryan Van Den Einde for a touchdown pass, but a flag was thrown and holding was called, bringing the ball back.  On the next play, Petry found Balstad for a 21-yard pass down to the nine-yard line.  Three plays later, the Falcons had the ball with a fourth down and goal at the one-yard line.  The Falcons only gained a half-yard and were stopped short of the goal line, forcing a turnover on downs.  
Northern Freeze had the ball at their own half-yard line and had carries of two yards, three yards, and two yards for a fourth and three play, and the Freeze were forced to punt.  The punt went off the side of the punter’s foot and went out of bounds at their 14-yard line.  
It didn’t take long for the Falcons to strike again.  On the first play of the drive, Qualley ran 14-yards behind a Tyler Stuhaug block for a touchdown.  Isaiah Wright converted the two-point conversion for a 22-0 lead with 5:30 left in the half.  The Fertile-Beltrami defense continued to stifle the Freeze offense as they forced another punt and this time, the Falcon’s Derek Sorenson blocked the punt and ran the ball 15 yards into the endzone for a punt block return touchdown.  Isaiah Wright converted the two-point conversion for a 30-0 lead.  “That was a big play for us and Derek came through and grabbed it and that was a big play for us.  It took us a good quarter to get used to the physicality,” said Coach Nelson. “Our kids are doing a pretty good job and we are able to get a lot of guys in because we have some guys that are gassed.”

THIRD-QUARTER –
The teams exchanged punts in the third quarter and after a Fertile-Beltrami punted and the Freeze returner botched the punt and Van Den Einde recovered the ball at the Freeze 24-yard line.  Penalties hurt Fertile-Beltrami in their first drive of the second half.  The Falcons were called for holding on the first play of the drive and after a one-yard gain, they were called for another holding and the two penalties killed the drive and they turned the ball over on downs a couple of plays later.
The Freeze used the momentum in their favor and had a big 33-yard run by Brady Skeim.  Two plays later, Blake Sillanpaa ran for 36 yards down to the one-yard line and on the next play, he scored on a one-yard run to get the Freeze on the board for the first time this season.  The Freeze converted the two-point conversion when the ball popped loose and Eli Grove recovered the ball in the endzone for the two-point conversion and they trailed 30-8.
Fertile-Beltrami answered on the ensuing kickoff when Brayden Werpy broke the return for a 70-yard touchdown 18 seconds later and the Falcons led 36-8 going into the fourth quarter. “Our special teams played well tonight,” said Coach Nelson. “We have been working on our kick return and Brayden sure returned the ball well.”

FOURTH-QUARTER – 
Fertile-Beltrami put a nice drive together to start the fourth quarter with an 8-play drive that was capped by a Balstad three-yard run for a 42-8 lead with 9:21 left in the game.
Late in the game, the Freeze put a nice drive together while taking advantage of Fertile-Beltrami inserting some backups into the game, and capped an eight-play drive with a Gage Hockstedler one-yard run and after a two-point conversion, the Freeze trailed 42-16.  “I was happy defensively with how we played and towards the end, we had a lot of young guys in and we need those guys to go in,” said Coach Nelson. “I thought Wesley Ramberg came in and played a great game and gave some of the other guys a break.  He had a huge fourth-down sack.  He is a wrestler and tackles well.”

Fertile-Beltrami starts the season 1-0 and will host Laporte on Friday, September 10. Northern Freeze drops to 0-1 on the year. 

1st 2nd 3rd 4th Final
Fertile-Beltrami 14 16 6 6 42
Northern Freeze 0 0 8 8 16


1st Quarter
9:31 – FB – Everett Balstad 24 yard run (Everett Balstad run)
0:09 – FB – Levi Qualley 70 yard run (pass failed)

2nd Quarter
5:30 – FB – Levi Qualley 14 yard run (Everett Balstad run)
2:44 – FB – Derek Sorenson 15 yard blocked punt return (Isaiah Wright run)

3rd Quarter
4:23 – Freeze – Blake Sillanpaa 1 yard run (Eli Grove run)
4:05 – FB – Brayden Werpy 70 yard kickoff return (pass failed)

4th Quarter
9:21 – FB – Everett Balstad 3 yard run (run failed)
2:50 – Freeze – Gage Hockstedler 1 yard (Brady Skeim run)

TEAM STATS Fertile-Beltrami Northern Freeze
Rushing Yards 26-251 33-181
Passing Yards 3-59 4-23
Total Yards 310 204
Fumbles-Lost 0-0 2-1
First Downs 15 9
Penalties-Yards 4-50 5-35

 

INDIVIDUAL STATS

Fertile-Beltrami Northern Freeze
Rushing Rushing
Levi Qualley- 7-119 Blake Sillanpaa- 15-94
Everett Balstad- 7-70 Gage Hockstedler- 5-21
Derek Sorenson- 5-19 Straet Spilde- 5-7
Isaiah Wright- 4-20 Brady Skeim- 4-46
Jonah Harstad- 3-23 Nick Lund- 3-7
Everett Nelson- 1-2
Passing Passing
Rylin Petry- 3-7, 59 yards Brady Skeim- 4-6, 23 yards
Receiving Receiving
Everett Balstad- 3-59 Everett Nelson- 1-12
Straet Spilde- 1-5
Austin Kautzman- 1-4
Blake Sillanpaa- 1-2

 

 

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