Fertile-Beltrami Football, behind 7 Isaiah Wright touchdowns, advances to the State 9-Man Championship

The Fertile-Beltrami Falcon’s outstanding senior running back, Isaiah Wright ran for seven touchdowns and 361 yards and also had an interception to lead his team to a 60-33 victory over the LeRoy-Ostrander/Lyle-Pacelli Cardinals in the state 9-Player Football semi-finals at U.S. Bank Stadium in downtown Minneapolis.

1st Quarter–
Fertile-Beltrami started the game with the ball, and the first play of the game was a Jonah Harstad 12-yard run for a first down. The next two plays were gains of seven yards before Bryer Strem ran for nine yards and another first down. The next play was a pass, and it was intercepted by LeRoy-Ostrander/Lyle/Pacelli (LOLP), and the Cardinals started their first drive at their own 35-yard line. On a third down and six play, the Cardinals completed a 10-yard pass for a first down. The Cardinals slowly moved the ball down the field to the Fertile-Beltrami 43-yard line. On the seventh play of the drive, Camden Hungerholt ran for a 43-yard touchdown, and after a successful extra point kick, they led 7-0 with 7:46 left in the quarter.
Fertile-Beltram looked to respond, and they had a fourth down and one play at their own 49-yard line when quarterback Easton Petry used a hard count to get the Cardinals to jump offsides for a first down. After an incomplete pass, Isaiah Wright ran for a 46-yard touchdown. The extra point failed, and the Falcons trailed 7-6 with 5:49 left in the quarter.
LOLP answered on its next offensive series, but the start of the drive didn’t look good with two incomplete passes. The third play was a five-yard run to set up fourth and five. They completed a 15-yard pass for a first down. After a run for no gain, Camden Hungerholt found his younger brother Reid down the middle of the field for a 36-yard touchdown to cap a five-play, 56-yard drive. After the kick failed, the Cardinals led 13-6 with 3:29 remaining in the quarter.
The teams didn’t score the rest of the first quarter and LOLP took a 13-6 lead into the second quarter.

2nd Quarter –
LeRoy-Ostrander/Lyle/Pacelli started the second quarter with the ball and was forced to punt from their own 31-yard line. After a 32 yard punt, Fertile-Beltrami started at their own 37-yard line. The first play was a four-yard Wright run. The second play was a 59-yard Wright touchdown, his second of the game, and after Wright ran in the two-point conversion, the Falcons led 14-13.
LOLP turned the ball over on downs before Fertile-Beltrami was forced to punt. LOLP started the next drive on their own 34-yard line with Camden Hungerholt bombing a pass down the middle of the field to his brother Reid for a 66-yard touchdown pass and catch, and after the extra point failed, LOLP led 19-14 with 5:37 left in the half.
Once again, Fertile-Beltrami had an answer as they gained six yards on the first two plays of the drive before the Cardinals were penalized for offsides, and the Falcons got another free first down. Strem ran for nine yards, and Wright ran for six more. After a play for no gain, Wright ran for 23 yards. Two plays later, Wright powered his way for a 13-yard touchdown, his third of the game, and after a Petry pass to Preston Hanson for the two-point conversion, the Falcons led 22-19 with 1:46 left in the half.
It looked like Fertile-Beltrami would take the lead into halftime, but LOLP moved the ball down the field with passes for five and seven yards. After an incomplete pass, they completed a 16-yard pass for another first down. The next play was an incomplete pass before Camdeen Hungerholt completed a short pass to Ryder Stern, who broke several tackles and scored on a 45-yard passing play after the two-point conversion, the Cardinals took a 27-22 lead into halftime.

3rd Quarter –
LeRoy-Ostrander/Lyle/Pacelli (LOLP) started the second half with the ball and realized that Fertile-Beltrami was ready to finish the game strong as the Cardinals ran three plays for a loss of two yards and were forced to punt. Fertile-Beltrami’s Strem returned the punt 21 yards to midfield.
Fertile-Beltrami ran three plays for a total of seven yards to set up a fourth down and three play. Fertile-Beltrami decided to go for it at the LOLP 43-yard line when Isaiah Wright struck again for a 43-yard touchdown run for his fourth touchdown of the game, and after Wright converted the two-point conversion, the Falcons led 30-27.
LOLP answered on the ensuing drive as they marched the ball down the field with runs of 5, 3, 9, 5, 3, 0, and 2 before a 15-yard pass. The ninth play was a Camden Hungerholt 14-yard run before a Tyson Stevens three-yard touchdown to cap a 10-play 59-yard drive and a 33-30 lead with 4:30 left in the quarter.
Like a heavyweight boxing match, Fertile-Beltrami took a punch and delivered a strong one in return. The Falcons started their next drive at their own 17-yard line, and the first two plays were runs of six and five yards for a first down. The next play was a huge play as Petry slung a pass down the middle of the field to a wide-open Drew Gullickson for a 64-yard completion down to the LOLP eight-yard line. Wright ran for a two-yard gain before he ran for six yards, and Superman leaped into the endzone for his fifth touchdown of the game. After the two-point conversion, the Falcons led 38-33 with 2:18 to go in the quarter.
LOLP ran four plays and had a fourth and 11 play when they had an incomplete pass, turning the ball over on downs to the Falcons at their own 44-yard line. Fertile-Beltrami’s Wright struck again as he ran 56 yards for his sixth touchdown of the game for a one-play 56-yard drive and a 44-33 lead with 45 seconds left in the quarter.

4th Quarter –
LeRoy-Ostrander/Lyle/Pacelli started the drive with a false start and ran for one yard before Fertile-Beltrami’s Wright intercepted a pass, and the Falcons had the ball at their own 47-yard line. Harstad ran for six yards, Strem ran for nine before Wright scored his SEVENTH touchdown of the game on a 38-yard run, and after the two-point conversion, the Falcons led 52-33 with 10:32 left in the game.
LOLP started the next drive with a two-yard loss, ran for five yards, and threw a 15-yard pass for a first down. The next pass was intercepted by Fertile-Beltrami’s Strem, his 12th interception of the season.
The Falcons had their best drive of the game as they started the drive with nine minutes left in the game. They methodically moved the ball down the field with Harstad runs of 7 and 12 yards. Wright lost two yards before a gain of 14. They had gains of 4, 1, 15, 2, 4, 2, 2, and 10 yards with the ball at the Cardinal four-yard line. Harstad took the next handoff and plowed into the endzone for a touchdown, and after the Strem two-point conversion, the Falcons led 60-33 with two minutes left in the game, capping a 13-play 80-yard drive that took seven minutes off the clock.
Fertile-Beltrami held on to win the game 60-33 to advance to the Minnesota 9-Player State Championship for the second time in four years. 

Fertile-Beltrami improves to 12-0 on the season and will take on Hills-Beaver Creek on Saturday, November 23 at 10:00 a.m. at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis for the state championship. KROX will have the game with a 9:00 a.m. pre-game show.
LOLP’s season ends with a 12-1 record. 

SCORING-
1st Quarter –
7:46 – LOLP – Camden Hungerholt 43 yard run (Ryan Stern kick)
5:49 – FB – Isaiah Wright 46 yard run (run failed)
3:29 – LOLP – Camden Hungerholt 36 yard pass to Reid Hungerholt (kick failed)

2nd Quarter –
9:24 – FB – Isaiah Wright 59 yard run (Isaiah Wright run)
5:37 – LOLP – Camden Hungerholt 66 yard pass to Reid Hungerholt (run failed)
1:46 – FB – Isaiah Wright 13 yard run (Easton Petry pass to Preston Hanson)
0:17 – LOLP – Camden Hungerholt 45 yard pass to Ryan Stern (Camden Hungerholt pass to Carter Sweeney)

3rd Quarter –
8:54 – FB – Isaiah Wright 43 yard run (Isaiah Wright run)
4:30 – LOLP – Tyson Stevens 3 yard run (kick blocked)
2:18 – FB – Isaiah Wright 6 yard run (Isaiah Wright run)
0:45 – FB – Isaia Wright 56 yard run (Pass failed)

4th Quarter –
10:32 – FB – Isaiah Wright 38 run (Jonah Harstad run)
2:00 – FB – Jonah Harstad 3 yard run (Ryan Strem run)

INDIVIDUAL STATS

Isaiah Wright

The team after the win

Isaiah Wright

Caleb Sather

Bryer Strem

The crowd

Isaiah Wright

Micah Iverson and Easton Petry

Noah Swenby

Caleb Stoltman

Jonah Harstad

Isaiah Wright

Briley Raaen