POLK COUNTY WEST SCORES ON 4TH & GOAL IN THIRD OVERTIME TO BEAT MAHNOMEN-WABUN 34-28

The ninth time was the charm!!! For the first eight times that the Polk County West Thunder football team played as a co-op (Climax-Fisher, Sacred Heart) against Mahnomen-Waubun, they lost, including in the Section 8A championship last year. “That loss gave us a lot of energy as we really hit the weight room and it fueled us through the season, ” said Josh Wagner, “I’ve been waiting for this since I was a freshman.”  The PCW Head Coach Darrin Byklum said this victory ranks up there as one of the best while talking on the KROX postgame show. “This one ranks up there,” said Byklum. “The guys played well and made some bigtime plays today. This was a great game and we beat a very good team today.”

FIRST QUARTER –
Mahnomen-Waubun started the game with the ball and after a big kick return to the Polk County West 33 yard line, the drive stalled. The Thunderbirds went for it on a fourth down and five and only gained a yard to turn the ball over on downs at the 27-yard line.
Polk County West’s drive started similar to Mahnomen-Waubuns with a fourth down and one and the Thunder earned the yard for a fresh set of downs to keep the drive going. Four plays later, they were faced with another fourth down and one and ran the ball for two yards for another first down. A few plays later Polk County West was forced to punt from their own 39-yard line.
The teams turned the ball over on downs after four plays each and at the end of the first quarter, the teams were scoreless.

SECOND QUARTER –
Mahnomen-Waubun’s third offensive series of the game took over four minutes off the clock and they were forced to punt. Polk County West started their drive at their own 34-yard line and earned two first downs on the first five plays of the drive. After nine yards on three plays, the Thunder had another fourth down and one situation. PCW’s Sam Gapp handed the ball to Josh Wagner for a 36-yard touchdown run and after a two-point conversion pass from Gapp to Wagner, the Thunder led 8-0 with 1:11 left in the first half. Mahnomen-Waubun wasn’t able to score in the final minute of the half and PCW took an 8-0 lead into halftime. Mahnomen-Waubun was limited to 12 yards of total offense in the first half. “We played great defense in the first half,” said Coach Byklum. “The guys made plays and we were able to break a big run for the touchdown and it feels good to have the lead at the half, but we have a lot of work to do in the second half.”

THIRD QUARTER –
PCW started the second half with the ball and ran seven plays and took over five minutes off the clock in their opening drive. Mahnomen-Waubun’s first drive of the second half proved to be their best with a 15 play 80-yard drive that was capped by a Tanner Pazdernik two-yard run for a touchdown. After a two-point conversion pass, the game was tied at 8-8 with 17 seconds left in the third quarter.

FOURTH QUARTER –
Polk County West answered with an impressive drive of their own to start the fourth quarter. They ran two plays for nine yards before a chop block penalty was called against PCW. The Thunder tried a pass and Mahnomen-Waubun was called for a 15-yard pass interference penalty to set up a fourth down and two play. Polk County West’s Gapp ran the ball eight yards for a first down. Five plays later, on a third and 11 play, Gapp ran for 12 yards and another first down. Three plays later, Gapp completed a five-yard pass to Josh Wagner for a touchdown and Polk County West took a 14-8 lead with 5:12 left in regulation.
Mahnomen-Waubun needed to answer to keep their season going and after they ran two plays for five yards the Thunderbirds ran a play for eight yards and 15 more yards were added because of a facemask penalty. Mahnomen-Waubun added 35 more yards on the next five yards and Pazdernik scored from two yards out to tie the game at 14. Mahnomen-Waubun tried to kick the extra point and after a low snap, Polk County West blocked the kick and the game remained tied at 14.
Neither team scored in the final 90 seconds to force overtime.

FIRST OVERTIME –
In overtime, each team gets four downs to score from the 10-yard line. Mahnomen-Waubun started overtime with the ball. On the third play, they scored on a Brodie Bement seven-yard run. Bement also converted the two-point conversion to take a 22-14 lead.
Polk County West gained nine yards on their first three carries and on fourth and goal on the one-yard line, Gapp snuck the ball in for a touchdown. On the two-point conversion, Polk County West was unbelievably called for holding pushing them back 10 yards. On a 13 yard two-point conversion, Gapp rolled out to the right and threw a dart into the corner of the endzone and John Fontaine made a diving catch in the endzone to tie the game at 22, forcing double overtime.
SECOND OVERTIME –
Polk County West started the second overtime with the ball. They ran two plays and Gapp scored an eight-yard touchdown. The two-point conversion failed and the Thunder led 28-22.
Mahnomen-Waubun ran three plays and Bement scored on a three-yard run to tie the game at 28. Mahnomen-Waubun wasn’t able to convert the two-point conversion, forcing a third overtime.

THIRD OVERTIME –
Mahnomen-Waubun fumbled the ball on their third play. Polk County West had a chance to win the game with a touchdown. Gapp ran for seven yards on the first play. After a one-yard run, Polk County West loss three yards to force a fourth and goal at the five-yard line. On the fourth-down play, Gapp rolled out to his left and lobbed a pass to the corner by the goal line and Fontaine made the catch and dove into the endzone for the touchdown for the game-winning touchdown and Polk County West won the game 34-28. Sophomore quarterback, Sam Gapp, who was installed as the quarterback about three weeks ago found John Fontaine for a five-yard pass in the third overtime to defeat Mahnomen-Waubun 34-28!! “I saw people coming on the end,” said Gapp who was on an option play on the last play, so I trusted John to make the catch and he’s an amazing player and showed it there.”

Polk County West improves to 8-2 on the year and will now meet Ada-Borup/West in the Section 8A Championship on Thursday at 5:30 PM at the Fargo Dome. Mahnomen-Waubun finishes the season at 8-2.

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1st Quarter
No Scoring

2nd Quarter
1:11 –  PCW – Josh Wagner 36 yard run  (Josh Wagner pass from Sam Gapp)

3rd Quarter
:17.6 –  M-W – Tanner Pazdernik 2 yard run (Kael Snetsinger pass from Tanner Pazdernik)

4th Quarter
5:12 –  PCW –  Josh Wagner 5 yard pass from Sam Gapp   (run failed)
1:30 –  M-W –  Tanner Pazdernik 5 yard run  (kick failed/blocked)

Overtime
M-W –  Brodie Bement  7 yard run   (Brodie Bement run)
PCW –  Sam Gapp  1 yard run  (John Fontaine pass from Sam Gapp)

2nd Overtime
PCW –  Sam Gapp  8 yard run  (run failed)
M-W –  Brodie Bement 3 yard run  (run failed)

3rd Overtime
PCW –  John Fontaine 5 yard pass from Sam Gapp

INDIVIDUAL STATS