Polk County West Trudges To A Victory over Red Lake County

The Polk County West Thunder scored four first-half touchdowns on their way to a 34-6 victory over the Red Lake County Rebels in the Section 8A Football semi-finals on a rain-soaked Les Drechsel field in Red Lake Falls.  The Thunder victory avenged a 14-13 loss to Red Lake County in the third week of the season.

Polk County West started the game with the ball at their own 45-yard line.  A couple of plays into the drive William White broke loose for a 45-yard run to set up a John Fontaine three-yard touchdown run a little over two and a half minutes into the game and after a Brady Klein extra point kick, the Thunder had a 7-0 lead.  Red Lake County looked to answer on their first offensive series and were moving the ball after a Chris Longtin 11-yard run on the second play of the drive.  Four plays later, the Rebels dropped back to pass and the Thunder’s White intercepted the pass and Polk County West had the ball back.  The Thunder were forced to punt, but Red Lake County fumbled the ball on their second play and the Thunder recovered the ball.  Two plays later, Sam Modeen dumped a pass to White and he ran down the Rebel sidelines and there was one defender looking to make the tackle when White ran him over and sprinted down the field and into the end zone for an 86 yard touchdown reception and after the Klein kick it was a 14-0 lead with 2:33 left in the opening quarter.  Neither team did much offensively on their next possessions and Polk County West took advantage of a poor punt and started their second possession of the second quarter with the ball at the Red Lake County 33-yard line.  On the second play of the drive, Josh Wagner broke a 24-yard run to get the ball down to the nine-yard line.  A couple of plays later, Sam Modeen dove into the end zone on the quarterback keeper for a one-yard touchdown run and after the Klein extra point kick, Polk County West led 21-0, halfway through the quarter.  Polk County West fumbled on their next possession but got the ball back and scored with 2:53 left in the half on a Gage Wavra 51-yard touchdown for a 28-0 lead going into halftime.  “We are playing well and the guys on the line are doing their job,” said PCW Coach Darrin Byklum. “It surprised me that we took as good of care of the ball as we did.  It was a pretty good first half.”
There was no scoring in the third quarter as both offenses struggled with the conditions to move the ball.  The teams settled in and started to move the ball towards the end of the third quarter and to start the fourth when Red Lake County’s Derek Peterson rolled to his right and found a wide-open Zach Benson for a 19-yard touchdown pass and the Rebels were on the board.  The two-point conversion was stopped and 15 seconds into the fourth quarter, Polk County West led 28-6.  Both teams struggled to move the ball the rest of the game until Polk County West scored on a nice 25-yard run by John Fontaine for a 34-6 lead with 3:42 left in the game.   Red Lake County wasn’t able to answer as they turned the ball over and the Thunder took a knee to end the game with a 34-6 victory.  “I was happy with how our guys played tonight,” said PCW Coach Darrin Byklum. “The guys got after it and played extremely well in the conditions.  We started the game running some full house stuff and scrapped that and went back to what we ran all year and that worked out for us tonight.  This is a nice win and the boys played hard.”
Polk County West improves to 8-2 on the year and will play Mahnomen-Waubun in the Section 8A Championship at 8:00 p.m. on Thursday in the Fargodome.  We will have the game on KROX with the RiverView Health pre-game show at 7:30 p.m.  Red Lake County’s season ends at 8-2 on the year.

William White on his 86 yard TD  Zak Kennet looks to tackle PCW’s Josh Wagner

Derek Peterson on one of his runs in the game

1st Quarter
9:26 –  PCW –  John Fontaine 3 yard run  (Brady Klein kick)
2:33 –  PCW –  William White  68 yard pass from Sam Modeen  (Brady Klein kick)

4th Quarter
11:45 –  RLC  –  Zach Benson  19 yard pass from Derek Peterson  (run failed)
3:42 –   PCW –  John Fontaine 25 yard run  (kick failed)

The rain comes down hard and a Thunder player walks through the large puddle on the PCW sidelines