Vikings bounced by Bulldogs
BOYCEVILLE — Sometimes uphill battles become more like climbing a mountain which is what the Colfax football team found out when they traveled to Boyceville for the second to the last game for both teams on Oct. 9. The Vikings were 0-7 on the season while the Bulldogs were 3-4 but all three wins were against non-conference opponents which meant both teams were in the cellar of the D-SC Conference.
After finding out the day of the game their leading rusher Aliymu Davis, who is also one of their top tacklers, would not be able to play due to concussion symptoms, the Colfax coaching staff tried to come up with a new game plan but the result was a 48-22 loss to the Bulldogs.
Boyceville took the ball on their first possession and scored on a six play drive when quarterback Hunter Anderson ran the ball in from two yards out and a Jake Lake kick made it 7-0. Colfax came right back on the arm of Jarrod Rudi who completed a 20 yard pass to Adam Pretasky at their own 40 then found Mitchell Kiekhafer on the left sideline for a 60 yard catch and run for a touchdown. Rudi’s kick was blocked but the Vikings were just down 7-6 with 6:12 left in the first quarter.
Boyceville kept the ball on the ground and used three running backs along with Anderson to roll down field and scored on a Jordan Morse run and another Lake kick. The Vikings fumbled and lost the ball on their next possession and Boyceville didn’t waste any time as they took it to the end zone on a 20 yard scamper by Gavin Olson and a two point run made it 22-6. Rudi was sacked twice on the Vikings next possession and he punted the ball away, but he came back and picked off an Anderson pass two plays later. It was all for naught however as the Bulldogs defense wouldn’t give any ground and it was fourth down. Colfax tried a fake punt and Rudi’s pass looked like it could have been caught for a first down but the receiver couldn’t quite get to the ball before it landed incomplete. And five plays later Sam Hellmann caught a TD pass from Anderson and another kicked upped the Bulldog lead to 29-6. Boyceville continued to move the ball behind their solid lineman and the half ended with them up 42-6.
“We ran into the same thing we have all year, stronger and more physical lineman than us,” Colfax coach Mark Maloney said. “And they came out and pounded the ball through us. We played a lot of young kids again because of several injuries but they all did the best they could. It’s pretty hard to change a game plan the day of the game and when our offense relies on a running back as talented as Aliymu, we just tried to find something that worked. Freshman Tommy Anderson started at running back for us and he had a couple of nice runs but we couldn’t sustain anything.”
Olson scored the only points of the third quarter for either team on a 14 yard run for Boyceville which was some sort of a victory for the Vikings as the defense began to assert themselves. And in the fourth quarter, Colfax simply went to the air as Rudi found Pretasky for a long gain, and Kiekhafer for nine yards. After a first down run by Brett Schindler, Rudi let it rip and hit Kiekhafer for a 33 yard score and a two point pass with 9;33 on the clock. And with 2:20 left, Colfax finished off the scoring for the evening when Rudi connected with Kedar Davis for a 41 yard TD pass and another two point pass, this time to Schindler.
Rudi passed for 198 yards completing 7 of 12 passes as Kiekahfer snared four for 117 yards, Pretasky two for 40 yards and Davis 1 for 41 yards. Schindler rushed for 30 yards on 11 carries while Rudi ran six times for 32 yards. Zach Meyer led the defense with 11 tackles, Rudi and Kiekahfer were both in on nine, and Stephan Snyder and Jake Floodquist took down a ball carrier seven times each.
Colfax will host Durand this Friday night in the final game of the season.