Vikings end season with loss to Durand

COLFAX — The Colfax football team had to deal with plenty of adversity this season including injuries to several starters, and things didn’t get much better when another player who was a leading receiver and tackler quit the team before the final game. With several underclassmen getting varsity time, the result was a 61-6 loss to the Durand Panthers Oct. 16 on the Vikings’ home field. The win made Durand playoff eligible with a 4-2 conference record and they will host St. Croix Falls in a first round playoff game.

Colfax started with the ball and tried a trick play on first down with quarterback Jarrod Rudi handing the ball to Brett Schindler who threw a long pass — but not long enough — and it was picked off by the Panthers. Three plays later Karter Kurth took the ball to the end zone from 20 yards out and a two point run by Travis Bauer made it 8-0 for Durand. After Colfax took the kick off back to their own 31, two running plays netted two yards and as Rudi tried to scramble while looking for a receiver, he fumbled the ball and it was picked up by Bauer who scored from 33 yards out. His two point run made it 16-0 with 8:54 left in the first quarter.

Mitchell Kiekhafer took the kickoff to the Vikings’ 31 but they had to punt it away and three plays later Durand scored again on a one yard run by Josh Biesterveld and a kick made it 23-0. Colfax put together their best drive of the night as they started at their own 40 and Rudi completed a five yard pass to Kiekhafer, then freshman Tommy Anderson ran for eight yards. Back to back penalties on the Panthers moved the ball up 10 yards and a run by Brett Schindler and short pass completion to Noah Pretasky moved the ball to the Durand 28. On fourth and one, the ball was fumbled but recovered by the Vikings for a first down and Kiekhafer snagged another pass, this time for 11 yards, followed by a six yard run by Anderson to get the ball to the 10. But several incomplete passes as Rudi was under duress on every attempt gave the ball to Durand at the Colfax 13. Rudi made amends for his earlier fumble as he picked up a Panther fumble and took it to the house from 21 yards out. The two point pass was incomplete and it was 23-6 with just six seconds gone in the second quarter.

Durand ran 10 plays and Bauer scored from a yard out and added a two point run to make it 31-6 and on the Viking’s next possession, they lost three yards on three plays, then attempted a fake punt. Rudi’s pass floated towards two Colfax receivers but it fell to the ground incomplete. On first down, Durand scored on a 37 yard run by Adayre Glaus and Bauer added a two point run for a 39-6 lead. They made it 46-6 at the half on a 20 yard pass reception from William Berger to Bauer and added a kick.

“We had several freshmen and sophomores trying their best to fill in,” coach Mark Maloney said. “Our seniors were playing hard in their final game and we were getting a chance to see what the underclassmen could do. I think they have begun to realize what it takes to be successful at the varsity level.”

Durand scored on their first play of the third quarter on a 25 yard run after a long kickoff return and the extra point kick made it 53-6. After the Vikings punted again, Andrew Yolitz sacked the Panther quarterback for a seven yard loss then Ben Christianson forced a fumble which was recovered by the Vikings. Colfax failed to make any progress offensively the rest of the game but they held Durand down defensively until the last minute until Dustin Paje scored from 26 yards out and a two point run ended their scoring. Freshman running back Dalton Schotter and another freshman, quarterback George Scharlau finished off the last minute for Colfax and the final play of the game was a run by 240 pound lineman Stephan Snyder.

“We played against a lot of teams that were bigger and stronger than us this year,” Maloney said. “But we had some of the most athletic kids in the conference and they played hard until the end of every game. We just had too many  injuries to major players and in a school this size we didn’t have the depth to make up for it. If we had had our full team from the first game on and through the whole year, it would have been a whole different season,” he added.

Rudi, who needed just 17 passing yards to go over 1,000 for the season, accomplished that as he completed 8 0f 14 for 79 yards. Schindler rushed for 19 yards on six carries while Anderson ran for 14 yards on eight rushes. Kiekhafer appears to be the bright spot for next year as he snared five passes for 63 yards while Pretasky, Tyler Snyder and Schindler all caught one. Kiekhafer also had seven kickoff returns for 95 yards and defensively came up with seven tackles. Rudi led the team with nine tackles, Jake Floodquist added eight, Zach Meyer seven, Schindler six and Treyton Teige and Ross Taylor both had five.

The loss ended the Vikings’ season with a record of 0-9.