By Mike Drooger
It turned out to be a tale of two halves Friday night, September 21, in Morgan, Minnesota when the Edgerton/Ellsworth Flying Dutchmen football team battled the Cougars of Cedar Mountain/Comfrey.
The Dutchmen didn’t exactly dominate the first half of play, but they did play well enough to hold a 22-14 lead at intermission. The second half was a different story at a soggy Morgan where the Cougars scored the first three times they had the ball while the Dutchmen were shutout. When the final horn sounded, the Cougars had claimed a hard-fought 34-22 victory to drop E/E to 1-3 at the midpoint of the 2018 campaign.
Before the Dutchmen ran even one offensive play they got a scare with big Mason Gilbertson was slow to get up after the opening kickoff. Luckily, Gilbertson shook off the injury and returned to action and was very instrumental in E/E’s first half accomplishments. Gilbertson blocked efficiently for his running backs, caught passes, and he was a defensive force—all of which enabled E/E to hold the lead and the momentum at halftime.
E/E’s first touchdown came from Carl Haag who stiff-armed a would-be tackler and slipped through the tackle attempt for an 18-yard touchdown jaunt. The point after touchdown was short making the score 8-6 in favor of the Cougars.
A Gilbertson tackle for a loss set up a fourth down situation for Cedar Mountain at the close of the first quarter, and E/E had the ball after a punt. And eight-play drive culminated in a Tannan Groen TD with 8:55 left in the first half. Included in the eight plays was a long pass play from Brayden Kuiper to Gilbertson, plus positive rushing attempts by Haag, Nolan Buckridge, and Groen. Haag provided the PAT and the score moved to 14-8.
The Cougars—behind their big 6’ 3”, 200-pound quarterback, Eli Samuelson—retaliated, knotting the score at 14-14 just a few seconds later.
E/E’s final possession of the first half was a thing of beauty. It took the Dutchmen 12 plays to cover 87 yards and it took nearly six and a half minutes to complete. Considering the Cougars had a quick strike offensive attack, the 12 plays and time chewed off the clock were of utmost importance to coach Andrew Fleischman. Groen crossed the goal line with 1:29 on the clock. Groen also provided the two-point conversion and it was 22-14 at halftime.
Austin Roskamp collected a quarterback sack of Samuelson on CM/C’s initial drive of the first half, however, Samuelson had the last laugh a play later when he tossed a TD pass to tie the score at 22-all.
The Cougars defense forced an E/E punt and they went right back to work, again behind the play of Samuelson who completed a long pass to the five-yard line on fourth down. With 5:34 remaining in quarter three the Cougars scored again and took a 28-22 lead.
E/E had a decent drive going after CM/C had taken the lead, but they turned the ball over on downs after running nine plays.
The fourth quarter began with E/E needing to make a defensive stop to get the ball back. It didn’t happen.
The Cougars turned a fourth down into a first down, were aided by a hit-to-the-head foul on E/E, had a long run, and a long pass en route to their final TD and a 34-22 score.
Even though the Cougars did not score on their final possession, they basically put the game out of reach by chewing up exactly six minutes. They took possession of the ball with 9:07 left in the game and punted it away at the 3:07 mark.
A holding penalty, too many men on the field, an unsportsmanlike violation, and a quarterback sack all hurt E/E in its final drive and the game was over.
On September 28 the Dutchmen will have Homecoming. The opponent that night will be
Westbrook-Walnut Grove.
