Victory Slips Away From Lumberjacks at the End

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Sept 3

Kerry Rodd-NSO

Midway through the 4th quarter of the opening game of the season things looked good for the Cloquet Lumberjack football team. The Jacks held a 19-6 lead on the road over International Falls and it appeared as if Cloquet would take their first victory of the season. Just minutes later the Jacks found themselves on the short end of a 20-19 score, and instead of a victory, they were trying to figure out what happened in their first loss of the season.

Kaleb Kadelbach gave Cloquet a lead in the first quarter when he latched on to a pass from quarterback Kellin Lamirande and took it 72 yards to paydirt. Trent Moe kicked the extra point and the Jacks held a 7-0 lead.

Early in the second quarter Lamirande broke loose for a 63-yard touchdown scamper giving Cloquet a 13-0 lead, but the Jacks missed the extra point, and that would be crucial later in the game.

Just before halftime the Bronco’s picked up a score on a 4-yard plunge by Alex Bruess to make it 13-6, but the Jacks were able to keep it that way after sniffing out an attempted 2-point conversion attempt.

Cloquet scored on the very first play of the second half when Stefan Pease dashed 55 yards for a score, but the Jacks again missed the extra point and led it 19-6.

Midway through the fourth quarter the Bronco’s offense woke up with a long drive that paid off on a 4-yard touchdown pass from Gunnar Anderson to Chris Steinbach cutting the lead to 19-12. International Falls then went for a 2-point conversion which they made when Anderson tossed a pass to Shawn Filipiak to cut the lead to 19-14.

Again the Cloquet offense struggled to move the ball, and again the Bronco’s managed to put together a long drive that ended when Brandon Richards slashed his way into the end zone from 13 yards away with only 33 seconds left giving International Falls a 20-19 lead. Cloquet managed to stuff the 2-point conversion run, but the damage had already been done.

Cloquet falls to 0-1 on the season and will have a chance for revenge in a couple of weeks when the Bronco’s come to Cloquet in an odd home-and-home series this season. Next week the Lumberjacks will host Eveleth-Gilbert in their 2010 home opener.

Kerry Rodd can be reached at kerry@northlandsportsonline.com