Lumberjack Boys Get First Win of The Season

Wes Vork-NSO

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Dec 18

Dwight Cadwell-NSO

PROCTOR- Friday night saw the Cloquet Lumberjacks capture their first win of the season as the Lumberjacks came from thirteen points down to defeat the Proctor Rails 63-47. The win by the Lumberjacks improved their record to 1-3 on the season. They will be home for the first time this season when they face Hermantown in a Lake Superior Conference contest.

“It’s a tough way to start out a season,” Head Coach Steve Battaglia told Northland Sports Online. “You face the defending state champions in Class A from last season and the states runner up from a year ago in Class 3A, and a section favorite this season in your first three games, that’s a tough start.” “Then you start with all three games on the road it gets harder yet.” Battaglia added

The Lumberjacks started out slow Friday night as the Rails Kaz Anderson lit up the scoreboard with 20 first half points, which helped the Rails jump out in front by a score of 23-10 with a little over five minutes remaining in the first half. The Rails good start was soon for not as Anderson picked up his third foul of the game and had to sit the final three and one half minutes of the half. During that time the Lumberjacks went on a 13-4 run to close the halftime differential to four points at 27-23.

Andy Wappes, who only scored six first half points, took control early in the second half as he scored down low and quickly the Lumberjacks took the lead they would never relinquish. Wappes scored 15 second half points and finished with a game high 21 points for Cloquet. Anderson who fired in 20 in the first half only scored one point in the second half as he again got into foul trouble and was ineffective as he spent most of the second half on the Proctor bench.

The Lumberjacks rolled through the second half as a trio of freshman helped spark the second half run. Maxx Brenner, Dillon Johnson, and Adam Laine all played key roles in the second half. “We are very young and inexperienced with only one player who started last season for us returning to this year’s lineup.” Battaglia added “I think there will be some growing pains but we are still working as a team trying to get better.”

Following Wappes in the scoring column for Cloquet was Zach Peterson, who scored 14 points including two 3-pointers. Peterson also grabbed a game high 11 rebound in the Cloquet win. Adam Laine was next with 10 points, Sean Ferrell chipped in with 8, Dane Kiehn added 5, Brenner scored 3, and Cody Stevens ended with 2. Anderson led Proctor with 21, Andres Vos scored 8, and Jacob White had 7 in the loss.

Dwight Cadwell can be reached at dwight@northlandsportsonline.com