Barnum Faces Tough Road To State Title

Nov 8, 2012

Dwight Cadwell-NSO

The Barnum Bombers find themselves in the toughest position available when they enter Saturday’s state quarterfinal contest against Mahnomen as the Bombers will open against one of the state’s football dynasties in the Indians of Mahnomen.

The Indians have won seven state titles and have also been state runners-up five times in schools history including last year. The Indians are making their third consecutive appearance and are the state’s top ranked Single A team.

The Indians will be led by Quarterback Jacob Pavek who rushed for 972 yards and 25 touchdowns on the season. Pavek attempted only 58 passes on the season completing 34 of those passes and had 8 touchdown passes.

Jason Schoenborn is the top receiver for the Indians with 12 receptions for 194 yards and 4 touchdowns. Garrett Hoffner has 8 receptions for Mahnomen and 3 of those 8 were for touchdowns.

Jacob Hedstrom leads the Indians with 41 tackles and also has 3 sacks. Darin Geray led the Indians with 6 sacks and Nathan Hansen has 5 interceptions for the Indian defense. Mahnomen will also feature running back Bob Bjorge who finished with 908 yards rushing.

The Bombers are making their third state appearance overall and their second in three seasons. Barnum’s first appearance in the state tournament was in 2006. Barnum will be not only looking to upset the Indians but also will be looking to make it into the state semi-finals for the first time in school history.

Barnum is led by a trio of running backs in Daniel Warpula, Colton Selix, and Zach Peterson, who all finished with over 800 yards rushing this season. Warpula has 1115 yards rushing with 15 touchdowns, Selix and Peterson each have 800 plus yards and 13 and 8 touchdowns each respectively.

Zach Carlson is 24-61 passing for the Bombers with 6 touchdowns. Brandon Newman will also see action for the Bombers at quarterback. Newman has four touchdown passes this season. Warpula and Selix are the top two leaders in receptions for Barnum.

The Bombers defense will be led by Samuel Anderson who has 105 tackles on the season. Zach Peterson and Jaxon Lind both have more the 60 overall tackles. John Zmyslony has 46 tackles and led the area in sacks with 10 so far this season, while Warpula leads Barnum with 4 interceptions.

Both Barnum and Mahnomen average over 40 points per game and defensively the Bombers allow only 13 points per game. The Indians allowed less than 4 points per game and the Indians have 7 shutouts on the season. Mahnomen allowed only 12 points during the regular season.

The winner of Saturday’s quarterfinal match up at Public School Stadium will advance to the state semi-finals at the Metrodome next Saturday at 11:30 am. The Barnum and Mahnomen winner will face the winner of St. Clair and Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City.

Dwight Cadwell can be reached at dwight@northlandsportsonline.com