Rebels Back In State Semi-Finals

Wes Vork-NSO

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Nov 9, 2012

Dwight Cadwell-NSO

ST. CLOUD- The Rebels of Moose Lake-Willow River are back in a familiar place this season, and that familiar place is Mall of America Field or otherwise known as the Metrodome. The Rebels will back in the state semifinals on Thursday as the Rebels knocked off the Hawley Nuggets Friday night by a score of 35-22.

In a sort of get together reunion, former Rebels Head Football Coach and current Hawley schools superintendant Phil Jensen participated in the pre-game coin toss with freind and current assistant coach James Bohaty. For the Record Jensen and the Nuggets won the coin toss.

The Rebels came out fast jumped to an early lead; and then went on to the victory over the Nuggets. The Rebels got on the scoreboard first when Michael Pender scored on a 2 yard touchdown to put the Rebels in front 6-0. The Rebels next capitalized on a kickoff that deflected off a Nugget player and was recovery by the Rebels. This possession allowed Pender to score his second touchdown of the game a few players later and the Rebels led 14-0.

The Nuggets scored next in the second quarter when they benefitted from a fake punt which allowed a first down. It was Jordan Harms connecting with Hunter Lawson on a 33 yard touchdown pass. ML-WR responded right back when Jake Disterhaupt scored the first of his three touchdowns as he scored on a 26 yard touchdown run to put the Rebels in front 21-7. Hawley scored one more time before the half on a Chris Buttke run and it was 21-14 at the break.

Disterhaupt scored the only touchdown of the third quarter on a 15 yard touchdown run which put the Rebels in front 28-14. It was Disterhaupt scoring again to start the fourth quarter; this time it was a 10 yard touchdown pass from Tony Adamczak which sealed the victory for the Rebels.

“We didn’t play a perfect game out there tonight’ Jake Disterhaupt told Northland Sports Online. “We have a lot of areas where we need to get better and we saw those tonight.” Disterhaupt said “We have a goal to make it back to the state championship game and we are now one game away, but we never overlook the next step.”

With the 35-22 victory, the Rebels move into the semifinals on Thursday where they will face Jackson County Central with a chance to move into the state finals. The Rebels improve to 12-0 on the season and the Nuggets season ends with a record of 11-1.

Dwight Cadwell can be reached at dwight@northlandsportsonline.com