Cloquet Loses First Game Of The Season

Wes Vork-NSO

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Oct 2

Kerry Rodd-NSO

Murphy’s Law indicates that ‘what can go wrong will go wrong’ and that
was just such the case for Cloquet in their 42-7 loss to the Ashland Oredockers in high school football on Friday night.

An early indicator to problems ahead was the fact that the weather was blustery, cold and rainy. Another early indicator was that despite a Cloquet stop on defense on the Oredockers first drive, and despite a long run by Tim Defoe that nearly resulted in an early touchdown; the Jacks could find a way to put points on the board. From that point on the wheels fell off the proverbial wagon for the Jacks as the Oredockers scored early, they scored often and they were relentless in their pursuit of scoring even when the game was in running time. We’ll get back to that later.

On their second drive the Oredockers totally dominated the line of scrimmage and the drive ended when Taylor Stibbe slashed his way into the end zone from the six year line with 1:10 remaining in the first quarter and following the extra point kick by Cody Anderson it was 7-0 Ashland.

Ashland closed out the first half with a three yard score from Tad Bretting and the kick was good making it 14-0 at the break.

Problems for Cloquet really developed midway through the third quarter when the Oredockers scored on a keeper by their quarterback Reggis Habas on a run up the middle with 5:59 left making it 21-0 following the extra point kick by Anderson.

After a quick defensive stop the Oredockers scored again, this time on a Habas to CJ Smith pass and catch that resulted on a long score with 3:28 left in the third quarter making it 28-0.

On the following kickoff the Jacks started from their own 20 and on the first play from scrimmage the Oredockers picked off a Tyler Tollerud pass and took it 34 yards for a score and after the kick Ashland was up 35-0.

The Oredockers final score came with 1:36 left in the third quarter when Stibbe made a brilliant run from 46 yards out on an off tackle play that resulted in a 41-0 lead.

Amazingly, following the touchdown it appeared as if the Oredockers were going to fake the one-point conversion and go for two when they already had a huge lead. After a penalty stopped the play, the Oredockers kicked the extra point and the score was 42-0. Even more surprising was the fact that the Oredockers then ran an onside kick with a 42-0 lead. And, even more surprising than that fact is once they got the onside kick they kept their starters in with little disregard for the danger of losing a player to injury when the game was already in hand. Perhaps the Oredockers were upset at a couple of personal fouls on the Lumberjacks, but regardless of the reason it appeared as if some type of message was being sent to the Cloquet sideline.

Ironically, the Oredockers did not call off the dogs until one of their starters injured an ankle early in the fourth quarter when there was no question the game was over. Perhaps the Ashland coaching staff’s desire to make a point cost them one of their better players? One will never know, but regardless of the reason, the relentless desire to run up the score resulted in one of their better players being injured, we hope not seriously, at a time when there was no reason to put him in that position.

Cloquet finally averted the shutout when Tim Defoe scored with 1:36 left in regulation time on a 23-yard touchdown run and Thomas Rogers added the extra point for a 42-7 final score.

Cloquet falls to 4-1 on the season with the loss.

Kerry Rodd can be reached at kery@northlandsportsonline.com