Cloquet Football Beats I-Falls, Gets #1 Playoff Seed

Dan Saletel-NSO

Oct 21

Kerry Rodd-NSO

At times, Rol Bromberg field in Cloquet appeared more like a snow globe than a football field on Wednesday night. With snow falling and a strong wind, the field became wet and slippery. However, it didn’t slow down the Cloquet Lumberjacks who defeated the International Falls Bronco’s 28-6 in the final regular season game of the year.

International Falls took the opening kick and marched it across the midfield stripe, but eventually had to punt the ball to the Jacks who then went on an extended drive that ended when quarterback Tyler Tollerud launched a 41-yard touchdown pass down the middle of the field to RaRa Jones. Jones had gotten behind a defender and hauled in the pass at about the 10-yard line and then raced to the end zone for the score. Thomas Rogers added the extra point kick for the Jacks who took a 7-0 lead.

Midway through the second quarter, the Lumberjacks managed to spring Paul Ryan free for a seven-yard touchdown run and again Rogers tacked on the extra point as Cloquet went up 7-0 at halftime.

In the second half, the Lumberjacks began to rely on the punishing play of their offensive line and the strong inside running of Anthony Hudson; it proved to work. Hudson, who finished with 112 rushing yards, slashed his way off left tackle with 7:26 remaining in the third quarter to give the Jacks a 20-0 edge, but the extra point kick sailed wide right for the Jacks.

The Lumberjacks defense was able to shut down the Bronco’s on the next drive and again Cloquet used a combination of passing and inside runs to reach the 13-yard line where RaRa Jones took an inside reverse handoff from Paul Ryan for a score to make it 26-0. Cloquet lined up for the extra point kick, but the ball was snapped low and holder Joey Singspiel managed to scramble to the left flag of the end zone and score a two-point conversion to make it 28-0 with 1:47 left in the third quarter.

Cloquet began mass substitutions at the start of the fourth quarter and the Bronco’s finally got on the board when Ryan Tomevi hit Alex Bruess for a 48-yard scoring strike to cut the lead to 28-6. However, that would be all the Bronco’s could muster the rest of the way.

With the win, the Lumberjacks gained a share of the Sea Range Championship with Ashland and Hermantown in a three-way tie.

Cloquet finishes the regular season with a 7-1 overall record, a 6-1 conference record and a number one seed for the playoffs. The Lumberjacks will open the playoffs on Tuesday night at home against Duluth Central at 7:00 p.m.

Kerry Rodd can be reached at kerry@northlandsportsonline.com