Royer Hermantown Runs Past Lumberjacks

Photos by Myrissa Laitinen

Kerry Rodd-NSO

The inability of the Cloquet Lumberjacks defense to tackle Hermantown running back Zach Royer proved costly on Friday night.  Royer powered through the Cloquet defense for 166 yards rushing and a pair of touchdowns leading the Hawks to an impressive 21-15 win over the hometown Jacks.

  Time and time again the Lumberjacks appeared to have Royer tackled at the line of scrimmage and time and time again the powerful back ran through the tackles for impressive yardage.

  The Hawks started the scoring with 4:14 remaining in the first quarter on a nifty play by quarterback Kole Zuidmulder who faked a handoff into the line from the one-yard line and then sprinted untouched around the right side of his line for a scored making it 6-0.  Hermantown went up 7-0 after the extra point boot by Cody McShane.

  Cloquet fought back with a score of their own early in the second quarter when Austin Gotchnik rambled in from the seven-yard line for a score and Nick Niemi tacked on the extra point making it 7-7 with 9:48 remaining until halftime.

  The Lumberjacks ran into trouble when they faced a fourth and long situation deep in their own zone and elected to run a fake punt which turned out to be a huge turning point in the game.  Hermantown stymied the fake punt attempt and got the ball back on the Cloquet 24-yard line.  One play later it was Royer streaking off right tackle for the touchdown and just like that the momentum turned the Hawks way as they went ahead 14-7 following the conversion kick.

  In the third quarter Royer did more of what he did in the first half, which was to leave a pile of would-be Cloquet defenders in his wake, and the result was another touchdown run of one yard making it 21-7 with 5:53 remaining in the third stanza.

  The Lumberjacks took to the air in the fourth quarter and mounted a mini comeback when Maxx Brenner found Dylan McIvor for a 17-yard touchdown pass and catch that cut the lead to 21-13.  The Jacks then attempted their extra point kick, but the snap was high and Brenner had to roll to his right and found Zach Gerlach all alone in the end zone for the two-point conversion pulling Cloquet to within 21-15 and giving them hope for a victory.

  Royer, Zuidmulder and the rest of the hard working Hawks made sure that come back did not happen as they slammed the door giving Hermantown its third straight win and a 3-1 record on the season.

  The loss was the first for Cloquet on the season as the Jacks also drop to 3-1.

Kerry Rodd can be reached at dwight@northlandsportsonline.com