GRAND MARAIS — Squandered red zone opportunities and turnovers had the North Woods football team pondering what might have been on the long road home from Grand Marais on Thursday, where Cook County defeated the Grizzlies.
The Vikings took the lead on their first possession of the game after a North Woods punt. Keeping the ball on the ground, Cook County marched from their own 43-yard line in seven plays to go on top 6-0 at the 6:44 mark of the first quarter. The extra point kick was blocked.
The Grizzlies had a solid 48-yard drive fizzle out on a fourth-down tackle for a loss at the Vikings’ 28 but were on the move again when the defense held and forced a punt to midfield.
Carson Johnson had three consecutive runs to move the ball to the Cook County 34 and gave the Grizzlies new life on fourth down when he wove his way through the middle and down the sideline to the Vikings’ one yard line. Cook County stuffed a first down run and then forced a disastrous fumble that the Vikings recovered to stop the Grizzlies dead in their tracks.
The Grizzlies’ defense took the field hoping to keep the Vikings bottled up in their end, but the Vikings were able to pound the ball out to their 40. A holding penalty pushed them back to the 30, but then a receiver got behind the North Woods secondary and hauled in a 70-yard touchdown pass, a devastating capper on a 99-yard scoring drive. The extra point kick made the score 13-0.
On the Vikings’ next possession, Johnson cut in front of a Cook County receiver on a pass from the Vikings’ 28 and returned it to the ten-yard line, giving North Woods a golden opportunity with 1:57 remaining in the half. A Cook County facemask penalty gave the Grizzlies a first-and-goal at the four, but the Vikings shut them down on four consecutive runs to preserve the 13-0 lead at the half.
The Grizzlies fell further behind when the Vikings took the opening kickoff of the second half and drove 62 yards for a touchdown and extra point to increase the lead to 20-0.
The Grizzlies didn’t get into Cook County territory again until the fourth quarter, driving from their own 20 to the Vikings’ 33, where the drive ended abruptly with a Cook County interception. The next North Woods drive met a similar fate, this time on a fumble at the Vikings 39.
North Woods got the ball back three plays later when Cedar Holman intercepted a pass, but Cook County continued the pick fest with another interception with 3:05 left in the game. The Vikings ran all but 49 seconds off the clock, leaving North Woods time for only two plays to finish out the 20-0 Vikings victory.
Johnson was the biggest cog in the Grizzlies offensive machine, toting the ball 25 times for 111 yards. TaySean Boshey-Wilkerson carried eight times for 22 yards. Holman completed five of 12 passes for 61 yards, all of them to John Warren.
Holman was a standout on defense, logging a team high six solo tackles and four assists with an interception. Johnson had four solos and four assists to go along with one interception, and Rogelio Noyes racked up five solo tackles and seven assists.
Head Coach Joel Anderson was frustrated by his team’s inability to score.
“We’ve got to put the ball in the end zone,” he said. “We gave ourselves chances and you can’t leave it right there on the goal line. We did that twice, and if we put either one of those in our morale comes up a little bit.”
But looking beyond the miscues, Anderson found some positive in the team’s performance.
“I thought we played a very good game,” Anderson said. “Cook County is a very solid football team. They’re very stout defensively. The score doesn’t always necessarily tell the story of the game.”
While the Grizzlies had one more regular season game on Wednesday at Silver Bay, Anderson looked ahead to the start of sectional play and said he likes the Grizzlies’ chance to advance.
“The top four teams are fairly close in terms of playing one another, and we have shown we can play with anybody,” he said. “I’ve been telling them they have the potential to do a lot of really good things, but potential hasn’t always translated into actual play. But we have a good football team. It’s time more than ever for our leaders to step up and really guide our guys in the right direction, and hopefully we can put a couple of really solid games together here at the end of the season.”