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North Woods wins fifth-straight

Parson rushes for 306 yards as Grizzlies top South Ridge 56-36

Marshall Helmberger
Posted 10/11/17

SOUTH RIDGE— Brendan Parson stole the show as he rushed for an astonishing 306 yards and four touchdowns to carry North Woods to a 56-36 win over a strong South Ridge team last Friday. Quarterback …

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North Woods wins fifth-straight

Parson rushes for 306 yards as Grizzlies top South Ridge 56-36

Posted

SOUTH RIDGE— Brendan Parson stole the show as he rushed for an astonishing 306 yards and four touchdowns to carry North Woods to a 56-36 win over a strong South Ridge team last Friday. Quarterback Tate Olson bolstered the cause, completing 13 of 25 passes for an additional 270 yards and two touchdown strikes to Cade Goggleye, as the Grizzlies racked up 636 total yards to record their fifth straight Section 7 Nineman victory.

It was a shootout from start to finish as neither side demonstrated much ability to stop the other side’s offense. The Panthers came into Friday’s match at 4-1, on the strength of their offensive performance, and they showed plenty of firepower, but not enough to keep pace with the surging Grizzlies. South Ridge drew first blood on a six-yard run by Joe Janke for six, but the Grizzlies came right back with a 39-yard Olson-to-Goggleye touchdown pass. Parson took it in for the two-point conversion. The Grizzlies added 16 more points in the second quarter, on a 25-yard run by Parson and a 35-yard last-second touchdown strike, again to Goggleye. The last second score sent the Grizzlies into halftime with a 24-14 lead.

South Ridge bounced back with 22 points in the third quarter, thanks to two more Janke touchdowns, but were nearly matched by the Grizzlies’ 18 points. And the Grizzlies finished it up with 14 unanswered points in the final stanza, to put the game away.

“It was a defense-optional game,” said Grizzlies Head Coach John Jirik after the game, during which the two sides combined for a whopping 92 points. “It was a very good win against a very good team, and it was also nice to see what we still need to work on,” he said. “We’ll have to improve on trying to stop other teams.”

If the Grizzlies still have work to do on defense, their offense appears to be operating like a well-oiled machine as the team has 47 points a game in their past five outings, and demonstrated a nice balance between the run and the pass. “South Ridge couldn’t key on Parson because the pass was working so well for us also,” said Jirik.

With the win, the Grizzlies improve to 5-1 and now enjoy a commanding lead in the 9-North Blue division standings heading into the final two games of the regular season. They were set to host 4-2 Floodwood on Thursday night, and finish the regular season with a Wednesday, Oct. 18, showdown at Ely, where the Timberwolves have struggled in recent games.