FORT TOTTEN — In Four Winds’ first football game of the post-Deng Deng era, the Indians brought a valiant effort in the first half but ultimately fell flat in the second.
In the town of Fort Totten, towards the northernmost point of the Spirit Lake Reservation, the Indians’ first sporting event of the 2024-25 school year was played Friday night. Coming off of a memorable season where they competed in Class A basketball for the first time ever, and their hometown hero Deng shined in football, basketball and track, the cycle began all over again with the start of another gridiron campaign.
And for the first two quarters of play, Four Winds played a tight contest with North Border. It was 14-14 at the half, and even still a relatively close 28-14 at the end of the third quarter. But the Indians didn’t score any points in the second half, and the game got away from them with an eventual score of 48-14.
“I feel like we say this every first game, but they have a cramp,” Four Winds co-head coach Mark Bishop said. “Our guys just cramp. Part of that is just their nutrition. They don’t always get the healthiest food at home. Sometimes it might be what’s cheapest. If you eat chips, and you eat junk food, you’re gonna have so much salt in your body. We gotta try to find ways to counteract that.”
The Indians started strong. They scored on the very first drive of the game.
Four Winds’ plan of attack was clear from the outset. It was going to repeatedly run quarterback keeper plays, while picking its passing spots carefully. Senior Kashton Keja Jr., though small for a quarterback at 5-foot-9 and 190 pounds, offers a wealth of speed and agility.
“He’s always seemed to run the ball well for us,” Four Winds co-head coach Travis Mertens said. “He came off a knee injury last year where he just never quite got to be himself. As a sophomore, he had like 26 touchdowns and three or four picks. So we know what he’s capable of.”
After marginal gains on back-to-back running plays, Keja Jr. completed a pass to junior wide receiver Marial Deng for the first down. Keja singlehandedly achieved the next first down on keeper plays, then ran for five yards in the next series before finally making a long pass to Deng down the field.
Deng caught it. It was an Indians touchdown, and they converted the two-point attempt to take an 8-0 lead.
Deng sat out last football season with an ACL injury. After a long-awaited return, he has some big shoes to fill in his older brother Deng, who’s now a wide receiver for the University of North Dakota.
“He has the same features,” Mertens said, comparing Marial to Deng. “He’s gonna figure it out where he realizes he’s the best athlete on the field. And when that clicks for him, it’s gonna be scary.”
A mistake quickly bit the Indians. Immediately after their touchdown, North Border returned the kick 85 yards for a touchdown.
Still, the Eagles were unsuccessful on their two-point conversion attempt. Four Winds held steady, going into the second quarter with an 8-6 lead.
But Keja Jr.’s keeper plays were gradually losing a bit of their steam. He was tackled on fourth and 13 on the Indians’ first drive of the quarter, and they turned it over on downs.
Four Winds maintained strong defense into the middle of the second quarter. Deng recovered a turnover, and Keja Jr. appeared to make a touchdown run that would have extended the Indians’ lead. But they were called back for holding.
“Plays like that, they’re just really, really tough to come by when you don’t quite have that experienced team yet,” Mertens said.
Keja Jr. fell just short on a fourth-and-one, ending the drive with nothing to show for it. The Eagles subsequently mowed right through Four Winds’ defense with running plays. A touchdown and a two-point conversion gave North Border its first lead, 14-8, with just over two minutes left in the half.
The Eagles got a taste of their own medicine on the next play, though, with Keja Jr. returning a kick and running all the way down the field for an immediate touchdown. The two-point attempt was no good, and it was knotted up at 14 apiece at the halftime break.
Despite the chance for the Indians to take a breather, the traction continued to sway towards North Border as the second half got underway. It took the Eagles just over a minute to complete a touchdown drive, retaking the lead at 22-14.
With Four Winds’ keeper plays no longer working quite like they did early on, the Indians started to mix things up a little. Running back Wakinyanho Greybear attempted a carry, and Keja tried to get it to Deng twice. But Four Winds made only marginal gains. Then on fourth down, Keja threw a pick-six — another mistake that was just too much to overcome.
Down 28-14 now, Keja Jr. tried another run, but only gained one yard and was down on the field for an extended period of time after the play. Freshman Kaleb Keja took over and was sacked on his first play.
Keja Jr. was able to come back in on the next offensive drive, calming any concerns that it might be a serious injury. But wide receiver Richard Cavanaugh just missed a long pass from him, and a false start cost the Indians more yards. They turned it over on downs.
“We just need some more guys to step up and make more plays for us,” Bishop said. “With this young team, we’re gonna be way better at the end of the year than we are right now. And that’s what we’re preaching.”
On the first drive of the fourth quarter, the Eagles went for it on fourth and five and converted for a touchdown. It was 34-14, and that’s when the wheels really started to come off.
A pass bounced off of Deng’s hands into the grasp of an Eagle for an interception. North Border wasted no time, scoring a touchdown on the very next play. All the while, the Eagles’ sideline started getting rowdy, the prospect of victory just a matter of minutes on the clock at this point.
North Border took a 20-0 fourth quarter to the finish line. It turned out to be a thumping despite how competitive this game was in the first half, and even for a bunch of the third quarter.
Now, one game into the season, the Indians already have a learning experience to draw back on.
“You put a lot on these plates for some of these guys. Everything’s going 100 miles an hour,” Bishop said. “You can see that they’re just thinking right now, thinking right now, and nothing’s quite instinctual. Nothing’s quite natural.”
Four Winds continues its season on Thursday against North Star in Cando. Bishop ended the night with a message of confidence to his players that they can handle North Star, with the added context that these games won’t really start mattering until week four, when the Indians begin region play.
“We’ll get better,” Bishop said. “We’ll be ready.”
