The Four Winds football team is now 2-1 entering region play. Despite taking a hard loss in their first game, the Indians have rallied back to take a winning record into the most important games of the season.
Continued steps in the right direction
As quarterback Kashton Keja Jr. has begun to look more comfortable, the team has gelled more cohesively.
Even in Four Winds’ 36-8 defeat of North Star, the coaches still felt like there were areas of sloppiness to clean up. But after beating St. John 30-0, co-head coach Mark Bishop was clear that the sense around the team was much different. He and co-head coach Travis Mertens felt it was a more satisfactory performance from their squad, with fewer areas of improvement to address.
Mertens saw a different type of resilience right away.
“We don’t score on the first possession; maybe we tend to hang our heads, or our tail goes between our legs, and we give up a score there,” Mertens said. “Well, [the Woodchucks] got it, I think, down to the 15-yard line or 10-yard line, and we get a stop there. And then we get the ball back, and we go score. It’s a big momentum thing. And with high school sports, momentum can take you a long way.”
Those early moments were probably the shakiest of the entire game for the Indians. But after allowing a long drive down the field, they got an eventual stop and didn’t end up permitting a score the entire game.
Keja Jr. had his most well-rounded performance yet, making three touchdown passes in addition to the emphasis on running the ball he’s displayed thus far. He connected twice with wide receiver Marial Deng, who the coaches have been adamant has more potential yet to unleash.
“Junjun is going to be an all-state type of player for us,” Mertens said of Keja Jr. “Marial is an all-state type of player for us. We know they’re gonna start to get keyed on and keyed on, from here on out.”
The Indians are strengthened by family
Keja Jr. didn’t just pass it to Deng for the touchdown — he passed it to his cousin.
In fact, it’s much of a family affair for these Indians. Richard Cavanaugh, who also caught a touchdown pass in the win over St. John, is another cousin of Keja’s cousins. There’s also Kaleb Keja, the backup quarterback.
Fellow cousins Deng Deng and Dalen Leftbear recently departed the program to continue their athletic careers at the collegiate level. Many of the cousins play basketball together, too, in the winter. It all just strengthens the bond these players have with each other. Mertens noted that Keja Jr. has been throwing touchdown passes to M. Deng since they were probably four years old, growing up in Tokio.
And even the teammates who aren’t related by blood still share a sense of the same community.
“It feels like real family,” Keja Jr. said. “Friends come. They want to be family. So we just treat it like family.”
The ‘real season’ is approaching
It’s what the coaches have been emphasizing ever since the start of the fall: the “real season.”
As happy as they were with the two straight victories, Mertens conceded that they didn’t really mean much outside of confidence boosts. Everything thus far has been in preparation for region contests, which will fill out the rest of Four Winds’ seven-game schedule.
The first opponent is Larimore, a team that’s 2-1 so far. The Polar Bears also beat St. John, but it was a much tighter 30-28 affair.
“We know Larimore’s gonna execute,” Bishop said. “They run kind of a funky offense with that single wing, but they do it well. And yeah, you gotta be ready for ‘em.”
After a battle with Larimore this week, the Indians will play New Rockford-Sheyenne/Maddock next week. The Rockets were ranked No. 5 in the recent nine-man football poll, and all but assured a higher ranking in the next poll with a 60-14 thumping of No. 2 North Prairie.
“Our region’s got one of the top teams, I think, in the state,” Mertens said, referring to NR-S/M. “And there’s about three or four that are just gonna be a dogfight for the next two playoff spots. So you gotta come prepared and focused every week from here on out.”
Four Winds and Larimore are both 2-1, while Nelson County and Hatton/Northwood are both 1-2. The Indians will try to start region play 1-0 on Friday in Larimore at 7 p.m.
