Thomas Allmaras (Photo courtesy of New Rockford Transcript)
By Mojo Hill
NEW ROCKFORD — On a rainy, foggy evening on New Rockford’s football field — painted over part of New Rockford’s baseball field — the Rockets reached the legal drinking age in consecutive victories.
New Rockford-Sheyenne/Maddock completed a perfect regular season for the second year in a row. With a 9-0 record, the Rockets have won 21 straight games dating back to last year. Each win has come by a margin of 26 or more.
They took down a strong Four Winds team, which fell to 6-3.
The Indians made it more of a game than last year’s 68-0 drubbing. They even took an early 8-0 lead. But the Rockets still had a running clock by the end of the third quarter and won 46-16 on Thursday.
“You’re going against good teams now,” NR-S/M head coach Elliott Belquist said. “[The Indians]’re 6-2. Quality team; playoff team. And credit to those guys; they played well. We made some big plays to open up the scoreboard, but they’re a good team and it’s fun to play a solid opponent.”
The game featured a slew of penalties on both sides, along with an extended injury break.
“I’m proud as hell of our boys tonight,” Four Winds co-head coach Travis Mertens said. “They competed and competed and competed, and battled. We’ve got coaches yelling at each other and referees and everything like that. And they were probably keeping their composure better than we were. But that’s just who they are.”
NR-S/M star senior quarterback Easton Simon threw for 194 yards unofficially, with five touchdown passes. But he started uncharacteristically slow. He made three incomplete passes on a three-and-out to open the game.
“Anytime you come out with weather conditions like this — we saw it against North Prairie [when they allowed 36 points] — you know there’s gonna be more adversity along the way,” Belquist said. “And you can’t get flustered with it. And at times, if things don’t go our way offensively, boys get a little rattled with that.”
Four Winds went with Kaleb Keja at quarterback all game, with Dayson Dubois at running back. Dubois is playing through a broken knuckle. Together, they fueled an Indians offense that neared 200 yards on the ground.
Four Winds leaned on the strength of its offensive line.
“When they’ve got that size up front, that’s gonna be their game plan,” Belquist said.
The Indians drove the ball 63 yards on their first possession to take an unsuspecting lead on the Rockets. Keja alternated carries with Dubois to get the ball across midfield. Four Winds then got a gift from the referees on what looked like an interception by Grant Engebretson, but was ruled a complete 32-yard pass to Marial Deng.
The Rockets’ coaches and players were beside themselves on the sideline.
“I’m not really sure about that one,” Belquist said. “We’ll have to check that one out on film. I have no comment on that play.”
After Keja threw a seven-yard touchdown pass to Deng, the Indians led 8-0 — having already scored more than their last meeting with NR-S/M.
It took the Rockets just two plays to respond. Thomas Allmaras burst out for a 50-yard touchdown reception. But the two-point conversion was no good, and the Rockets still trailed.
Keja got sacked on the next drive, and Four Winds’ punt deflected off to the sideline. NR-S/M started at the Indians’ 16 and took just one pass — to senior tight end Easton Benz — to take the lead.
Still, the Indians kept it a one-score game well into the second quarter. The Rockets scored again with less than seven minutes left in the first half. They picked up a fourth-and-10, as Simon threw a 33-yard dart to Koy Zieman. The ball ricocheted off of Four Winds’ Zach Langstaff before landing in Zieman’s hands — from one No. 5 to another.
Up 20-8, the Rockets perfectly executed an onside kick to get the ball back in their hands.
“The kicker [Jackson Schumacher] actually saw an opening the time before that he thought he could take advantage of,” Belquist said. “And he made a heck of a kick. … It was just a well-executed play on his part. A good student of the game.”
And it was Schumacher himself who capitalized on offense. He made back-to-back explosive plays, culminating in an 11-yard rush into the end zone.
Just as the game was starting to get out of control, Allmaras grabbed a Four Winds fumble and ran it back 37 yards for another touchdown. The score spiraled up to 34-8 in a hurry.
NR-S/M didn’t take immediate control of the game the way it usually does. But a series of daggers put the contest in blowout territory before halftime.
Four Winds snuck in one more score before the half. Despite another sack, Keja picked up a fourth-and-goal with his second touchdown pass to Deng.
Allmaras’s second touchdown catch — and third score overall — made it 40-16 heading into the third quarter.
A Schumacher tackle for loss forced a three-and-out on Four Winds to open the second half. The Indians faked a punt, but Deng couldn’t get anywhere as he was tackled on fourth down.
The Rockets took just one play on the next drive to achieve a running clock. Simon went to his trusty option and fellow Easton, with a screen pass resulting in a 37-yard reception by Benz.
NR-S/M bumped the score up to the 46-16 that would eventually hold.
Despite the running clock, time had to stop for multiple injuries on the field. Benz was shaken up but got back up pretty quickly. Four Winds’ Langstaff, though, was not as fortunate. He eventually had to be carted off on a stretcher.
The Indians’ coaches said it looked like a head injury and that Langstaff was in and out of consciousness.
When play resumed, Keja and Dubois kept finding holes through the Rockets’ defense. Their drive extended from the middle of the third quarter to a couple minutes into the fourth. Fueled by almost exclusively Keja and Dubois carries, Four Winds got the ball inside the Rockets’ 10-yard line. But they were hit with holding and false start calls, and eventually turned it back over on downs.
“It’s not like we came in here and they throttled us,” Four Winds co-head coach Mark Bishop said. “We were competing with them on every play. They had to fight for things. We had to fight for things. … You learned your team can compete and fight against the team that’s the No. 1 team in the state.”
Neither squad threatened on offense the rest of the way. The Rockets put in their backups with about 3:45 remaining.
So they did what they needed to do. And now NR-S/M will look to make some magic happen in the playoffs the way it did last year.
“Once you get to playoffs, it’s tough,” Belquist said. “Each week’s a grind. You cannot look ahead. You’ve got to take one game at a time.”
The Rockets’ title defense begins next Saturday, Oct. 25, at home against Hatton/Northwood. They’ll be going for their third nine-man state title in team history.
“We know Hatton/Northwood; they’re a much-improved team from last year,” Belquist said. “They like to air it out and do a lot of similar things to us. … You’re seeing good players now, so everyone’s got to step it up. Players got to step it up. Coaches got to step it up. Players got to step it up in the film study and preparation. You get everyone’s best shot this time of year.”
Four Winds, as the fourth seed in Region 2, travels to play the No. 2 team in the state, LaMoure-Litchville/Marion.
“We’re looking forward to traveling to LaMoure on Saturday,” Bishop said. “We’re gonna try to give them everything they want, that’s for sure.”
