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Blue Earth wins shootout

By Brian Stensaas, Star Tribune, 09/09/11, 11:45PM CDT

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A scoring festival emerged against St. Paul Highland Park


Highland Park's Leon Adams (2) cut through the Blue Earth defense for first half yards. /Marlin Levison, Star Tribune

 When you have a pair of Division-I caliber offensive linemen taking up space and opening holes almost at will, the playbook is endless.

“It gives you confidence because you know you have good pass protection and have guys that can move bodies when you want to run the ball,” Blue Earth coach Randy Kuechenmeister said of Gophers recruit Jonah Pirsig (6-9, 300 pounds) and Sam Lee (6-5, 300), who has caught the attention of Iowa, Iowa State and Minnesota. “But they’re not perfect. Nobody is.”

The Buccaneers were far from pristine Friday at Wilson Field in the team’s home opener. But three touchdowns in 4 minutes, 7 seconds to open the second half highlighted a 57-40 victory over St. Paul Highland Park.

Blue Earth, a Class 2A school with an enrollment of a little more than 300 students, took it to the Class 3A Scots with touchdowns on its first three drives of the game. It then shook off three false-start penalties, two fumbles and a pass interference call on third-and-7 that extended a Scots drive and eventually led to a touchdown. What looked to be a blowout early was instead a five-point game at halftime.

Then the Bucs came alive — and held on again.
Brady Anderson, Jacob Olson and David Franta all scored rushing touchdowns before 5 minutes remained in the third quarter, and Carter Hanson picked off two Scots passes in the big second half.

St. Paul Highland Park, though, clawed back by recovering two onside kicks en route to three fourth-quarter touchdowns. Christopher Mitchell and Tycell Page hooked up on two of those, and four times in the game.

Olson, though, put it away on a 60-yard scamper with 1:21 to play thanks to, you guessed it, a big block on the line. It wasn’t the only one.

Anderson, the QB, scored on a 56-yard run on the Buccaneers’ first drive of the game, and Olson added a 53-yarder four minutes later.

NAME HIGH SCHOOL YEAR POS. COLLEGE VERBAL
Duke Anyanwu Blaine Senior QB Minnesota Yes
Matt Arends Prior Lake Senior WR Princeton Yes
Tavaughn Blair Hopkins Senior SS Northern Iowa Yes
Cal Bloom Osseo Senior TE Central Florida Yes
Nick Carr Totino-Grace Senior OL South Dakota State Yes
Kevin Carroll Edina Senior OL Northern Iowa Yes
Paddy Clancy St. Thomas Academy Senior DB Dartmouth Yes
Breion Creer Benilde-St. Margaret's Senior DT Northern Iowa Yes
Nick Davidson Eden Prairie Senior OT Stanford Yes
Rob Diane Robbinsdale Cooper *RCC Junior DE South Dakota State Yes
Cedric Dicke Cannon Falls Senior LB Minnesota Yes
Karmichael Dunbar Prior Lake Senior DL Louisianna Yes
Isaac Fruechte Caledonia *RCTC Sophomore WR Minnesota Yes
Joel Fuxa Minnetonka Senior TE Drake Yes
Jonathan Harden Cretin-Derham Hall Senior DT Western Michigan Yes
Tyler Hartmann Andover Senior DE Minnesota Yes
Isaac Hayes St. Thomas Academy Senior OL/DL Minnesota Yes
Cody Hazelette Simley Senior LB/TE Northern Illinois Yes
Kyle Hughes Minneapolis Washburn Senior WR/DB Eastern Michigan Yes
D.J. Hebert Osseo Senior QB Northern Iowa Yes
Cavonte Johnson Edina Senior DB Minnesota Yes
Will Johnson Osseo Senior TE West Virginia Yes
Zack Johnson Eastview Senior OL North Dakota State Yes
Paul Kaczor St. Cloud Tech Senior OL Harvard Yes
Brian Labat Detroit Lakes Senior RB North Dakota Yes
Andrew Larson Eden Prairie Senior RB Harvard Yes
Brandon Larson Bemidji Senior LB North Dakota Yes
Ben Lauer Wayzata Senior OL Minnesota Yes
Mitch Leidner Lakeville South Senior QB Minnesota Yes
Andre McDonald Hopkins Senior WR Minnesota Yes
Nate Meixell Lake Crystal-Wellcome Memorial Senior LB South Dakota State Yes
Nate Meyer Rocori Senior QB South Dakota State Yes
Drake Michaelson Eden Prairie Senior LB Wofford Yes
Rossevelt Morisset Thief River Falls Senior WR Southeastern Louisiana Yes
Andy Moritko Totino-Grace Senior DB South Dakota State Yes
Philip Nelson Mankato West Senior QB Minnesota Yes
Brett Pierce Holy Angels Senior DL North Dakota State Yes
Jonah Pirsig Blue Earth Senior OL Minnesota Yes
Nick Rallis Edina Senior S Minnesota Yes
Taj Rich Robbinsdale Cooper Senior LB North Dakota Yes
Zach Riopelle Warren-Alvarado-Oslo Senior LB North Dakota State Yes
Kasey Robinson Breck Senior WR Drake Yes
Chase Roullier Burnsville Senior OL Wyoming Yes
E.J. Welch Mesabi East *MRCC Freshman DL North Dakota Yes
Lucas Wiborg DeLaSalle Senior OG Cornell Yes
Evan Williams DeLaSalle *IWCC Freshman RB Northern Iowa Yes
Maxx Williams Waconia Senior TE Minnesota Yes
Carey Woods Bemidji Senior WR North Dakota State Yes

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