The Long Prairie-Grey Eagle Thunder football team bounced back from an ugly loss when they hosted the United North Central Warriors Friday, Oct. 14.

The Thunder dominated both sides of the ball to take the game 38-6.

LPGE struck early, with Ben Frieler running in a touchdown from four yards out at 5:52 in the first quarter.

Just six seconds into the second quarter, Sean Colton, who made the transition from quarterback to half back last week, broke free for a 15-yard touchdown run. A successful run by John Dinkel on the two point conversion gave the Thunder an early 14-0 lead.

UNC killed its drives all night with penalties. On Colton’s touchdown run, the Warriors committed a personal foul which was assessed on the kickoff giving them poor field position.

At 6:03 in the second, the Thunder ran a reverse to Blake Kleinschmidt for a five-yard touchdown run. 

Both defenses made stops. UNC was able to stop LPGE on the 13 with 27 seconds left. The Warriors picked up good yardage on both plays, but were unable to do any damage before halftime.

Before the half, the Thunder lost Dinkel to an injury. He did not return to the game.

A nice 45-yard return by Colton to start the second half gave the Thunder excellent field position. At 8:41, quarterback Austin Kaiser found Kleinschmidt in the end zone for a 24-yard touchdown catch. The pass was actually tipped by a UNC defender but Kleinschmidt made the adjustment to come down with the ball.

Kaiser ended the ensuing Warriors drive with his second interception of the night. This one was returned 55 yards and a touchdown.

The next UNC possession ended very early as well. Defensive back Preston Pung picked off UNC quarterback after one play, which gave the ball back to the Thunder at midfield.

A nice run by Frieler got the Thunder down to the one yard line. On the next play, he punched it in for his second touchdown of the game.

The Thunder had just one penalty on the night and had no turnovers. “I’m proud of how smart we played,” head coach Gary Graham said. “Turnovers and penalties have been our downfall all year.”

The switch of Colton from quarterback to halfback proved to be a good decision in this game as he ran for 115 yards and a touchdown on 24 carries. Kaiser, who took over at quarterback, was 3-for-5 passing for 68 yards and a touchdown.

“Sean runs hard and makes good cuts, Austin gives us a better passing attack and runs fast, so it has been a nice move,” Graham said.

Frieler rushed for 55 yards and two touchdowns on the night. Kleinschmidt had a 24-yard touchdown catch.

The Thunder rushed for 176 yards on 32 carries in the first half. The defense limited UNC to 47 yards rushing through three quarters and limited its passing attack to 5-for-22 for 75 yards and three interceptions. Kaiser had two interceptions while Pung had the third.

The Thunder will wrap up their regular season when they go on the road to take on Ottertail Central. 

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