Cloquet survives scare from Agates

After a loosely played first half, the Lumberjacks football team was challenged by head coach Tom Lenarz at halftime Friday night. The 'Jacks responded to the challenge and bounced back for a 30-15 win over Two Harbors at Rol Bromberg Field in Cloquet.

"They simply outplayed us up front in the first half on both sides of the ball," said Lenarz. "At halftime we challenged our kids to step up and match the physicality that Two Harbors was playing with and, luckily, they did that."

Cloquet gained an 6-0 lead in the first quarter when quarterback Dalton Bottila fired a pass to Tony Johnson with 7:46 remaining in the opening stanza. Derek Rengo ran for the extra point conversion and Cloquet looked good with an 8-0 lead.

With 4:11 remaining in the second quarter, the Agates cashed in for a touchdown of their own when quarterback Cole Komarek found Jake Van Kekerix streaking down the middle of the field on a 22-yard pass, making it 8-6. The Lumberjacks blocked the extra point kick and still led by two points.

On the ensuing kickoff, the Lumberjacks ran into trouble when they bobbled the catch on the return, giving the Agates the ball at the Cloquet 29-yard line. The Cloquet defense stiffened and held the Agates to a fourth down at the 23, but the Agates elected to boot a field goal to give them a 9-8 lead as the half expired.

After the Lenarz halftime speech, the Lumberjacks came out and scored on a 6-yard touchdown gallop by Rengo with 5 minutes left in the third quarter. Rengo crashed into the end zone on the two-point conversion for a 16-9 lead.

The Agates closed to within a point at 16-15 on a touchdown by Van Kekerix, but Cloquet stopped the Agates on the two-point conversion run again.

With five minutes remaining in the fourth quarter Rengo bolted 42 yards to get Cloquet down to the 2-yard line and then Bottila rolled right and scampered into the end zone 21 seconds later. Cloquet went up 24-15 after Markus Pokornowski scored the two-point conversion run.

"Derek did some very nice things at running back for us," Lenarz said. "The amazing run in the fourth quarter was one of the things that really turned the game in our favor. He runs hard and is learning to follow blocks, versus just putting his head down and trying to run over everyone. I am excited to see his development this year."

Barely over two minutes later the Lumberjacks scored again. Parker McArthur ran an inside reverse to perfection as he sped 33 yards off the left side for a touchdown making the final score 30-15.

"We had an up-and-down game on the line Friday night," Lenarz said. "Some individuals had good games for us, like Reese Kolodge and Conrad Kiehn, but overall we were not nearly physical enough on either side of the ball. Things got better in the second half, especially on theD-line. This is an area we will need to improve to be successful the rest of the way."

Cloquet will play on the road at Hermantown next Friday night at 7 p.m.