'Jacks surge over Thunderhawks

The homecoming crowd in Cloquet last Friday night was treated to a wild night of football that saw the Lumberjacks rush for nearly 400 yards in a convincing 42-18 win over Grand Rapids.

With 1:24 left in the first quarter, the Thunderhawks’ Caden Hofstad ran 61 yards to the ’Jacks 1-yard line, setting up a 1-yard touchdown run by quarterback Trent Johnson for a 6-0 Thunderhawks lead after missing the extra-point kick.

Cloquet responded on its first play when Cole Ketola sprinted 66 yards for a touchdown. After Markus Pokornowski made the extra-point kick, the ’Jacks were up 7-6.

“It’s been a blessing and a curse this year as we seem to get down early against almost everyone,” said Cloquet coach Tom Lenarz, about his team’s ability to bounce back after giving up a score. “We have shown the ability to not get rattled and come back, but I would prefer we stop getting behind in the first place. Penalties and turnovers have kept some of the games closer than they might otherwise have been. We continue to address it during the week, so hopefully it gets better as the playoffs arrive.”

Just 15 seconds into the second quarter, the Thunderhawks answered back when Johnson found Brock Holm in the middle of the field for a 54-yard touchdown pass, but the conversion run failed — giving Grand Rapids a 12-7 lead.

With 4:26 left in the first half, Cloquet quarterback Dalton Bottila found Pokornowski for a 10-yard touchdown pass, pushing the ’Jacks lead to 13-12 after they missed the extra point.

Cloquet got a big stop and with 39 seconds left until halftime, it picked up another score when Pokornowski slammed into the end zone from a yard out, making it 19-12. The extra point failed.

The Thunderhawks again answered quickly. Before halftime, Hofstad made a shifty 63-yard run to pay dirt, cutting the Cloquet lead to 19-18 after another failed two-point conversion pass.

The game turned in the second half as the running back tandem of Ketola and Pokornowski — behind their offensive line — churned out yard after yard and score after score as they blew out the Thunderhawks.

“The offensive line has really improved from the start of the year to where they are now,” Lenarz said. “I have been impressed with their willingness to work and handle criticism. Obviously we have some talented running backs, but the line has been a big factor in creating lanes.”

Less than five minutes into the second half, Ketola scored on a 2-yard touchdown rumble and Bottila ran in the two-point conversion to push the lead to 27-18.

“Everyone knew that Markus was going to have a big year coming into the season, but I don’t think anyone saw Cole (Ketola) being as good as he is,” Lenarz said. “He has an excellent mix of patience when necessary and then aggressiveness when needed.”

After the rest of the third quarter was played scoreless, the Lumberjacks added two more touchdowns in the fourth quarter on runs of 75 yards and 71 yards from Pokornowski and Ketola, respectively.

On the night, Ketola carried 16 times for 225 yards — an average of 14.1 yards per carry. Pokornowski had 23 carries good for 196 yards for an average of 8.5 yards per carry.

“I am happy with where we are at as a team, especially considering the injuries we’ve had to deal with so far this year,” Lenarz said. “We have not had a week yet where we have had all of our starters in the game at the same time. This is above the normal bumps and bruises that every team deals with in football. We are hopeful that we can get healthy for the last few weeks and into the playoffs.”

The win improved Cloquet’s record to 5-1 on the season, while Grand Rapids fell to 4-2. Next up for Cloquet is a home game at 7 p.m. tonight at Rol Bromberg Field against the 2-4 Proctor Rails.