SECTION 7AAAA PLAYOFFS: Injuries gash Lumberjacks in semifinal loss

If football is a war of attrition, the Cloquet football team got the full scope of things in their 14-0 home playoff loss to Chisago Lakes Saturday in Cloquet. In a matter of minutes, the Lumberjacks lost four of their top running backs to injury and any hopes of a comeback against the Wildcats faded into the autumn skies.

The first half was mostly a defensive battle between the two teams until the Wildcats finally broke through with a 36-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Nick Wasco to Zach Mueller with just 55 seconds remaining until halftime. Chisago Lakes was unable to convert on their extra point kick, making the score 6-0 at halftime.

"That first touchdown was a bummer because we had played great defense in the first half," said Cloquet coach Tom Lenarz. "Our defensive coach, Jeff Ojanen, was really putting guys in position to make plays. We had people assigned to coverage on that touchdown play, but we just didn't execute. Our kids played pretty good defense all game, but we had some breakdowns at key times and they took advantage of it."

A huge key to the game was the Lumberjacks losing the services of running back Marcus Pokornowski due to an injury just prior to halftime, which started an odd, and seldom seem, domino effect - Cole Ketola, Derek Rengo and Trey Harkins were also all injured in the third quarter and did not return.

"That was a first for me," said Lenarz. "We had put some things together for halftime and I thought those things would be effective going into the second half, but those were based on everyone being healthy. I thought the young guys came in and played well, but it's a tough spot to put them in."

Early in the game the 'Jacks got a big play when Trey Harkins busted loose for a long gain, but the drive stalled and the game resembled a pingpong match where the teams moved back and forth, with neither team giving an inch.

"They were much bigger than us up front. Chisago is a big school enrollment-wise, and they have 1,100 kids, so they can run three to four guys out that are bigger than our biggest guy," Lenarz said. "In the end we were able to create some seams, but not as big as in the regular season. They have good team speed on the back end, so that limits how often you break big runs. On the Harkins run in the first half against most teams we play that would have gone for a touchdown, but they held it to a 20-yard gain."

Facing a bigger and faster team than they faced all year, the Lumberjacks defense kept the game tight until just 2:28 remained in regulation. That's when the Wildcats picked up their second score of the game on a 5-yard touchdown run by David Kimlinger, who also ran in the two-point conversion, making the final score 14-0.

A bright spot for the Cloquet offense was sophomore running back Marshall Hayes, who led all rushers with 55 yards.

"Marshall did a tremendous job this whole year," Lenarz said. "He had a great JV season and when asked to step in at the varsity level he performed admirably. I thought he ran the ball very hard Saturday and created some yardage on his own. If he continues to work at it, I see a very bright future for him. We had a number of 10th-graders step in and play on both sides of the ball toward the end of the season and I am proud of them."

With the loss, the Lumberjacks end the season with a record of 7-2.

"It was so great to have so many multi-sport guys on the team this year," Lenarz. "Guys like Cole Ketola, Mason Avey, Grant Nordin from hockey, Markus, the Turnbulls and Hayes from basketball. This is the only way schools of our size can be successful year in and year out. This is a credit to the coaches in all of these programs who actively work together to make sure kids can do this. It makes each of these programs better. This is how Cloquet continues to compete each year against schools with much larger enrollments."

Find more photos from Saturday with this story at pineknotnews.com.