Improved effort comes up short

By John George

sports@eot.com

Fans who came out to see Perham's second football game of the season saw a much improved effort by the Yellow Jackets. Unfortunately, the extra effort wasn't enough in a 34-12 loss to the Delano Tigers.

The difference in the game was Delano's ability to extend drives. The Tigers were 5-for-12 on third down conversions, and 4-for-5 on fourth down. Three of their five touchdowns were scored on fourth down plays.

Perham, meanwhile, was just 2-for-9 on third down, and 1-for-4 on fourth down.

The game was close until the fourth quarter when Delano scored on their last three possessions to break open the two-point lead they held heading into the fourth quarter.

"After last week (a 34-6 loss to Pelican Rapids), we needed to find out who we are," head coach Howie Kangas said. "We needed to see if we had a bunch of fighters, or if we had guys who were going to throw in the towel. We found out we have some fighters."

The game started as a defensive battle. Both teams failed to convert fourth down plays on their first drives, then both punted to end their second possession. Delano finally got on the board early in the second quarter on a 22-yard pass play, capping a six-play, 74-yard drive.

Another Yellow Jacket punt gave Delano good field position, but an interception by Charlie Schmitz set up Perham's first scoring chance. Four plays later, on a fourth and 13 from the 33, Ben Bucholz connected with Ben Karsnia for a touchdown. The failed 2-point conversion left Perham down by one, 7-6.

Delano would answer with their best drive of the game as they went 74 yards on 11 plays, eventually scoring on a 26-yard touchdown pass on a fourth and 15 play with 52 seconds left in the first half.

When the second half started, Perham would put together their best drive of the game, as they went 69 yards on 10 plays, capped by a 3-yard TD?run by Nathan Schmitz. Another failed 2-point pass kept Delano up by two, 14-12.

From there, the Perham defense couldn't stop the Tigers as they put up 20 fourth quarter points to hand the Jackets their second straight home loss.

"We were in it right to the end," Kangas said. "Mike (Jordahl)?did a great job getting the defense ready. But a few play-action passes and wheel-routes coming out of the backfield hurt us. Our inexperience showed on a couple of those plays.

"At the end of the day, I'm still so proud of their effort," Kangas added.

Game Notes

• After a 1-8 season in 2007, Delano opened this year with a 50-21 win over Annandale last week.

• Perham's junior wide receiver Taylor Doll was taken from the field in an ambulance in the first quarter with a broken right leg.

Next
Perham will play their first Heart O' Lakes Conference game, and hit the road for the first time next week when they travel to Crookston.

The Pirates were 4-5 last season, 2-3 in the HOL?North (4th Place). They start this season 0-2, losing to Thief River Falls in their opener, 34-0, and 24-6 to Roseau last week.

The Jackets won last year's contest, 27-13.

Friday, September 5

Delano 34, Perham 12

Delano 0-14-0-20--34

Perham 0- 6- 6- 0--12

Second Quarter

Del--Clare 22 pass from Shaver (Max kick) 10:22

Per--Ben Karsnia 33 pass from Ben Bucholz (pass failed) 5:34

Del--Clare 26 pass from Shaver (Max kick) :52

Third Quarter

Per--Nathan Schmitz 3 run (pass failed) 6:07

Fourth Quarter

Del--Raskob 9 pass from Shaver (kick failed) 11:33

Del--Raskob 45 pass from Shaver (Max kick) 5:40

Del--Finn 18 run (Max kick) :39

Perham Del

1st Downs 10 18

Rush--yds 29-72 42-172

Pass yds 81 171

Return yds 61 67

Comp--Att-In 10-17-0 9-13-1

Sacks-yds 1-5 5-40

Punts-ave 2-24.0 1-28.0

Fbles-lost 4-0 0-0

Pen-yds 4-20 7-45

3rd Downs 2-9 5-12

4th Downs 1-4 4-5

Possession 23:52 24:08

Individual Statistics

Rushing--Schmitz 19-94-1; Gavin Biegler 1-8; Bucholz 8 (-26)

Passing--Bucholz 10-17-0, 1 TD

Receiving--Charlie Schmitz 6-41; N. Schmitz 2 (-1); Ben Karsnia 1-33-1; Tyler Johnson 1-8; Tim Herrmann 1-8.

Defense--N. Schmitz 13 tkl; Biegler 9 tkl; D.J. Altstadt 8 tkl, sack; Casey Sazama 8 tkl; Sam Meyer 7 tkl; C. Schmitz 6 tkl; Int.

HOL?North Conf. All

Warroad 1-0 2-0

Staples-Motley 1-0 2-0

Park Rapids 1-0 2-0

Roseau 1-1 1-1

Perham 0-0 0-2

Crookston 0-1 0-2

East Grand Forks 0-2 0-2

HOL?Classic Conf. All

#10-AA Pelican Rapids 1-0 2-0

#5-AA Breckenridge 1-0 1-1

D-G-F 1-1 1-1

West Central Area 0-0 1-1

Wadena-Deer Creek 0-0 0-2

Pequot Lakes 0-2 0-2

Roseau 24, Crookston 6

Warroad 28, Wadena-Deer Creek 6

Staples-Motley 28, West Central Area 14

Park Rapids 28, East Grand Forks 13

Breckenridge 28, D-G-F 7

Pelican Rapids 39, Pequot Lakes 17