By John George
It seems as though Perham just has Pequot Lakes' number. Despite trailing 22-6 seconds into the third quarter, Perham, the No. 3 seed in Minnesota's Section 8AAA playoffs, rallied for a 33-22 win against No. 2 seeded Pequot Lakes.
It's the fourth time in five years that Perham has ended the Patriots season.
"We made just enough plays at the right time to win," Perham head coach Howie Kangas said.
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Perham trailed 16-6 at halftime and on the first play of the second half, Pequot Lakes running back Adam Stonacek took the ball 62 yards for a touchdown, giving the Patriots a 16-point lead.
After one drive stalled, Perham forced a fumble, setting them up at the Pequot Lakes 20. Three plays later, Brian Schroeer scored his second touchdown to start the Jackets comeback.
"I finally got the adrenaline going in the second half," Schroeer said. "We just got more physical with them (in the second half). Howie told us what we needed to do at halftime to get back into it and we did the job."
Perham ended the third quarter by stopping Pequot Lakes on a fourth down attempt. The Jackets took advantage of the good field position and just 27 seconds into the fourth quarter, Mike Guehna scored from five yards out. Schroeer's two-point run made the score 22-20.
With the defense holding once again, Perham got the ball back with 6:20 to play, but a clipping penalty on the Pequot Lakes punt pinned the Jackets on their own five-yard line.
With their backs against the wall, Perham QB Marcus Hendrickson hit Mac Stoll at the 46 yard line. The two connected again on the next play when Stoll made a leaping catch at the Patriot 10-yard line. He broke a tackle and ran into the endzone with 1:50 to play, giving Perham the lead.
"I side-stepped a guy and made the pass," Hendrickson said. "Mac made a great play to score."
It was Perham's second 90+ yard scoring drive. Their first touchdown by Schroeer in the first quarter capped a 12-play, 96 yard drive.
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The Jackets iced the game when Eric Weller intercepted a pass by Nate Greer and returned it to the one-yard line with 1:01 to play, setting up Guehna's second touchdown on the next play.
"Our defense made all the plays in the second half to give us a chance," Kangas said.
After a disappointing first half, Kangas gave his team a lesson on tackling at halftime, bending his glasses in the process.
"We did a better job tackling in the second half, didn't we," Kangas said with a smile on his face.
"He was pretty fired up," Hendrickson said of his head coaches halftime speech. "He told us to get tough and we toughened up."
"We got our offense and defense on the same page, Kangas said. "Our defense was able to get the ball back to the offense and the offense was able to punch it in.
"We could've packed it in if didn't believe in what we were doing, but that's what happens when you believe in each other and you believe in what your scheme is," Kangas added. "We were able to make enough plays to get it done."
Stoll finished with three catches for 83 yards and one score. He also had 32 yards rushing on seven carries. Schroeer led the Jackets with 76 yards on 12 carries and two TD's.
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Perham will now face No. 1 seeded Thief River Falls in the Section 8AAA Championship at the Alerus Center in Grand Forks on Nov. 3 at 5:30 p.m.. The No. 1 seed Prowlers advanced to the title game with a 52-22 win over Park Rapids in their semifinal game Saturday night. TRF beat the Jackets, 48-6, in last year's section title game.
"Momentum wise, it's good for us to go against TRF feeling good," Hendrickson said. "They are a tough, tough team. We'll have to get some momentum going like this to stay with them."
