Football: Defense And Ground Game Lead Warriors to 3-0

Caledonia’s defense held Triton to nine yards rushing and intercepted Cobra quarterback Graden Thomas three times. The offense clipped off 6.5 yards per carry as Carl Freuchte’s Warriors stayed perfect courtesy of a win in Dodge Center. Triton’s first drive took seven-plus minutes off the clock, but yielded zero points. A 28-yard Grant King to Chase Hauser screen pass touchdown early in the second quarter opened the scoring. One series later, after a 17-yard punt return where he sent a Cobra defender flying, senior RB Bo Knutson carried three times for all 44 yards, capping things with a tackle breaking 15-yard scoring run to make it 13-0. The Cobras then exclusively used the connection of Thomas to Braxton Koss to get their lone TD. Four completions between the two covered all 61 yards of a Cobra series, a 9-yard TD pass completing it. The score looked destined to be 13-7 Warriors at the half, but Caledonia got an impressive 47-yard field goal by Sean Wallin just before the half to make it 16-7. The Warriors then opened the second with a score, a Cooper Allen 1-yard plunge. Knutson then made it academic early in the fourth, intercepting Thomas and returning it 50-yards to paydirt to make it 30-7. The Warriors prevailed 37-7. Knutson (15-91, TD rushing, 25-yard reception) and Hauser (10-66 rushing; 28-yard TD reception) led the ground game. They were only stopped for no gain once. King (5 of 12, 90 yards) threw the score to Hauser. Jacob Klug (3) and Jayven Ross (2) joined Knutson (2) with interceptions, giving Cal 10 on the season already. Allen, a 6’0” 220-pound MLB, and Tyson Ginther each had nine tackles. Knutson and Charlie Mauss had sacks. The Warriors (3-0, 3-0) are in sole possession of the Southeast-Yellow lead over R-P (2-1, 2-1), and D-E (2-1, 2-1), which lost to Lourdes 14-13 in week three. Chatfield (1-1, 2-1), the Eagles (1-1, 1-2), Triton (0-2, 1-2), and St. Charles (0-3, 0-3) follow.