The Vikings football team played Hermantown in the section championship on Friday.
North Branch and Hermantown were preparing for a rematch of last years section championship. It was also a rematch of their regular season game in which North Branch won in the final seconds 48-44.
The Vikings received the opening kickoff. Now their offense is predicated on longer drives that go 10-12 plays and take several minutes off the clock. But they took three plays to go the length of the field, and scored on a Dolley Beaver 35 yard rush, in just over a minute to make it 7-0 with 10:54 on the 1st quarter clock. It had seemed like the teams had switched playbooks early on. Hermantown looked like the Vikings offense, trying to drive the field using multiple plays and taking a few minutes off the clock. Fortunate for North Branch their defense was able to stop the Hawks offense and get the ball back. The next couple drives for both teams was longer with time draining off the clock. North Branch did lose a fumble on one but their defense came up big and stopped the Hawks offense. Late in the 2nd quarter the Vikings had a drive to be proud of, they drove the length of the field and punched it in on a short Tyler Minke run to extend their lead 14-0. Hermantown was quick to answer, scoring on a drive that left just over 40 seconds on the clock. If you've followed North Branch football for any amount of time, you know the Vikings are not only comfortable but skilled at driving the field and scoring in a short amount of time. And they did just that, capping it off with another Minke run to go into half leading 21-7.
Hermantown started with the ball in the 2nd half, but they didn't have it for long. On their first play of the drive they had the ball stripped and recovered by North Branch. Once again the Vikings scored on a Minke punishing run to extend their lead 28-7. Hermantown was able to find some rhythm offensively and drove the field and scored to cut the deficit in half. Now for the kickoff, usually it goes deep and the receiving team tries to give their offense better starting field position. But Hermantown decided to onside kick and it caught the Vikings off guard and the Hawks recovered. Their offense wasted no time scoring again to shrink the deficit to 7. But they once again decided to go for the onside kick, and once again they recovered. Their offense couldn't be stopped and they were able to tie the game at 28. At this point the game is in the 4th quarter with every minute becoming more and more fragile. The next Vikings drive was cut short due to an interception, and it was simply a great play by the Hawks defense. But Hermantown again scored to take a 35-28 lead. Now the Vikings had just over two minutes to drive the field as they got the ball back. And this seemed like another opportunity to see one of those late game scoring drives by North Branch. The drive was moving along as well and the Vikings could've hoped for. They were inside the redzone with a little over a minute left in the game. North Branch wanted to try and get a chunk of yards through the air to make it easier for the offense to score with little to no time left on the clock. Sadly, Jacob Robillard was under a ton of pressure and forced to leave the pocket. He found a man in the endzone but a tough throw across his body was intercepted by Hermantown ending the game.
For North Branch their season ends with them finishing 2nd in the section. The seniors on the team have been part of an incredible 4 year run. In 2021 they were runners up in the section falling to Grand Rapids in the championship game. Then in 2022 they made it to state for the first time in program history. In 2023 they made it back to state and won their first state game and got to play at US Bank Stadium. Then this year finishing the regular season as a top 10 team in the state and earing the #1 seed in the playoffs.
Congrats to North Branch on a great season!
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