Prowlers shut out Green Wave for first win

by Scott DCamp Sports Editor Thief River Falls shut out East Grand Forks 6-0 Friday night to spoil the EGF Homecoming festivities while simultaneously claiming its first win of the 2024 season. The Prowlers held the Green Wave to just 128 yards of offense. Coach Dominic Kruse’s defensive unit held the Green Wave offense to just six first downs, while forcing three punts and a pair of turnovers. “Our defense played their best game of the year by far,” said Thief River Falls Head Coach Kurt Reynolds. “Coach Kruse has preached all season long how important it is for our players to not just do what they are coached but to also take the skills we work on in practice every day into a game. We finally did that against East Grand Forks. Our defensive line - Landen Larsen, Joey Bruggeman, Knute Hams, and Caden Rose - clogged up the running lanes and occupied the offensive linemen for East Grand Forks. That left our linebackers - Hudson Brouse and Everett Nelson - to fly around and make plays. Our defensive ends - Jaxon Hams and Everett Nelson and Tucker Grindeland - all had good games too.” Reynolds credited good tackling with holding the Green Wave offense to its season-low in yards. “We just didn't let them break any big plays,” Reynolds said. “They did pop one long run on their final drive, but Bodhi Mossestad made a great tackle along the sideline. Then we just did what we did the whole game, we just got after them. We hustled to the ball and often were hitting their backs in the backfield, which slowed them down, and allowed our pursuit to clean things up. We forced key fumbles and Jameson Hurst came up with a key interception early in the game.” Neither team could get much going in the first quarter. The Prowlers got their offense going a bit in the second quarter, on their fifth possession of the opening half, with a 12-play, 74-yard drive that ended with a one-yard touchdown run by Jackson Boyer. The two-point run would be no good and the Prowlers took a 6-0 lead into the locker room. “I was very impressed with Jackson Boyer,” Reynolds said. “Our stats have him 16 carries for 138 yards. That is easily the best he has looked all year for us. He ran hard and seemed to get stronger as the game wore on. We threw the ball on key downs. Gannon [Zutz] would have had a higher completion percentage, but one of his passes went through the tight end's hands that EGF intercepted on the goal line. He did hit Everett Nelson for a key first down on a screen play. What you saw on Friday night is why we run the Power T. We ate up the clock, and though we only managed one TD, we bled the clock at the end and kept the ball out of EGF's hands again. On that last drive, Jameson Hurst ran very hard and helped us convert a key third down to ice the game.” The Green Wave looked like they might tie the game early in the second half. With 6:01 left in the third quarter, the Green Wave put together a six-play drive that reached the Prowler 13 yard-line before a holding penalty and fumbled snap set up a fourth and 32 at the 35. Jakob Stassen’s pass was broken up, but a late flag gave the Green Wave another chance with a fourth and 17 at the Prowler 20-yard line. On the do-over, Stassen was sacked for a five-yard loss and a turnover on downs. The Green Wave threatened again early in the fourth quarter. A 12-play drive that began with 10:12 remaining at the Green Wave 22 reached the Prowler 11-yard line. Stassen was sacked for an 11-yard loss on a third and three play, before throwing and incomplete pass on a fourth and 14 play. “I thought Hudson Brouse played great at linebacker in his second career start,” Reynolds said. “At ends, Hams, Grindeland, and Everett Nelson made a lot of plays and made life miserable to EGF's tackles and tight ends. I don't think Everett Nelson came out of the game except for kickoff and kick return. He caught every pass we completed. He blocked hard at tight end too. He was all over the field on defense. He also did a great job punting for us too.” Up next for the Prowlers is a Homecoming game against the Perham Yellowjackets. “They are 1-4 like us, but Perham is always tough,” Reynolds said. “In fact, we have yet to beat them. My first year, we lost when they scored a late touchdown. The next year, we lost when we had a punt blocked late in the game that set them up for the go-ahead score. Last year, we had two golden opportunities to tie the game - missing on a fourth down pass from the goal line before half time and then to open the second half when they didn’t bother to field the opening kickoff and we got the ball on the one yard line, but again, we couldn't punch it in, so we expect this one to be very tight and physical.” Reynolds said the Yellowjackets have thrown the ball more than previous seasons. Perham threw the ball close to 50 times in its loss to East Grand Forks, but the Yellowjackets have also run the wishbone, a run-heavy formation, at times this year. Scoring 1 2 3 4 T Thief River Falls 0 6 0 0 6 East Grand Forks 0 0 0 0 0 Second Quarter TRF - Jackson Boyer 1-yard run (run failed) Team Statistics • First downs - TRF 11; EGF 6. • Fumbles (total-lost) - TRF 1-1; EGF 1-1. • Penalties (number-yards) - TRF 4-35; EGF 4-45. • Punts (number-average) - TRF 4-29.5; EGF 3-38.6. • Rushing (attempts-yards) - TRF 35-135; EGF 31-67. • Passing - TRF 3-for-9, 45 yards, interception; EGF 3-for-9, 41 yards, interception. • Total yards - TRF 180; EGF 128. Individuals • Rushing - (TRF) Jackson Boyer 16-138, TD; Jameson Hurst 8-10; Wyatt Nelson 6-6; (EGF) Cole Schmiedeberg 15-60; Jordan Nowacki 7-31. • Passing - (TRF) Gannon Zutz 3-for-9, 45 yards, interception; (EGF) Jakob Stassen 3-for-9, 41 yards, interception. • Receiving - (TRF) Everett Nelson 3-45; (EGF) Austin Rusling 2-40; Jordan Nowacki 1-1. Mid Northwest Red District Division Overall W L W L Fergus Falls 4 0 5 0 Morris Area/C-A 4 0 5 0 Detroit Lakes 2 2 3 2 East Grand Forks 2 2 3 2 DGF 2 2 2 3 Little Falls 1 3 1 4 Thief River Falls 1 3 4 4 Perham 0 4 1 4 • Results Week 5 - Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta 28, Detroit Lakes 10; Fergus Falls 41, Perham 14; Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton 50, Little Falls 20; Thief River Falls 6, East Grand Forks 0. • Upcoming games - Perham at Thief River Falls; East Grand Forks at Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta; Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton at Detroit Lakes; Fergus Falls at Little Falls.