“Great win for our guys tonight in some tough conditions,” said Pelican Rapids Head Coach David Haugen.  “We had a great start as Hawley fumbled the opening kickoff with Pelican Rapids recovering it to set up a short field on our first possession.  We were able to score on our first 2 possessions giving us a big advantage in bad weather.”

McHale Korf connected with Jayden Rutherford on TD passes of 13 and 7 yards in the first quarter.  Korf and Rutherford each ran in a two-point conversion as the Vikings built a 16-0 lead after one quarter.

“We had a huge defensive stop just before halftime,” noted Haugen.  “It looked like we were going to get into the end zone and build a 3 possession lead but Hawley’s defense made the plays they needed and took over inside their own 10 yard line.  They put together a great drive at that time and got inside the Vikings 5 yard line.  The defense stepped up and stopped Hawley short of the goal line on a big 4th down play.  Being able to come up with the goal line stand and preserve the 16-0 lead going into halftime was a huge moment for us in the game.”

The Vikings increased their lead to 24-0 with 7:40 left in the third quarter when Korf ran the ball 49 yards for a touchdown and then hit Rutherford with the two-point conversion pass.  Johnny Ziebell scored on a one yard run at 1:30 and Rutherford ran the ball in for the conversion as the Vikings lead grew to 32-0.

Hawley had the only scores of the fourth quarter as Derian Gerdes scored on a 7 yard run and Cole Sunde hooked up with Keenan Syverson for a 26-yard scoring toss.

Pelican Rapids had 272 total yards with 221 coming on the ground and 51 through the air.  Korf led the Vikings with 100 rushing yards on 13 carries and also completed 3-of-4 passes for 51 yards.  Johnny Ziebell had 13 carries for 79 yards and Rutherford had all 3 receptions.

For Hawley, Sunde was 3-for-7 throwing the football for 46 yards.  Syverson caught two of the completions for 26 yards.  The leading rusher for the Nuggets was Gerdes with 99 yards on 20 rushing attempts.  Hawley finished with 209 yards of offense, with 163 coming on the ground.