“Well the rains stopped right before we took the field at 6:00 and basically stayed away the entire night, which was very nice,” said Barnesville Head Coach Bryan Strand.  “Kids came out and played hard and we had some short fields to start the game because of some of their miscues.  We capitalized on many things in the first half and got all our kids in early in the 3rd.  We held Pillager to 4 yards rushing and 34 passing in the first half, the defense played well.”

Andrew Pederson got the scoring started with a 37 yard TD run and Cameron Heng made it an 8-0 lead with the two-point conversion run.  A 5 yard TD run by Krause and another Heng conversion run gave Barnesville a 16-0 lead.  The third touchdown of the first quarter came on a 16 yard run by Jon Roller.

Pederson also scored the first touchdown of the second quarter, this time on a 17 yard run, giving the Trojans a 28-0 lead.  Noah Krause then hit Kaden Zenzen with a 65 yard TD pass to make it a 34-0 lead.  Heng’s 10 yard run and an extra point kick by Isaac Maneval completed the first half scoring with Barnesville in control at 41-0.

Jon Roller scored on a 24 yard run, increasing the lead to 47-0 and after Pillager scored on a 5 yard run, Connor Loeks ended the Barnesville scoring with a 37 yard TD run.

Barnesville had 295 rushing yards and 76 passing yards for 371 total yards in the game.  Their top rushers were Roller (9 attempts, 75 yards) and Pederson (4 carries, 65 yards).  Krause was 2-for-5 throwing the football for 76 yards.  Defensively, Owen Riddle and Peyton Pauna each had an interception, Jonny Robideau forced a fumble and Loeks had a fumble recovery.  Austin Bolgrean and Zenzen recorded quarterback sacks in the game.  Robideau led the team with 7 tackles, while Zenzen and Loeks each had six.

“I was pleased with our improvement in the penalty category this week, played smarter and we held onto the ball - zero turnovers this week while committing 5 in the loss to Osakis last week,” noted Strand.  “We can't afford those mistakes.  Overall this was a fun game, Pillager kids were super nice all night and after the game, and Coach Peterson does a great job with them.  Fun game and now we are onto homecoming week and the Detroit Lakes Lakers.  They are always a great team, they will test us in every facet of the game.  I have grown up admiring their program as my dad was always good friends with their past coaches and I have relatives over in DL.  They are the program in northern MN, and have been for a very long time.  Our kids are going to work their butts off this week to prepare for them and see what happens on Friday night.   Season is going way too fast.”