“I Felt we came out finally and played a very good 1st half,” said Barnesville Head Coach Bryan Strand. “We were relaxed and just played the game, it was fun to see.  Major Ness had himself a great first half - getting two interceptions, one for a TD, 2 rushing TD's and a receiving TD. That is a heck of a half.  Of course his teammates aided in that as well, as the team truly played their best 1/2 of the year.  We ran 19 first half plays and finished the first half with 42 points.”

Ness got things started with a 29 yard TD run and a conversion run, giving Barnesville an 8-0 lead.  Ness then broke loose for a 50 yard TD run and Cameron Halverson carried the ball into the end zone for the two-point conversion and a 16-0 lead.  An Ethan Larson 5 yard TD run, followed by a conversion run by Zach Bredman put the score at 24-0 at the end of the first quarter.

An 80 yard interception return for a touchdown by Ness increased the lead to 30-0 at the start of the second quarter.  Ness finished his big scoring night on the receiving end of a 25 yard TD pass from Bredman for a 36-0 lead.  Peyton Amundson added a 16 yard TD run to make it 42-0.  Hawley’s Noah Nelson hauled in a 12 yard TD pass from Zach Libak to get the Nuggets on the board and make the score 42-6 at the half.

Connor Klemin scored on a 2 yard run in the third quarter and David Spillum’s 14 yard jaunt to the end zone in the fourth quarter ended the scoring.

“2nd half saw a lot of subs and running time in the fourth quarter,” reported Coach Strand. “I believe everyone got in the game and I was impressed by the young guys.  If we can continue to keep improving I think this team can be tough by the end of the year.  We will get Jack Maesse back this week who had his appendix out last week, and I believe we will get Gannon Bolgrean back the following week vs Park Rapids.   We were able to finally get Hunter Blilie back this week who had turned his ankle the 2nd week of practice.  He played very well.”

Ness led the Trojans with 79 rushing yards on just 2 attempts and 25 receiving yards on one catch, scoring on all 3 of his offensive touches.  Bredman completed 3-of-6 passes for 65 yards.  Collin Morey ran for 56 yards on 3 carries.  The Trojans accumulated 319 yards (254 rushing, 65 passing) of total offense and did not turn the ball over. 

Defensively, in addition to the two interceptions by Ness, Amundson and Nick Robideau each recorded a sack, Morey forced a fumble and Halverson recovered a fumble.  Levi Eickenbrock also caused a fumble.  Noah Stanford (2 solo tackles, 5 assisted tackles), Robideau (2 solo tackles, 6 assisted tackles) and Morey (3 solo tackles, 3 assisted tackles) were the leading tacklers.

“Defensively, I was impressed by how the boys filled their gaps and really played aggressively,” added Coach Strand.  “Noah Nelson is a very talented young man with a fantastic arm, he is going to find guys we had to limit the big plays and we had to eliminate their chances to run.  He passed for over 200 yards on the night going 11 out of 24.  I felt their offense worked hard and took advantage of what we were giving them.  I had moved a couple thing around this week moving Asher O'Brien back to safety and Ethan Larson up to corner and it worked well.  

Barnesville (4-0) will host Warroad at 6:00pm Friday.