skip navigation

Perham Wins 8AAA Football Championship

By Craig Olson, 11/02/18, 9:45PM CDT

Share

Perham improved their season record to 8-2 with a 42-28 victory over East Grand Forks in the Section 8AAA championship football game on Thursday at the Fargodome. The Yellowjackets broke a 28-28 tie by scoring fourteen fourth quarter points to gain the win. 

 

East Grand Forks jumped out to a 14-0 lead on a 71 yard run by Jackson Galstad, a 7 yard run by Ethan Trebil and a pair of extra-point kicks by Ben Kern. Perham’s first TD came on a four yard pass from Jenson Beachy to Ty Moser. The same duo connected on a two-point pass play to cut the Greenwave lead to 14-8 at the end of the first quarter. 

East Grand extended their lead to 21-8 when Carter Beck scored on a 40 yard run and Kern added the PAT kick with 9:18 to go in the half. Perham responded with a pair of touchdowns to take a 22-21 halftime lead. Colton Hackel was on the receiving end of a ten yard pass from Beachy and Moser then ran in the two-point conversion try with 6:50 to go in the second quarter. Moser then hauled in an 11 yard TD pass from Beachy to give Perham the lead with only seventeen seconds remaining in the half.

An eight yard run by Julian Benson and a Kern kick put East Grand Forks back in the lead at 28-22 with 6:42 to play in the third quarter. Perham pulled even on a 12 yard run by Beachy but the Greenwave defense stopped the two-point try by Beachy and the game was tied at 28-28 at the end of three quarters.

Three seconds into the fourth quarter Perham got the lead back for good when Beachy connected with Finn Diggins for a five yard touchdown pass. The Yellowjackets got their final score when Hackel delivered a pick-six, returning an interception seven yards to the end zone. Moser recorded the two-point conversion and Perham walked away with the 42-28 win. 

Perham had 408 yards of offense with a balanced attack (224 passing, 184 rushing). Beachy finished with 96 rushing yards on 21 carries and completed 15-of-22 passes for 136 yards and four TDs. Moser led the team with five catches for 77 yards and 2 scores, while Hackel caught three balls for 53 yards and a TD, Josh Jeziorskihad 3 receptions for 51 yards and Diggins had three catches for 25 yards and a score. Defensively, Zack Peterson had a team high 16 tackles and Dylan Fudgeadded 14. Diggins recorded the only sack. 

East Grand Forks had 270 rushing yards and 53 passing yards for a total of 323 yards on the night. Trebil broke the century mark for the Greenwave with 104 yards on 20 carries and Galstad added 85 yards on just 2 rushing attempts. 

Perham advances to play Two Harbors in the 8AAA quarterfinals on Saturday, November 10 at 3:00pm in Brainerd.