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The Ottertail Central Bulldogs avenged a loss last year in the Section 6A championship game by beating Ada-Borup on Friday night in the Fargodome to win the 2018 Section title. OTC led 30-14 at halftime on the way to a 38-28 victory, qualifying for the Class A State quarterfinals.
The Cougars got off to a good start when they recovered their opening kickoff at the OTC 13 yard line and Brett Fetting scored five plays later. Colby Stevensonmade it 7-0 with the extra point kick. OTC responded with a five-play, 73-yard scoring drive. Nick VanErp ran for 52 yards on the first play from scrimmage and Austin Wensauer scored his first of four touchdowns on the night, scoring on a 5 yard run. VanErp's two point conversion run gave the Bulldogs an 8-7 lead. A Blake Wallevand interception set up a fifteen play, 58-yard scoring drive with VanErp carrying the ball into the end zone from the two-yard line and then hitting Sam Fisher with the two point conversion pass, increasing the Bulldogs lead to 16-7 at the end of the first quarter.
VanErp picked off a pass on Ada-Borup's next possession and the Bulldogs put together an 11-play, 64-yard drive that resulted in a three yard TD run by Wensauer and a 22-7 OTC lead with 9:32 left in the half. Ada-Borup then went 74 yards in 12 plays with Verdis Barber scoring on a six yard run on fourth down. A Stevenson PAT kick made the score 22-14. Ottertail Central then marched 65 yards in eleven plays and scored with just 19 seconds left in the half on a one yard run by Wensauer and a VanErp two point conversion run to go into the locker room with a 30-14 halftime advantage.
Ada-Borup used up over half of the third quarter and Jared Brainard hit Stevenson on a fourth down pass for a 19 yard touchdown, cutting the OTC lead to 30-20. OTC responded with a drive of their own that lasted over six minutes before the scored on a 3 yard run by Wensauer with 10:41 left in the game. Wensauer caught the two point conversion pass from VanErp to push the lead to 38-20. The Cougars ended the scoring in the game with an 11-play, 74-yard drive capped off by a 9 yard run by Brainard, who also scored the two-point conversion.
VanErp (15 carries, 114 yards, TD) and Wensauer (29 carries, 114 yards, 4 TDs) led an OTC ground game that recorded 289 rushing yards. VanErp also completed 4-of-9 passes for 76 yards with Blake Wallevand catching two of the passes for 46 yards.
OTC will now play BOLD in a Class A quarterfinal matchup at noon on Saturday in Alexandria.