Jake Litman
(KWMN)- After a lackluster performance that equated to a loss in Bemidji, the Winona State Warrior football team bounced back, topping the University of Minnesota-Moorhead, 40-7, to improve to 3-1.
The Warriors had a slow start to the game but managed to take a 7-0 lead in the first quarter. Then, the floodgates opened. The Warriors Scored 20 points in the second quarter that included two field goals over 40 yards from Jacob Scott, a punt blocked for a touchdown, and a pick-six by Clay Scheuffner.
The Warriors entered the half up 27-7 and finished the job in the second half behind a perfect performance from Scott and a vaunting defense.
Jacob Scott went 4-4 with field goal attempts, all coming from at least 40 yards. The performance earned him NSIC Special Teams Player of the Week. More notably, Scott became the first kicker in the history of the program to have four field goals of at least 40 yards in the same game.
Head Coach for the Warriors, Brian Bergstrom, said of the win,
“Proud of em…they knew leaving Bemidji that we didn’t play our best and shot ourselves in the foot and were embarrassed, motivated and they responded to the adversity.”
It was a big, bounce-back win for the team on Saturday, but now the attitude has to switch to responding to success, rather than adversity,
“This week we have the challenge of responding to success, different challenges but in some cases, this can be harder. Human nature says ‘well whatever we did really worked and we don’t need to fix that much from the game’ when in reality, there is still a lot we need to fix from the game,” Bergstrom said.
Any good coach knows that, regardless of the outcome, there are things that the team can fix from each game. Obviously, in a loss, those mistakes are enhanced and clear, but in a win, the mistakes don’t suddenly disappear, they just happen to be less costly and harder to see. Yes, Jacob Scott had a stellar day and it’s always great to get points. Yet, the coaching staff would prefer to see touchdowns. That’s something that Bergstrom says will be a focus in practice this week. Finishing drives with touchdowns rather than field goals.
“We’re not going to panic, we’re not gonna say we can’t do it because it doesn’t go well for a game. That’s the game of football, sometimes it doesn’t go your way.”
Of course, the Warriors still won the game handily. The rushing attack looked back to its normal self with the two-headed monster of Ty Gavin and Sam Santiago-Lloyd, along with some supporting characters, to garner over 200 yards on the ground. What stood out more than the rushing attack was the play from the Quarterbacks. The plural use of ‘Quarterbacks’ isn’t a typo, the Warriors used both Trevor Paulsen and Kyle Haas at QB throughout the game. Not just going to the backup when the game was solidified, this was by design from kickoff. Paulsen was in for 39 snaps and Haas played 38 snaps. They both played stellar, Paulsen went 11/16 through the air for 148 yards and tacked on 10 extra yards with his legs. Haas threw for 119 yards on 9/14 while rushing for 39 yards on seven attempts.
What makes the situation so intriguing, is that it isn’t necessarily a quarterback competition. Bergstrom wouldn’t call it that either, more the fact that it’s the design of the offense,
” It’s unique certainly. They’re rotating every couple of series and they’re both running the same offense so to speak. They each have their little nitches in it…They’re both so humble and such hard workers and Coach Freuchte does an amazing job of getting them prepared. They want what’s best for the team and what they’ve noticed is they’re both getting into a bit of a groove having a rotation. No different than how we rotate our linebackers or receivers,”
Bergstrom said when asked about the reasoning behind the use of both players. He continued,
“It was decided because they were so close in practice, in terms of how well we thought they were playing, we needed to be able to compare them in a game…If one of them just starts completely outplaying the other, then we’re obviously going to switch gears.”
So far, that isn’t the case. They’ve both played great, and they’ve both showcased their different skill sets. The passing game and even the running game have gotten a much-needed boost since the coaches rolled out this unique strategy. Regardless if one of them takes that next step and earns all the snaps, it’s working in the Warrior’s favor to use both until that time comes.
The Warriors will welcome Wayne State College to Maxwell Field on Saturday. Last season, Wayne dominated the Warriors on their home turf, ironically enough, with the use of two Quarterbacks. This season the Wildcats have solidified the starting job with a very talented Nick Bohn taking the full-time reigns. The offense for Wayne can score a lot of points and they do so by trying to confuse the defense pre-snap. Bergstrom highlighted the need for the defense to be consistent and focused come Saturday.
Offensively for the Warriors, Bergstrom says they must be the more physical team. Going against a highly potent offense like Wayne, it’s imperative to control the clock if the Warriors want to walk away victorious. Bergstrom also mentioned a heightened focus on the little things during practice this week,
“When you play the best teams it’s going to come down to small details and we gotta be better with some of those details,” Bergstrom noted.
It will be a tough matchup, to say the least, but the Warriors are up for the challenge.
Warriors kick off with Wayne State College this Saturday at 1:00 p.m. from Altra Federal Credit Union Stadium.
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