Vikings shut out Comets 28-0

By John Burbridge

sports@charlescitypress.com

DECORAH — The tone of Friday’s game between Charles City and hosting Decorah was set early.

The Vikings had just forced a turnover deep in Charles City’s territory during the Comets’ game-opening possession. The Vikings advanced all the way to the 1-yard line and had two chances to punch it in only to be denied twice by Comet goal-line stands.

Charles City’s defense continued to make stands throughout the game with its best showing as a unit thus far this season.

But the Comets’ offense, which had moved the ball consistently during its previous three losses including the week before against Mason City when it compiled nearly 350 yards with a balanced ground-and-air attack, struggled against the Vikings while conjuring up only 45 total yards while getting shut out 28-0.

As of late, Charles City has had a tough go against Decorah, which now has won seven straight meetings between the two teams. In most of those games, the Vikings were overwhelmingly dominant.

This most recent meeting, for the most part, was more competitive before Decorah widened the gap with a pair of fourth-quarter touchdowns.

After being denied early in the game, the Vikings were able to take advantage of another subsequent short-field opportunity which led the first of two 1-yard touchdown runs by Decorah senior Jaden Baker.

That TD came late in the first quarter.

By way of the Comets forcing Decorah to punt, turn the ball over on downs if not turning it over prematurely (Charles City senior linebacker Ethan Peterson had a fumble recovery and junior linebacker Gabe Rogstad had an interception), the Vikings were kept out of the end zone for the remainder of the half and into the fourth quarter.

But the Vikings also played some defense themselves and scored a pair of safeties which helped give them a 14-0 lead with 7:42 left in the third quarter.

Viking senior placekicker Erik Hjelle was able to salvage a stalled Decorah drive with a 24-yard field goal that made it a two-score game (10-0) with 8:49 left in the second half.

Hjelle also had a 2-yard TD run to put the Viking up 20-0 with 8:11 left in regulation.

When the Vikings did manage to move the chains against the Comets, it was by way of sleight-of-hand ball handing coupled with fleet feet from senior quarterback Brady Stille.

Players like Stille are why the “option” — as inherently turnover dangerous as it is — is still employed at the high school, college and even NFL levels. Stille’s mastery of it repeatedly turned his backfield teammates into magnetic decoys while he ran to daylight off the opposite tackle.

Stille’s counterpart, Comet junior Jordan Foster, was coming off a career-high passing yardage game against the Riverhawks. Against the Vikings, Foster completed 5 of 17 for 44 yards.

The biggest pass play for Foster and the Comets was an 18-yard completion to Kaden Littleton to remedy yet another third-and-long dilemma — this season Charles City has been fairly proficient while going to the air to rectify such situations.

Though Foster was only sacked once (which resulted in one of the safeties), he was plagued by the Vikings’ ball-hawking secondary, including Hjelle and Kaiden Quandahl, who each had interceptions.

With the loss to Decorah (2-2), Charles City (0-4) — a Class 3A school — has completed its bigger-school crucible of its schedule as the Vikings and the Riverhawks are both Class 4A teams.

This Homecoming Week the Comets are hosting Hampton-Dumont-CAL. The Bulldogs (3-1) are coming off a 24-23 loss on the road against Nevada, which knocked them out of the Associated Press Class 3A Top 10 rankings for this week.

DECORAH 28, CHARLES CITY 0

Scoring By Quarters

Charles City 0 0 0 0 — 0

Decorah 7 5 2 14 — 28

Individual Scoring

D — Jaden Baker 1-yard run (Erik Hjelle kick) 1:51 1st, 7-0

D — Hjelle 24-yard field goal 8:49 2nd, 10-0

D — Safety 8:36 2nd, 12-0

D — Safety 7:42 3rd, 14-0

D — Hjelle 2-yard run (Kick blocked) 8:11 4th, 20-0

D — Baker 1-yard run (Dakota Johnson run) 4:49 4th, 28-0

Individual Statistics

PASSING — Charles City, Jordan Foster 5-17, 44 yards, 2 INTs.

RUSHING — Charles City, Isaiah Roe 17 carries, 37 yards; Kaden Littleton 1 carry, 3 yards.

RECEIVING — Charles City, Kayden Blunt 3 catches, 26 yards; Kaden Littleton 1 catches, 18 yards.

DEFENSE — Charles City, Ethan Peterson 9.5 total tackles, 7 solo tackles, fumble recovery; Kayden Blunt 9.5 total tackles, 7 solo tackles, 1 tackle for loss; Trevor Peterson 8.5 total tackles, 5 solo tackles, 1 tackle for loss; Lincoln Joslin 5.5 total tackles, 5 solo tackles, 1 tackle for loss; Colton Anderegg 5 total tackles, 3 solo tackles; Talan Weber 5 total tackles, 2 solo tackles; Nathan Lopez 3 solo tackles; Gabe Rogstad INT.

RECORDS — Decorah 2-2, Charles City 0-4