No. 2 St. Ansgar runs over West Fork

ST. ANSGAR – If playing Class A second-ranked St. Ansgar tough for three quarters gave West Fork hope it could do the same again, the Saints stamped out any notion of that in the first quarter of an eventual 56-14 second-round playoff game on Friday, Oct. 23.

St. Ansgar gave the Warhawks a steady dose of its run game, pounding the ball with its bruising backs and amassing 415 ground yards to improve to 8-0 and move on.

Coach James Perez’s team completes its campaign at 5-3.

“We changed our whole defense,” Perez said of adjustments made from the previous meeting. “Offensively, we came out and ran some empty (sets) and stuff, but we did some things we don’t normally do to take advantage and they had a great game plan for what they wanted to do.”

Even halftime adjustments that helped West Fork move the ball a little more effectively came for naught against a stout Saints defense that limited the Warhawks to 271 total yards of offense, well below their average.

“Nothing worked,” Perez said of the halftime adjustments. “I mean, they are ranked second in the state for a reason. They are going to go deep in the playoffs. They are good at what they do, they come downhill, they are going to punish every single play. Defensively, we played a lot better than we did the first time around…they took advantage of our mistakes.

“That’s what happens when you make mistakes in football games. They are a great football team and they deserve to (go far).”

What Perez was referring to were turnovers that quelled any hope of keeping pace with St. Ansgar. Kayden Ames was picked off on the Warhawks’ second offensive series and five plays later, the Saints were in the end zone for their third touchdown of the first quarter.

Later, another interception went for naught, but a fumble recovery in Saints’ territory led to a big play later that resulted in the final score.

Both of West Fork’s scores came on big pass plays from Ames to Kellen Cameron. The first, a fourth-down-and-four play from the 34 went 34 yards to put the Warhawks on the scoreboard. Ren Heimer’s kick made it 21-7. But St. Ansgar then put together a time-killing 13-play drive that had the Saints up three scores again.

The Warhawks answered on the second connection from Ames to Cameron for a 14-yard touchdown to make it 28-14, but St. Ansgar made certain it was back up three scores again, coming through for a 32-yard touchdown pass from Justin Horgen to Ryan Cole, the only completed pass for the home team all night.

Ames nearly had a touchdown connection with Heimer, but after what would have been a runaway TD went in and out of his receiver’s hands late in the third quarter.

Cameron completed an 18-yard pass to Ames in trying to get one last score late, but West Fork turned the ball over on downs and St. Ansgar ran the clock out.

Perez commended the duo, as well as all of his seniors for working so hard to make the Warhawks successful in 2020.

“Guys bought in, especially Kellen Cameron, Kayden, the flip there,” Perez said. “It wasn’t ideal, but they stepped up and Kellen had a heck of a year at wide receiver and Kayden had a heck of a year at quarterback, it’s just the type of guys they are.

“Kellen’s a gamer, he’s going to do whatever the team needs and he did. The other five seniors, you can’t say enough about them, offensively and defensively, they are going to be huge losses to us, but it’s great to have seven guys you can count on, starters for the last three to four years.”

The season also featured the first-ever playoff win for the program.

“Overall, phenomenal (season),” Perez said. “The kids worked their butts off every week. It was great to see them get after it with Coach (Alex) Brayton and his offensive ideas and them buying in; doing things right and it’s fun to come a West Fork game now.

“You know you are going to see a high-scoring offense with a lot of athletes running around. A pretty physical run game when we go to that; it’s great to see the culture starting to turn and us go to that. It’s a positive outlook for us.”

St. Ansgar 56

West Fork 14

W. Fork      0     14       0       0        -     14

St. Ansgar21   14     14       7        -     56

TEAM STATISTICS

                                            WF             SA

First downs                            12              23

Rushes-yards                   21-95       60-415

Passing                               176              33

Comp-att-int                  13-28-2          1-3-0

Punts-avg.                            1-6             0-0

Fumbles-lost                         2-1             2-0

Penalties-yards                   8-45           5-65

Rushing (Att-Yds-TD) — WF (Kayden Ames 14-57-0, Trevor Guritz 2-21-0, Josiah Chibambo 4-10-0, Kellen Cameron 1-7-0). SA (Ryan Cole 23-197-4, Lorne Isler 13-93-1, Carter Salz 17-84-2, Tate Meyer 1-27-0, Christian Hermanson 4-10-0, Justin Horgen 2-4-0).

Passing (Att-Comp-Yds-TD-INT) — WF (Ames 12-27-176-2-2, Cameron 1-1-18-0-0). SA (Horgen 1-3-33-1-0).

Receiving (Tot-Catches-TD) — WF (Cameron 2-49-2, Chibambo 3-37-0, Ren Heimer 2-28-0, Joe Ingham 2-25-0, Guritz 3-19-0, Ames 1-18-0). 

Fumble recoveries — WF, None. SA, Elijah Soltero. 

Interceptions — WF, None. SA, Cole 1-7-0, Brady Hackenmiller 1-0-0. 

Kick returns — WF, Nate Hubka 4-58-0, Guritz 3-35-0. SA, Hermanson 3-62-0.

Punt returns — WF, None. SA, None.

Kickoffs — WF, Heimer 3-151. SA, Sage Hulshizer 9-413.

Punting — WF, Heimer 1-6. SA, None.