The West Fork football team concluded a milestone season falling 53-20 to #2 (A) Saint Ansgar in the second round of the Class A playoffs on Friday, as aired on 104.9 KLMJ. It was the 14th meeting between the teams since 2011.
With Saint Ansgar leading 8-0, the Saints took advantage of three West Fork turnovers (two turnovers on downs and a fumble) to build up a 30-0 lead by the end of the first quarter. With the Saints leading 36-0, the Warhawks ended the shutout with a 13 play drive, which included two fourth down conversions. Dax Suntken navigated traffic for a 12 yard touchdown reception to cut the Warhawks deficit to 36-7 with 2:36 to go before the half. The Saints scored their fifth rushing touchdown of the game on the next play from scrimmage to take a 44-7 lead into the break. The Warhawks took to the air for their most thrilling score of the night, as Zander Hansen connected with Rylan Dorenkamp for a 49 yard touchdown reception to cut the score to 44-14 early in the third. With the Saints leading 53-14, the Warhawks had the final score of the night with a nine play drive. The drive was concluded by a two yard rushing touchdown by Suntken to trim the deficit to 53-20 with 1:27 left in the game. Warhawks Head Coach Dan Westhoff.
“We just gave them short fields and put our defense in really bad position. This team’s too good to do that. We knew how steep the climb was going to be. We knew how good they were. We knew we needed to be close to perfect. We’re not, we wanted to be,” says Westhoff. “Some self-inflicted wounds dug the hole too deep there to start the game. Things just got out of hand there a little quicker than we wanted it to.”
Dorenkamp had two receptions for 54 yards and a touchdown. Suntken had two touchdowns. Hansen went 6-7 with 100 passing yards and two touchdowns to lead the Warhawks. Westhoff’s perspective on Hansen’s performance.
“I appreciate his willingness to buy into our offensive approach, which doesn’t always benefit him. His attempts are fairly limited, a lot of games. I thought he was really good tonight. Again, part of the issues were we just couldn’t protect him there. Once we kind of got that rectified, we evaluated what our options were to try to alleviate that pressure and get him out. I thought he started to click and we hit some throws down the field.”
It was the final game for eight program building seniors.
West Fork concluded the season with a school record finish of 7-3 overall.
Full Interview with Head Coach Dan Westhoff:
