Littlefork-Big Falls closed a dominating regular season Wednesday with a 52-12 victory at Cherry.
The Tigers (5-3), who entered riding a three-game win streak, went blow for blow with L-BF for a little over a quarter before the Vikings took control right before half.
Clinging to a 14-12 lead in the second, Vikings senior Justin Franz scampered in from 23 yards out and ran in the 2-point conversion to make it 22-12. The Vikings tacked on one more score — a 4-yard touchdown reception for Franz from Mason Imhof — with only eight seconds left in the half, and Franz ran in another 2-point conversion to give the visitors a 30-12 lead.
“That was a big momentum boost for us,” Vikings coach Derek Bilben said.
Franz accounted for 28 of the Vikings’ 30 first-half points, with Gage Klemetsen scoring the remaining two on a 2-point conversion following Franz’s second touchdown run in the first quarter.
Cherry never led, but tied it at 6 with a kickoff return for a score, and got within two with another score early in the second quarter.
“Probably the most physical team we’ve played this year,” Bilben said.
The entire second half was all Vikings.
Imhof hit Bryce Ziemba from 11 yards out, and Franz ran in another 2-point conversion to go up 38-12 before Klemetsen added a 6-yard touchdown run later in the third to put the Vikings up 45-12 following Paul Imhof’s extra point.
L-BF (8-0) capped the scoring in the fourth when Mason Imhof took one in from three yards out and Paul Imhof added the extra point.
Two of the three second-half scores were set up by interceptions from Aaron McGuire and Brett Burmeister.
Franz finished with 166 yards on 23 carries with three touchdowns and Klemetsen rushed 18 times for 164 yards and a score. Ziemba had 73 yards on 10 carries and four receptions for 39 yards, while Mason Imhof finished 6 of 11 for 54 yards and two scores. The Vikings racked up 427 rushing yards on 56 attempts.
“I thought we dominated the second half,” Bilben said.
Just like they dominated the regular season. In eight victories, the Vikings are averaging just under 44 points a game and surrendering just under 5. The closest contest was a 12-0 win at Tower-Soudan in the third game of the season. Since then, the Vikings have put up victories in convincing fashion: 56-14 over Orr, 42-6 over Babbitt-Embarrass, 53-0 over Cook, 63-0 over Mesabi Academy and 52-12 over Cherry.
The Vikings’ next bit of action will be in the Section 7 9-man tournament, which begins Tuesday. They will have home-field advantage the entire tournament, and will play host to the No. 8 seed, which Bilben expects to be Babbitt-Embarrass. The official tournament pairings come out this morning.