Vikings rush for 331 yards and six touchdowns in 56-14 blowout at John Thompson Field

LITTLEFORK — Homecoming what?
With distractions abound, Littlefork-Big Falls coach Derek Bilben has always been worried about his squad’s performance following a week of homecoming festivities.
He may welcome it every week now after the Vikings’ 56-14 drubbing of previously undefeated Orr on Friday at John Thompson Field.
“Homecoming historically has been more of a distraction week than anything else, but I think our kids did a great job of staying focused all week,” Bilben said.
“We probably had our best week of practice.”
The Vikings exploded for 28 points in the first quarter alone and left little doubt who was the better team in front of a large homecoming crowd. L-BF took a 34-8 lead into the break and never looked back.
“We just stayed focused and knew what we had to do,” senior quarterback/defensive back Mason Imhof said.
The quick start was the biggest key for Bilben.
“We seem to do very well if we get the ball and drive it down and score, and we’ve done that quite a bit this year,” he said. “That was big, obviously.”
Gage Klemetsen continues to roll on offense and finished with 218 totals yards Friday.
He rushed for 121 yards on 14 carries and caught two passes — both for touchdowns — for 69 yards. Klemetsen caught his first pass from Imhof and scampered 55 yards for a score to make it 28-0 in the first and added his second touchdown from 14 yards out to make it 40-8 in the third. His 2-point conversion run made it 42-8.
“We just clicked,” Imhof said. “It was kind of a breakout game for us.”
Bryce Ziemba, who moved from fullback to wing back, finished with 104 yards on 12 carries, while new fullback Justin Franz rushed 11 times for 39 yards with three first-quarter touchdowns. Imhof added a rushing score and sophomore Aaron McGuire rushed four times for 45 yards with two touchdowns. Imhof also finished 2-for-4 passing for 69 yards and the two touchdowns to Klemetsen.
As a team, the Vikings had 331 yards rushing and six touchdowns on 50 carries, good for a 6.6 yards per rush average.
“At least offensively, for sure it was our best game,” Bilben said. “We had the least amount of mistakes and we executed really well, both rushing and passing.
L-BF, who improves to 4-0 overall and to 3-0 in the St. Louis County North Conference, now turns its attention to Babbitt-Embarrass, who won its first game Friday in blowout fashion — 50-20 over Bigfork. B-E (1-3) was coming off losses to Silver Bay, Tower-Soudan and Cook.