OTC posts 588 yards of total offense on Friday

By Chad Koenen

Publisher

Otter Tail Central’s offense erupted for 66 points and 588 yards of total offense as the Bulldogs defeated the Hillcrest Comets by a score of 66-19 on Friday night. 

Mason Dalluge had a big night for the Bulldogs as he rushed 4 times for 119 yards and a touchdown, while also catching 3 passes for 109 yards and another touchdown. Jack Mekalson completed 6-8 passes for 137 yards and 1 touchdown and added another 28 yards on 4 carries and another touchdown on the ground.

OTC and Hillcrest combined for 34 points in a wild first quarter. 

Tyler Christensen got OTC on the scoreboard early with a 3-yard run and Mekalson added the two-point conversion to give the Bulldogs an 8-0 lead. 

Hillcrest responded with a 30-yard touchdown pass from Ethan Swedberg to Isaac Blaskowski to cut OTC’s lead to 8-6.

From that point on it was all Bulldogs as they scored 34 unanswered points as Christopher Fronning quickly answered with a 32-yard touchdown run and a two-point conversion made the score 16-6. Fronning scored on a 27-yard touchdown run and a 10-yard Mekalson run gave OTC a 28-6 lead at the end of the first quarter.

It was more of the same as OTC scored on a 30-yard touchdown run and converted the two-point conversion, before Mekalson scored his second touchdown of the night on a 15-yard run to make the score 42-6 at halftime.

Thor Ewan from Hillcrest scored on an 11-yard run to cut the lead to 42-12, but OTC added a pair of long touchdowns thanks to a 79-yard run from Dalluge and a 54-yard pass from Mekalson to Dalluge, both of which were followed by successful two-point conversions to give the Bulldogs a 58-12 lead at the end of the third quarter. 

Braxtyn Cameron scored on a 1-yard run in the fourth quarter to give OTC a 66-12 lead, before Hillcrest scored a late touchdown to make the score 66-19 in favor of OTC.

As a team, the Bulldogs accumulated 588 yards of total offense, including 451 yards on the ground. Hillcrest accounted for just 272 yards of offense, of which 197 yards came through the air. OTC held the Comets to just 3-9 on third down and 0-3 on fourth downs. They also forced 3 Comet turnovers. 

In addition to Dalluge rushing for over 100 yards, Lane Dilly rushed 9 times for 109 yards and 1 touchdown, while Fronning rushed 5 times for 89 yards and 2 touchdowns, Christensen rushed 8 times for 43 yards and 2 touchdowns, Anthony Rousu rushed 3 times for 16 yards, Cameron rushed 3 times for 7 yards and Gave Froslee rushed 1 time for 4 yards. 

Christensen caught 1 pass for 15 yards and Dilly added 2 catches for 13 yards.

This week the Bulldogs will travel to Rothsay to take on the 1-2 Tigers. Rothsay won its opening game of the season against Warren-Alvarado-Oslo by a score of 22-0, before falling to Ashby/Brandon-Evansville 32-30 and Border West 32-14. They come into the game averaging 22 points per game on offense, while giving up 21.3 points per game on defense. 

OTC comes into the game with a perfect 3-0 record, while averaging 40 points per game on offense and surrendering just 14 points per game on defense.