Photo by Chad Koenen
Trystan Loghry races past a pair of Menahga defenders during Friday’s 54-14 win over the Braves.

By Chad Koenen

Publisher

A 28-point second quarter helped the Otter Tail Central Bulldogs blow past the win less Menahga Braves by a score of 54-14 on Friday night. The win improves the Bulldogs to 5-2 on the season as they gear up for a big game against Frazee, who is also 5-2 on the season, on Wednesday night on the road.

Logan Poplin rounds the corner and looks for an opening during Friday’s game against Menahga in Battle Lake. He finished the game with three rushes for 43 yards.

On Friday night, OTC got on the scoreboard first when William Schwartz scored on a seven yard run in the first quarter. The two-point conversion failed to leave the score at 6-0. Menahga briefly took a lead in the second quarter when they scored on a 10-yard run and converted the two-point conversion to take an 8-6 lead at the end of the opening 12 minutes of action.

The Menahga touchdown woke up a sleeping giant in OTC as they would go on to score the next six touchdowns in a row, including four in the second quarter, to erase any thought of a Menahga upset win. 

With Billy Durbin leading the way, Tayden Soma rounds the corner for a big gain the second half of Friday’s game in Battle Lake. Soma finished with 102 yards and two touchdowns in Friday’s win.

Schwartz kicked off the big second quarter with a six-yard touchdown run, before Tayden Soma scored on a three-yard run of his own. Andrew Suchy caught an eight-yard touchdown pass from Braxtyn Cameron, who would later score on a one-yard run of his own to leave the score at 34-8 at halftime. 

Schwartz made the score 42-8 in the third quarter when he scored on a 36-yard touchdown run, before Trystan Loghry opened the fourth quarter with a 51-yard scamper down the sideline to give OTC a 48-8 lead.

With the reserves in the game, Menahga scored on a 29-yard run, before MaCade Barbre scored the final touchdown of the game for either team when he put the Bulldogs up 54-14 late in the fourth quarter.

Anthony Rousu rushed two times for six yards on Friday night.

OTC dominated the Braves on both ends of the field as the Bulldogs accumulated 528 yards of total offense, compared to 141 for the Braves. All-but 31 yards of OTC’s offense came on the ground as they held a 497-121 advantage in rushing. The Bulldogs also went 6-8 on third downs and converted both fourth down attempts in the game. 

The Bulldogs were led offensively by Schwartz who rushed 12 times for 129 yards and a pair of touchdowns, while Reece Christensen rushed 10 times for 107 yards, Tayden Soma rushed 13 times for 102 yards and two touchdowns, Trystan Loghry rushed two times for 57 yards and a touchdown, Logan Poplin rushed three times for 43 yards, Barbre rushed four times for 29 yards and a touchdown, Cameron rushed five times for 24 yards and a touchdown and Anthony Rousu rushed two times for six yards. 

Cameron went 3-6 passing for 31 yards and a touchdown, while Schwartz caught a pair of passes for 23 yards and Suchy caught one pass for eight yards and a touchdown.

This week the Bulldogs will travel to Frazee to take on the Hornets, who are also 5-2 on the season. The Hornets are averaging 28 points per game on offense, while giving up 17.9 points per game on defense. Frazee defeated Lake Park-Audubon by a score of 28-22 on Friday night.

The Bulldogs come into the game averaging 24.3 points per game on offense, while giving up 21.1 points per game on defense. 

If OTC wins the game on Wednesday night they have a chance to secure the third seed in the section tournament, which will kick off on Tuesday, depending upon the outcome of Wednesday’s game between Walker-Hackensack-Akeley against Nevis. The Wolves have a slight edge in the QRF heading into the final week of action and are currently 6-1 on the season.