The Dragons traveled to Cloquet on Friday night to take on the Lumberjacks.
The Lumberjacks started with the ball to begin the game. The Dragons set them back on the first play and Cloquet couldn't overcome that. Pine City quickly forced a three and out and their offense got to work. Pine City's offense moved the ball swiftly downfield and Jacob Lindahl scampered into the endzone. After the successful two point conversion they had an 8-0 lead midway through the first quarter. The Dragons defense again forced a three and out and gave the ball back to a hungry offense. They would take a little more time off the clock with this drive, but would eventually find the endzone again. This time on a short run from Ryan Plasek, his first of the season. Timmy Johnson converted the two and Pine City lead 16-0 in the 2nd quarter. This Lumberjack possession was much different. They seemingly found a rhythm and brought themselves inside Dragon territory. As Cloquet pushed closer the to goal line the urgency for a stop on defense continued to rise. With the ball inside the one the Dragons made two big stops on third and fourth down and turned the Lumberjacks over on downs. The Dragons offense only had the ball one play before turning it over to Cloquet inside the 5. Even with the sudden change Pine City's defense made another big play. Lindahl set the Lumberjacks offense back on a 5 yard loss and would prove to be a monumental swing as Cloquet couldn't convert on 4th and goal. The Dragons offense went back to work urgently moving the ball downfield with 3 minutes left to work with. As they neared neared the 50, they decided to take a shot downfield. Jimmy Lindblom found Colton Blaisdell for a big gain down to the 25. But that was nullified by a holding call, and the Dragons ran out the rest of the clock and went into half.
Pine City took two plays to begin the half before scoring and extending their lead. Lindahl scored the touchdown but that was set up by a Plasek 44 yard run, the Dragons lead 24-0 with a minute gone in the third. Their defense stepped up big again and kept feeding the ball to the offense. Pine City would score again on a 4th and goal from Brody Clark, now leading 30-0. The Dragons would score yet again before the end of the 3rd quarter. Timmy Johnson took it in from three yards out and extended the lead now 36-0. Pine City started the 4th quarter on defense but again held Cloquet out of the endzone. The Dragons offense started to move slower as they wanted to take time off the running clock. Cloquet was able to get the ball back with under a minute left and scored but it was too little too late and Pine City ran away with a 36-8 win.
Pine City improved to 3-4 on the season and will host rival Mora on Wednesday.
