Week 1 | Dakota vs Galena
Dakota -
Our Northwest Game of the Week featured two teams with a lot of history, and this game had some interesting facts behind it as well. Galena traveled to Dakota for this Week 1 match-up having never lost to the Indians in back to back seasons. Galena also has not missed the playoffs in back to back seasons in 33 years, having only missed the playoffs 4 times in that span, which includes last years season. On the other hand, Dakota had a lot to prove coming into the 2017 season with a very young, highly talented team mostly unproven to this point.
The Indians set the tone early, however, in a dominant fashion as the shut out the Pirates 35-0 in front of their home crowd and their newly updated field. The Indians held Galena to a 3 and out series on their first drive to start the game and the Indians took full advantage. Dakota would march 60 yards in 5:16 on their first drive and punctuate it with an Aden Cassidy 2 yard TD run to take the lead 7-0 after a Nolan Lentz PAT kick was good.
The Indians would strike again in the 2nd quarter, as their 3rd drive of the game was a quick 3:31 87 yard drive capitalized by a Trey Engelbrecht 1 yard TD plunge. After another Lentz PAT kick Dakota had the lead 14-0 with 8:06 remaining in the half.
Dakota would score on their next two possessions as Cassidy would score for a second time on an 11 yard TD run, and Engelbrecht scored his 2nd TD of the night on another 1 yard dive, giving Dakota a 29-0 advantage at the half.
The Indians would tack on one more score in the 3rd quarter as QB Kyle Bordner hooked up with E Carter Drake on a 49 yard pitch and catch to extend the lead to 35-0. From their, both teams began to enter in subs to finish out the night.
Dakota would put up 496 yards of offense on the night, with 398 yards rushing and 98 yards passing. The Indians attack was led by Engelbrecht as he rushed 13 times for a game high 130 yards and 2 TD. Cassidy finished his night with 8 carries and 95 yards to go along with his 2 scores. Other contributors to the rushing attack were Mason Peters with 6 rushes for 46 yards and Grant Gallagher with 14 carries for 91 yards. Bordner led the passing attack going 4-8 for 98 yards and 1 TD, as Drake hauled in 1 pass for 49 yards and 1 TD, Englebrecht added 2 receptions for 30 yards, and Peters had 1 grab for 15 yards.
Galena was led by Colton Bauer who finished the game with 13 attempts for 15 yards and Keiran DuPlessis had a team high 23 yards rushing. Galena finished the night with 132 yards of offense as they rushed for 42 yards and passed for 94 yards.
Up Next:
Dakota 1-0 @ AFC 1-0| Galena 0-1 @ East Dubuque 0-1
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