Football: Warriors have a role in homecoming

Warriors vs. Tech

When: 2 p.m. Saturday

Where: At Adamson Field, Brainerd

Last meeting: Brainerd won 7-0 in 2013

The series: Tech leads 54-35

Twitter: @JeremyMillsop

Radio: KLIZ-AM (1380)

Web stream: www.brainerdradio.net .

"Wreck Tech" is the theme for Saturday's Brainerd High School homecoming game against the St. Cloud Tech Tigers at Adamson Field.

And Brainerd has designated Saturday's game as a "Tackle Cancer" event where fans can make donations that will benefit the Randy Shaver Cancer Research and Community Fund and additional cancer research projects.

As much as Warriors coach Ron Stolski wants his players to participate in as many homecoming activities as possible, there is a task at hand.

"Since we started going to homecoming on Saturday it has really been a wonderful week for the school and the community, at least that's my view," he said. "The fact we play on Saturday allows a lot of alumni to come back who maybe couldn't if it was a Friday night game.

"We want our kids to enjoy homecoming. The concern you always have, just from a nervous coach's perspective, is that you get too much homecoming and you're not ready to play. But our kids have been able to handle that pretty well. We said to the kids everyone kind of has a role in homecoming for community spirit, but our role is to play a good football game."

On their way to three wins in the season's first four games, the Warriors have had to battle deficits and injuries. They trailed Willmar 19-0 and wound up losing 39-20. They fell behind St. Cloud Apollo 17-0 and roared back to win 28-24. A few starters have missed games with injuries. Leading rusher and leading scorer Mitch Rahn is out indefinitely after suffering a knee injury at Apollo.

"One of the things we've been displaying is a certain toughness," Stolski said. "Even in the loss to Willmar we came back hard, we didn't stop playing hard. Our last two games when we needed to make drives to win we've done that. Hats off to the kids and the coaches who've been making good decisions, but it's basically the kids.

"We've limited our turnovers and we have an excellent kicking game, not just kicking it but coverage and all the rest."

Brainerd has totaled five turnovers (4 interceptions, 1 fumble) while forcing four. Punter Chris Pederson has averaged 31.8 yards an attempt. David Saxum has kicked 10 of 12 extra-point attempts and is averaging 47.5 yards per kickoff. Allen Jevning is averaging 14.8 yards per punt return and 37 yards per kickoff return.

At quarterback, the Warriors rotate senior Evan Brecht and junior Hanson Devine. Brecht has rushed for 117 yards and a score and has thrown for another 139 yards. Devine has passed for 345 yards and three scores.

"Each quarterback brings something to the game, Brecht's big run gets us within three points (at Apollo), a couple big throws by Devine," Stolski said. "The fun part of coaching is trying to put all the pieces into places so the kids enjoy and have success."

Tech is coming off a 48-0 hammering administered by Moorhead last week. The Spuds' Jade Lawrence ran wild, running for six consecutive first-half touchdowns on runs of 3, 13, 32, 29, 60 and 84 yards. He finished with 252 yards on just 12 carries. He scored three of the first four times he touched the ball.

"We got down right away," Tech coach Gregg Martig said. "We gave up some big runs. We had some mental mistakes on special teams that hurt us ... it was just a lot of mental mistakes. The Lawrence kid is good. He's definitely a big-play guy."

The Tigers are young and balanced offensively. Sophomore quarterback Chris Backes has thrown for 428 yards and five TDs. Sophomore Devin Vouk has rushed for 349 yards and four TDs and senior Brennan Paulsen for 264 yards and two TDs.Jake Martig is the leading receiver with 11 catches for 149 yards and two TDs.

"We lost a lot of seniors that had played 2-3 years," Gregg Martig said, "so it's a little different (Tech team). We've got young guys playing. Our numbers are down in the upper classes so a lot of sophomores are seeing time."

At midseason, and with homecoming this week, Stolski took the opportunity to recognize the entire Warrior program.

"How proud we are of the sophomore and JV teams," he said. "You have a (program) made up of say 85-90 kids and all of them obviously can't get into a varsity game. Our JV has played well as have the sophomores. They're all part of the Warrior football program. We're just as proud of those kids as we are the kids who get a little more time on Friday nights."

MIKE BIALKA may be reached at mike.bialka@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5861. Follow on Twitter at www.twitter.com/bertsballpark .

Brainerd Warriors

OFFENSE

QB: 10-Hanson Devine, 16-Evan Brecht, 2-Chris Pederson

RB: 15-Paul Augustinack, 21-Allen Jevning, 2-Chris Pederson, 33-Zach Winger, 22-Cooper Tollefson, 20-Chris Veith, 25-Tim O'Reilly, 18-Colton Borg

TE: 90-Ted Nelson, 95-Josh Howieson

WR: 81-Quinn McElfresh, 8-Cole Spieker, 5-Steven Severson, 2-Chris Pederson, 85-Brady Kline, 84-Jordan Whitehead, 88-Devan Fiedler, 82-Riley Fabian

T: 73-Eric Uphoff, 63-Kyler Kennedy, 60-Michael Horton, 71-Ryan Powers

G: 60-Michael Horton, 61-Clayton Caird, 76-Zach Rude, 51-Seth Desrocher

C: 62-Jon Bostrom, 52-Sean Laughton, 63-Kyler Kennedy

DEFENSE

DL: 90-Ted Nelson, 56-Matt Thompson, 95-Josh Howieson, 96-Nick Stettler, 58-Jared Winter, 57-Zach Stangl, 54-Dylan Crandall

OLB: 12-Cole Sellnow, 35-Cole DeRosier, 34-Arron Martin, 88-Devan Fiedler, 36-C.J. Wohl

ILB: 41-Taylor Streiff, 42-Anthony Cory, 55-Tristan Brecht, 53-Jordan Jarmuzak

CB: 7-Jaquon Cogshell, 14-Isaiah Stewart, 18-Colton Borg, 21-Allen Jevning, 24-Nick Peterson, 23-Cole Harmer

S: 32-Will Stolski, 2-Chris Pederson, 43-Hayden Bukowski, 11-Adam Fischer, 27-Matt Hill

SPECIAL TEAMS

Punter: 2-Chris Pederson, 93-Devan Liebeg

PK-KO: 89-David Saxum, 4-Isaiah Stewart

Holder: 16-Evan Brecht

KO/punt return: 2-Chris Pederson, 21-Allan Jevning, 7-Jaquon Cogshell, 81-Quinn McElfresh, 8-Cole Spieker, 20-Chris Veith

Long snapper: 36-C.J. Wohl

St. Cloud Tech Tigers

OFFENSE

QB: 5-Chris Backes

RB: 21-Devin Vouk

RB: 32-Brennan Paulsen

WR: 3-Jake Martig

WR: 8-Andrew Weber

WR: 44-Brevyn Spann-Ford

LT: 57-Dylan Carlson

LG: 53-Derek Kiffmeyer

C: 61-Micah Mangel

RG: 71-Jack Mussman

RT: 54-Eugene Slagstad, 56-Thomas Kaczor

DEFENSE

DT: 50-Luke Muller

NG: 58-Cody Hennek

DT: 60-Logan Voit

OLB: 89-Max Martig

ILB: 25-Nick Schmitt

ILB: 43-Jacob Johnson

OLB: 29-Riley Peterson

CB: 10-Jake Mussman

CB: 41-Alex Van Heel

S: 33-Drew Amundson

S: 7-Brad Lidberg

SPECIAL TEAMS

P: 36-Ethan Gray

K: 37-Kaleb Woodman

Warriors regular season

Aug 29, Fergus Falls - WON 30-6

Sept. 5, Willmar - Lost 39-20

Sept. 12, at Alexandria - WON 20-7

Sept. 19, at St. Cloud Apollo - WON 28-24

Sept. 27, St. Cloud Tech 2 p.m. (homecoming)

Oct. 3, at Bemidji 7 p.m.

Oct. 10, Moorhead 7 p.m.

Oct. 15, at Grand Rapids 7 p.m.

Central Lakes Conference

North Division

Div All

Bemidji 2-0 4-0

Moorhead 2-0 4-0

Brainerd 2-0 3-1

Alexandria 0-2 1-3

Fergus Falls 0-2 1-3

Grand Rapids 0-2 0-4

South Division

Sartell 2-0 3-1

St. Cloud Apollo 2-0 2-2

Willmar 1-1 3-1

Rocori 1-1 2-1

St. Cloud Tech 0-2 1-3

Sauk Rapids 0-2 0-4

Sept. 19

Brainerd 28, Apollo 24

Bemidji 31, Sartell 0

Willmar 37, Grand Rapids 7

Fergus Falls 14, Sauk Rapids

Moorhead 48, Tech 0

Sept. 20

Alexandria 36, Rocori 10

Friday, Sept. 26

Apollo at Sauk Rapids

Sauk Rapids at Moorhead

Grand Rapids at Sartell

Alexandria at Willmar

Saturday, Sept. 27

Tech at Brainerd

Bemidji at Rocori

Section 7, Class 5A

Sect All

Bemidji 0-0 4-0

Chisago Lakes 1-0 4-0

Brainerd 0-0 3-1

St. Francis 2-0 2-2

Cambridge-Isanti 1-1 3-1

Duluth East 0-3 0-4

Sept. 19

Brainerd 28, Apollo 24

Bemidji 31, Sartell 0

St. Francis 45, Cambridge 12

Chisago Lakes 21, Princeton 14

Rogers 70, Duluth East 6

Friday, Sept. 26

Rogers at Cambridge

St. Michael-Albertville vs. Chisago Lakes at Lindstrom

North Branch at Duluth East

Duluth Denfeld at St. Francis

Saturday, Sept. 27

Tech at Brainerd

Bemidji at Rocori

Warriors statistics

FOUR GAMES

PASSING Com Att Yds TD

Hanson Devine 20 42 345 3

Evan Brecht 13 32 139 0

Chris Pederson 2 3 32 1

Paul Augustinack 1 1 19 1

RUSHING Att Yds Avg TD

Mitch Rahn 63 334 5.3 7

Paul Augustinack 42 201 4.8 0

Evan Brecht 24 117 4.9 1

Allen Jevning 17 89 5.2 0

Zach Winger 6 24 4.0 0

Chris Pederson 10 23 2.3 0

Chris Veith 3 18 6.0 0

Colton Borg 1 10 10.0 0

Hanson Devine 8 2 0.3 0

Cooper Tollefson 2 -1 -0.5 0

Team 3 -9 x x

RECEIVING No Yds Avg TD

Quinnn McElfresh 13 234 18.0 1

Cole Spieker 13 245 18.8 2

Steven Severson 3 30 10.0 1

Chris Pederson 4 22 5.5 0

Paul Augustinack 2 14 7.0 1

Mitch Rahn 1 -3 -3.0 0

SCORING TD 2PT EPK TP

Mitch Rahn 7 0 0 42

Cole Spieker 2 0 0 12

Steve Severson 1 0 0 6

David Saxum 0 0 6 6

Paul Augustinack 1 0 0 6

Chris Pederson 1 0 0 6

Quinn McElfresh 1 0 0 6

Evan Brecht 1 0 0 6

Allen Jevning 0 1 0 2

Defense-Safety 0 0 0 2

Points per-game average: Brainerd 24.5, opposition 19.0

Yards per game average: Brainerd 337.5, opposition 296.8

DEFENSE

vs. Apollo

Tackle leaders: Streiff 21, Cory 12, Cogshell 12, Pederson 10, T. Brecht 10, Sellnow 9, Stolski 9, C. DeRosier 9, Nelson 9

Interception: Hill

Sack: Cory

Pass break-ups: Cogshell 2, Jevning

Pass rushes: Cory 5, C. DeRosier, Nelson

Season

Fumble recoveries: Howieson 2

Sacks: Cory 3, Sellnow 2.5, Nelson 2, Streiff 1, C. DeRosier .5

Interceptions: Howieson, Cogshell

Tackle leaders: Streiff 62, Sellnow 59, Stolski 58, Cory 58, C. DeRosier 47, Cogshell 40, Nelson 39