On Saturday afternoon, the Chatfield Gophers defeated the Cannon Falls Bombers 44-34 at John Birch Park. This is the bomber team's first defeat since 2019. The first housing loss since October of that year.
Cannon Falls ended their first undefeated school history last season. Unfortunately, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Minnesota State High School League decided not to host any football or volleyball state playoffs.
Last week the Bombers won their first football ranking. Head coach Dan Meyers said at the Cannon Falls Coach Show on Saturday that they must be able to prevent the Gophers from making huge running attacks.
Cannon Falls led 20-6 at halftime, but Chatfield tied the score with 38 points in the second half and kept the Bombers at 14 points.
Coach Meyers is proud of the fighting his team has shown and said they will learn from their failures.
Freshman Jack Meyers performed well in Cannon Falls' defense, with two interceptions and five tackles. Junior Colten Black completed 12 tackles for the Bombers.
Chatfield accumulated 499 yards in the game. 319 rushed, 180 passed by.
The ground distance of Cannon Falls is 329 yards and the air distance is 70 yards.
It is not common for a team (especially in high school football games) to have two rushers running 100 yards and losing a game, but this is what happened.
Cannon Falls senior running back 6'0 195 pounds Colton Loeschke and 6'0 175 pounds Carson Hammel ran for 103 yards and 156 yards, respectively. Both have touchdowns. Loescke scored the game's first touchdown in a 29-yard reception after junior quarterback Colton Otto shot a field goal of 10 minutes and 26 seconds.
Chatfield responded with a 57-yard touchdown with 3:13 left in the first quarter. Both teams missed their extra points, so it was 6-6.
The Bomber Advanced 6'0 195 pounds Riley Keenan had a 2-yard TD run until 9:29 in the half. Plus points are not good.
The final score in the first half was 56 points when Hamel ran into the end zone from 10 yards. Otto hit Loeschke for a two-point conversion.
Chatfield 5'11 195-pound junior quarterback/running back Sam Backer took over the game in the second half with 72, 45 and 12 yard touchdowns. He also threw a touchdown pass for 25 yards to the 6'4 185-pound junior receiver Cole Johnson.
Coach Meyers said Buck was an "outstanding athlete." They dispersed the field with five receivers in the second half, and Becker was alone in the backcourt, "If he is very good at catchers open or run, he will throw. He broke multiple tackles in the game. ball."
The Gophers converted two points on three of the four scores in the second half.
The bombers had a landing every quarter in the second half. Their score in the third quarter allowed them to enter the fourth quarter 30-26.
The final Cannon Falls TD was a 6-yard run by Loeschke, rewriting the score to 38-34 with a score of 5 minutes and 28 seconds.
Supporters scored from 12 yards with 2:03 to play for the Gophers. The two-point attempt failed, but it basically secured the victory for Chatfield.
The Bombers will head to LaCrescent next Friday, and then host state number one Plainview-Elgin-Millville on Friday, October 15, 2021, before heading to Lake City on Wednesday, October 20, 2021 .
Here are the results of the other 11 Minnesota high school football games held on Saturday.
This is great, don't you think?