Frazee forces late fumble to edge Park Rapids 22-21

By Chad Koenen

Publisher

In a game that will be remembered as one of the wildest finishes in recent Frazee football memory, the Frazee Hornets stood strong and forced a fumble with Park Rapids on the three-yard line and time expiring on Tuesday night to defeat the Panthers 22-21. The wild finish came after the Panthers scored with just 54 seconds remaining in the game, but were stopped short on the two-point conversion to preserve a one point lead for the Hornets. After an onside kick, the Panthers completed a long pass to the Frazee three-yard line with just seconds remaining on the clock, before the Hornets forced a fumble to come away with the win.

Unfortunately, waiting in the wings on Saturday was top ranked and undefeated Barnesville who ended Frazee’s season by a score of 58-6. The game was close early on, but Barnesville pulled away to set up the Section 8AA finals between top seeded Barnesville and third seeded Hawley on Friday night in Fargo. 

Despite falling in the semi-finals for the third straight year, head coach Russ Hackel said he was pleased with how the Hornets have continued to grow this year. 

“We’ve grown a lot over the season. We made a lot of improvements and we have grown as a team,” said Hackel.

Saturday’s loss ends Frazee’s season with a record of 4-6 overall as they advanced to the second round of the section playoffs for the third straight year. 

Tuesday

Fifth seeded Frazee avenged a wild 57-23 loss just two weeks ago with a thrilling 22-21 win over fourth seeded Park Rapids in the opening round of the Section 8AA tournament on Tuesday night.

“That was a builder for our program just to be in a game like that. Having to play them a couple of weeks earlier and not having the same outcoming. That was the biggest thing,” said said head coach Russ Hackel. “Park Rapids was a very good game for us.”

Leading 22-15 late in the fourth quarter, Park Rapids was able to find the end zone when Carter Hirt scored with just 54 seconds remaining in the game. The Panthers went for two-points, but were stopped by the Hornet defense to leave Frazee in front by one point with less-than a minute remaining. The Panthers were able to recover the onside kick to put the Hornets back on defense and the game on the line.

“All we needed to do was recover the onside kick. We gave them hope and they got it. They got it all the way down to the three-yard-line (and fumbled),” said Hackel.

Park Rapids received a glimmer of hope to pull off a tremendous comeback when Panthers receiver Ryan Carroll caught a 42-yard pass and was stopped on the Frazee three-yard line. As time was winding down, Park Rapids fumbled the football and it was recovered
by the Hornets in the end zone as Frazee escaped with a 22-21 win to advance to the second round of the Section 8AA tournament.

Frazee took a 14-0 lead at the half when Dawson Lyman scored on a two-yard run in the first quarter and Asher Blaine caught a 20-yard pass from Adam Vigen in the second quarter.

Park Rapids struck back with 15 points in the third quarter on a pair of touchdown passes from 14 and 38-yards respectively to give them a 15-14 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

Lyman put the Hornets in front for good when he scored his second touchdown of the game on a one-yard run to make the score 20-15. Vigen found Blaine on the two-point conversion to give the Hornets a 22-15 lead that would prove the be the difference as Park Rapids scored late, but was unable to convert the two-point conversion. 

The Hornets were led offensively by Vigen who went 5-8 passing for 60 yards, while Cade Nagel rushed 13 times for 83 yards and Lyman carried the ball 16 times for 64 yards and a pair of touchdowns.