Wolfpack beats Providence Academy; complete perfect regular season

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The Wolfpack line up for the signing of the national anthem, a tradition for ten year old Providence Academy to have their choir sing the song on their homecoming. The Wolfpack won the game 39-20 to complete a perfect 8-0 regular season.

In the previous eight years before the Wolfpack the SPA Spartans football team had won seven games, with only one non-losing season. This year, the Wolfpack have won eight games without losing a single game. They completed a perfect regular season on Friday Oct. 9 with their 38-20 win over Providence Academy on their homecoming.

The Wolfpack completed a perfect regular season on Friday Oct. 9 with their 38-20 win over Providence Academy on their homecoming.

Providence came out of the gate quick scoring the first touchdown of the game with a 27 yard pass from NDSU commit, senior quarterback Henry Van Dellen to senior wide receiver Drew Lahr. The second quarter, like many times this year, was when the Wolfpack made the difference in the game. They were able to put up 19 unanswered points in the quarter.

Senior Sam Pickerign had two TD passes, one to Johnny Erickson who made an acrobatic catch and fought his way into the end-zone from the one-yard line, and the second to senior Dalante Peyton. Peyton had a mismatch all night going up against one cornerback for most snaps and at most a deep safety. He was able to exploit this matchup getting two touchdowns, the second coming late on in the fourth quarter to put the game away. “It felt good having the pass game being wide open because of the run,” Peyton said, “And I’m glad that I was able to keep the run game open with those catches.”

Senior Jake Richardson also made a huge impact in the third quarter in all three phases of the game. Defensively, he had several sacks tackles for a loss, which were really effective in stopping the high powered passing offense of the Lions. On special teams, Richardson got back to the punter and effected every punt from Providence. Offensively, Richardson came in for the second time this season (he went out to catch a pass against Minneapolis South) on a 3rd & 30 deep in Wolfpack territory. Naturally the 6’3″ 229 lb linebacker busted the play open for 50 yards. After the play coach Colin Quin continued to put Richardson in at running back and he was able get 75 yards on the ground. “Coach [Colin Quin] was like ‘Jake how’d you feel about playing running back,” Richardson said, “And I said ‘I’ll do anything for the team’ so I rolled with it and it worked out great.”

It’s crazy, now we got the first round bye and two more wins until state.

— Senior Dalante Peyton

The win completed a perfect regular season for the Wolfpack bring their record to 8-0 and making SMB one of the five remaining undefeated teams in the state. “It’s crazy,” Peyton said, “Now we got the first round bye and two more wins until state.” With their undefeated record, the Wolfpack got the number one seed in section 4AAAAA without playing a team in Class 5A or above. Although the Wolfpack outscored their opponents 305-65, and have had two or more touchdowns scored on their defense twice throughout the entire season.

The Wolfpack will play next on Tuesday Oct. 20 on Gary Aamoth Jr. field at the Blake School-Hopkins campus in section semifinals against the winner of the Minneapolis Washburn-Mahtomedi game on this Thursday.