'Streaks squeak past Wolves
The tables were turned on the Ely Timberwolves.A week after they rallied from a 12-point deficit to beat Nashwauk-Keewatin, the high school football team fell victim to a second-half comeback as Chisholm came from behind to pull out an 18-14 decision."Nashwauk went home with the heartbreak last week and this week we did," said Ely Head Coach Darren Visser, whose team fell back to the .500 mark at 3-3.Ely led the Oct. 5 game 14-6 at the half, but the host Bluestreaks (5-1) - despite losing star back Taylor Skoglund to an injury - scored twice in the third quarter and kept the Wolves off the board in the second half.Tucker Lindberg's five-yard run put Chisholm in front to stay late in the third quarter while the Wolves - who amassed nearly 200 yards of offense in the first half - were held to 92 second-half yards and committed two turnovers."Maybe the worst thing that happened to us was Skoglund going out," said Visser. "There was a big delay and then to go straight in the half, it took some momentum from us and they were able to grab it from us."Other than a 37-yard touchdown pass from Eric Paine to Skoglund in the first quarter, and a 51-yard run by Skoglund early in the game, the Bluestreaks weren't able to muster much against a hard-hitting Ely defense.Senior linebackers A.J. Pope and Nathan Leustek combined for 25 tackles, Bryan Cole pounced on a fumble, and the Wolves controlled the line of scrimmage through the first two quarters.But that changed in the third as Chisholm running back Trevor Simonson stepped up and found holes created by a line that averaged well over 200 pounds up front.Simonson broke through the line on a quick-hitter, racing 47 yards for a score and capping a short march that took less than two minutes.All of a sudden the Wolves' lead was trimmed to 14-12.Ely got a pair of first-half scores from junior back Ryan Willis, who rushed for 148 yards on a game-high 29 carries, but the Bluestreaks put the clamps on that rushing attack in the third quarter.After forcing the Wolves into a three-and-out, Chisholm got the ball right back and drove 63 yards, with Lindberg's run putting the 'Streaks in front to stay.Chisholm went zero-for-three on two-point conversions, but the Wolves couldn't take advantage.Ely couldn't regain the lead even though the defense created several opportunities.The Wolves turned the ball over on downs near midfield early in the final stanza and another drive was cut short by an interception.After a punt, Ely got the ball on its own 22 with 3:30 to go. That possession was cut short when Willis was stopped less than a yard shy of the first down marker on fourth-and-three.Ely forced Chisholm to turn it over on downs at the 11, but the Wolves were out of timeouts and forced into desperation mode.After one first down completion, an interception sealed it and Chisholm escaped."I really feel that except for the first six minutes of the third quarter, we played even or ahead of them the whole game," said Visser. "But we've got to play a whole game... They went into a five-man front and stuffed our running game, and we had a few dropped balls and things that didn't go our way."Andrew Olson added 49 yards rushing for the Wolves and quarterback Pat Lekatz ran for 31 yards.Lekatz went five-for-18 through the air for 51 yards, with Pope catching two balls for 30 yards.Simonson rushed for 105 yards on 14 carries, and completed a 32-yard pass to Jake Pessenda - which came on Chisholm's second scoring drive. Paine was three-for-five for 66 yards.The loss put the Wolves in a jumbled mix in the middle of Section 7A. They need to win their final two games - last night's Homecoming tilt with Mesabi East and Wednesday's home finale against East Central - to be assured of a top-four finish and a first-round home playoff game. Depending on other results, Ely could get a home playoff game with a 4-4 regular season mark.
