Taye Manns swept right end for some of his 200-plus yards, resulting in three of his four touchdowns in Denfeld’s 48-14 romp against East. Photos by John Gilbert.

Taye Manns took off around right end for Denfeld and slammed into a herd of East tacklers after a short gain. But when they unpiled, Manns took a couple steps and then dropped back down to the turf. 
The capacity crowd was hushed, and watched as the Northland’s most spectacular running back was helped to the sideline.

The Hunters ran a play, but quicker than you can say “Marc Heikkinen Field at Walt Hunting Stadium,” quarterback Lee Brooks dropped back to pass and cut loose with a high, long pass, beyond the last East defenders, as a streaking No. 33 in all maroon ran under it, caught it, and sprinted the rest of the way for a 52-yard touchdown.

Cale Larson (11) wrestled an interception away from Duluth East.

Manns had already rushed for three touchdowns, including 46- and 56-yard dashes, and Brooks was in the process of throwing three touchdown passes in the second half as the Hunters pulled away for a lopsided 48-14 rout in the annual city rivalry between the two remaining Duluth high schools. 

At 4-0, Manns has scored 18 touchdowns and is well on his way to reaching 1,000 yards rushing for the explosive Denfeld offense.

After the game, as he was walking across the field with an icebag on his left knee, I asked him if he was really hurt or — because of his quick return and touchdown — only a decoy move. 
“No, I got hit and was worried for a minute there,” he said. “It got better right away, though. And, that would be a good decoy move.”

But it wasn’t a rout at the beginning, even though East handed an early 14-0 lead to the Hunters by fumbling on the first two Greyhound chances with the ball. 

When the first play of the game resulted in a fumble, which was pounced on by Denfeld’s Addison McKay, Denfeld went up 6-0. 

Denfeld linebacker Addison McKay (51) recovered when East fumbled on the first play to start Denfeld on its 48-14 victory.

Another kickoff, another botched ball exchange recovered by Denfeld, and it was 14-0. East closed it to 14-6 with a spirited drive, but Manns took off around end for a 56-yard dash and a 20-6 lead
With the biggest rivalry game of the season out of the way, Denfeld this week must go to North Branch for what might be its biggest challenge of the regular season.

The biggest challenge the UMD women’s hockey team may face this season came suddenly last weekend at Columbus, Ohio, against defending NCAA champion and opening No. 1 ranked Ohio State. 

With the Buckeyes reloaded with recruits and portal imports, there was no way to anticipate a happy debut for new UMD coach Laura Schuler, but the Bulldogs pulled off a 2-1 shocker on Saturday, when Olivia Wallin banked in a centering pass from the end boards off Buckeyes goaltender Amanda Thiele for a 1-1 tie late in the second period, and as the final minute ticked away toward overtime, Ida Karlsson scored from the right circle with 0:23 remaining and UMD won 2-1 while being outshot 40-14.

Two plays after Taye Manns was helped off with a leg cramp, he returned to blow past the defense for a 52-yard Denfeld touchdown pass from Lee Brooks.

UMD sophomore goaltender Eve Gascon not only starred in the opener, but gave a repeat performance Sunday, when the Bulldogs trailed1-0 and tied it on Clara Van Wieren’s goal, and took a 2-1 lead when Jenna Lawry scored. 

But the Buckeyes regained the lead at 3-2 in the third period, when Schuler turned things over to freshman forward Caitlin Kraemer, who tied it 3-3 when she broke up the right side, found her pass attempt blocked but regained control for an instant — just long enough to flip a high shot that beat Hailey MacLeod at 4:35. 

MacLeod was a goalie at UMD before deciding she wasn’t going to get enough ice time and transferring to Ohio State. She got further acquainted with Kramer at 14:33 of the third period, when the high-flying freshman carried up the left side and snapped a shot through traffic and past MacLeod, which proved to be the game-winner at 4-3.

The UMD women open at home against Syracuse this weekend at AMSOIL Arena.  

As big rivalries go, the UMD-Concordia volleyball competition is worthy of season highlights every year, no matter when they meet, and it proved to be that way again for the Northern Sun home opener for the Bulldogs at Romano Gym Saturday afternoon.

The Bulldogs deployed the new offensive strategy by coach Jim Boos and held the upper hand through the first set, winning 24-18, behind 4 kills from Samantha Paulson and 3 from sophomore Madeline Guetzkow. 

Sophomore Madeline Guetzkow blasted a shot through Concordia defenders and hit .417 with 12 kills, but UMD lost 3-2.

It was more of the same in the second set when the Bulldogs fell behind early, caught up at 7-7, and led the rest of the way to win 25-21. Guetzkow, a 6-footer from Mayer Lutheran, led with 6 kills on 9 attempts — a stunning .667 hitting percentage — and Cianna Selbitschka had 4 kills.

The anticipated response from Concordia came in the third set, after UMD had taken a 7-3 lead. The Golden Bears kept coming back, and calmly caught up at 8-8 and 9-9, then went on to win 25-19. 
Part of the Bears adjustment was to find ways to block the potent left-handed kills of Guetzkow, who barely played in the third set. She made only brief appearances in the fourth set, too, as no player on either side got more than 3 kills, and Concordia won 25-23 in a defensive battle. 

The deciding fifth set — to 15 instead of 25 — was all but decided early when the Golden Bears rolled up a 5-0 start, and the Bulldogs had a hill to climb. 

A key part of UMD’s rally came when Guetzkow came in and blasted a kill to lift UMD to 8-7, then delivered a soft, change-up to stay close at 9-8. 

But the Golden Bears showed their poise and held on, claiming a 15-12 victory and escaped from Romano with a 3-2 triumph in sets.

Guetzkow wound up with 12 kills, matching Selbitschka’s tally, while Paulsen had 11. Concordia’s Mehlayna Straub had 17 and Ellie Sieling and Claudia Stalk added 15 each. Their presence made certain that UMD could never get the feeling the match was comfortably in control.

“No, and at no time is it going to be comfortable against Concordia,” said Boos. “I was happy with the way we played for the most part, and the way we came back in the last three games, but I didn’t think we played well enough to do the things  we like to do for eight or 10 points in a row.”

Asked about Guetzkow, Boos said, “Madeline is a major part of our offense, and that’s why we changed to a 6-2 offense — to get Madeline in there more.”

Both sides played hard and committed some errors along the way. 

“Concordia was steady,” Boos said. “Their consistency was what allowed our errors to be costly.”
The UMD football team took a long busride to get over the 30-29 shocker against Minnesota State-Moorhead, and made the trip to Bismarck, N.D., with a 43-7 romp against the Mary Marauders. Quarterback Kyle Walljasper passed for two touchdowns and ran for another to lead the way, and the Bulldogs return to Malosky Stadium to face Southwest State this weekend.

The big football highlight on the home front was, again, the Minnesota Vikings, who hammered Houston 34-7 as Sam Darnold continued to look like the quarterback Minnesota has needed for about a decade by throwing four touchdown passes.

Kirk Cousins, by the way, looked outstanding against Kansas City but got edged by Pat Mahomes and the Chiefs, who stopped the Falcons on fourth and goal after a couple of unimaginative play calls were futile against Kansas City.

There were numerous other great games in the NFL and in college, not the least of which was Michigan’s remarkable closing drive to upend Southern Cal 27-24, and Illinois beat Nebraska 31-24 in Lincoln to join Indiana and Michigan State as the lone remaining unbeaten Big Ten teams. 

The Gophers? They were smoked 31-14 at home by Iowa in the Bronze Pig game.