Alex Riley on his way to make a 36-yard TD. Photos by John Gilbert.

UMD’s embattled football team and its slow-starting men’s hockey team unknowingly shared the same strategy last weekend, with both desperately needing to turn conservative to assure victories, and pulling it all together to register a weekend sweep.

The football team had incomprehensibly lost three games in the final seconds in its quest to win the Northern Sun Intercollegiate title, and coach Curt Wiese turned things over to a new member of his impressive posse of newcomers in the running back stable. Alex Riley, a solid 6-foot, 205-pound freshman from Waconia, surprised himself by carrying the ball on 12 rushes for 103 yards and three touchdowns to lead the Bulldogs to a 35-21 victory over Minot State Saturday at Malosky Stadium.

“I didn’t realize I had that many carries,” said Riley, who had been patiently waiting for his turn to show what he could do. “This week and last week I got some chances to show what I could do and gain some confidence in my ability. I knew there might not be a lot of chances as a freshman, but when they came, I wanted to show I could do it.”

Riley scored from 4 yards out to put UMD ahead 7-0, and after Minot closed to 14-7, Riley swept to the left side, broke a tackle at the Minot 30, and raced up the left sideline 38 yards for his second touchdown in the second quarter. 

Again, Minot followed the script that had been working against UMD by scoring in the third quarter to cut the deficit to 21-14. Kyle Walljasper led the offense down the field, but when it got close, he gave it to Riley again, and he slashed into the end zone from the 1 to make it 28-14

One more time, Minot scored to make it 28-21 at the end of three quarters, but Walljasper hit Jimmy Durocher for a 30-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter, when the Bulldogs simply turned the screws defensively to tighten up every detail and win the game 35-21.

“It’s good to get back in the win column,” said Coach Curt Wiese. “We played hard, with a lot of emotion, and in the fourth quarter we finished it off, for the first time in a while.”

The hockey team, smarting from two tough losses against Minnesota at AMSOIL, faced Stonehill, a fledgling Massachusetts college in its third year of being Division I. The Bulldogs were far from overpowering, but won 5-1 on Friday, outshooting the Skyhawks 43-17. 

Freshman goalie Adam Gajan won 5-1 and 2-1 in UMD's sweep over Stonehill at AMSOIL Arena.

Goaltender Adam Gajan didn’t have a lot of work but was solid, and captain Dominic James led the offense both nights. James followed up an opening goal by freshman Callum Arnott with a goal for a 2-0 first period. 

Stonehill got its goal to open the second period, but Anthony Menghini and then James on a power play made it 4-1. 

James was on the end boards on another power play midway through the third period when he caught a slick pass in from Aaron Pionk and relayed a no-look pass to the slot, where freshman Jason Shaugabay one-timed it for the 5-1 finish.

On Saturday night, Gajan stopped 15 shots as UMD had a 27-15 edge on the shot chart, but luckily, Dominic James was on hand to choreograph the power play, and he scored on a 2-man edge late in the first period, then circled around the defense to score on another power play for a 2-0 lead in the second. 

UMD coach Scott Sandelin had warned his players that they’d need to play harder to win the second game, and that proved true. The Bulldogs got a bit looser in the third period, and Justin Gibson scored with a long, screened shot to cut the lead to 2-1.

The Bulldogs didn’t score any more, but they did heed Sandelin and tightened up their defensive zone play. 

“It’s good to go into the bye week with two wins,” said Sandelin. “But there’s a lot of work to do.”
Part of that work was a fact lost amid the happiness of sweeping two wins — if UMD hadn’t gotten the power plays to set up James, the Bulldogs would have been shut out Saturday night. A couple full-strength goals might be prudent with North Dakota coming to AMSOIL in two weeks.

UMD sophomore Madeline Guetzkow helped the Bulldogs sweep Bemidji State 3-0 at Romano Gym.

UMD’s volleyball team has sputtered much of the season, but one bright light has been the play of sophomore Madeline Guetzkow, from Mayer Lutheran. A lean, left-handed outside hitter, she plays sparingly behind the veterans, but in nearlyevery game she leads the team in hitting percentage. Against Bemidji State last week, UMD won 25-17, 25-10 and 25-16 to sweep amid a three-game winning streak.

Former Duluth Cathedral star Tommy Paul spoke at a dedication of the late Kevin Hoene at Longview Tennis Club's terrace.

Hockey Tribute

When former Duluth Cathedral and Notre Dame star center Kevin Hoene died last spring, a number of his former teammates decided to create a tribute to him, and they made the decision to locate it in the courtyard of Longview Tennis Club, which used to be covered with ice every winter, and it was where brothers Phil and Kevin Hoene became standout centermen on those Cathedral Hilltoppers teams that captured the hearts of Northern Minnesota fans and also won a half-dozen independent school championships. 

Hoene returned to Duluth and became a successful businessman, but his former teammates wanted to honor his hockey leadership.

The tribute was last week at Longview, and Tommy Paul, one of Kevin’s wingers, 

was the MC and pulled the whole thing together. A plaque will be placed at the courtyard adjacent to the tennis courts, urging the new generation of athletes to take inspiration from the hours of dedicated work Kevin had to develop his skills. 

A number of former teammates attended the ceremony, including coach Mike Randolph, who played on those Cathedral teams before starting his long and record-setting coaching career.

The plaque to be installed in the courtyard of Longview, which was taken over by area hockey players every winter.