Raiders strike down Thunder in season opener
Jordan Rotering of Arcadia tried to secure an interception along the sideline during their game against Osseo-Fairchild on Friday. (Times photograph by Andrew Dannehy)
Arcadia defenders Austin Hughes, Devon Baier and Max Sobotta worked to bring down Osseo-Fairchild’s Lucas Frase during their game on Friday. (Times photograph by Andrew Dannehy)
As soon as Max Blaschko broke into the open field, the Arcadia football team knew it had figured out how to move the ball on the ground as it downed Osseo-Fairchild, 32-0, in its season opener at Cashen Field last week.
The Raiders took an 8-0 lead into halftime, but had struggled to sustain its offense, partly because it couldn’t get anything going on the ground. Coach Derek Updike and his staff reviewed replays at halftime and found ways to get the running game going.
“We kind of thought we could punch one into the second level there,” Updike said. “But we didn’t know Max was going to the house.”
Blaschko got to the second level cleanly before breaking a tackle and outrunning the Thunder for the 64-yard touchdown run. The two-point conversion try was stopped, but the touchdown on the first play of the second half put Arcadia ahead 14-0.
Updike said viewing the replays helped the team identify the strong and weak sides of the defense.
“It felt like once we started to feel where the bubble was on defense, we got a little more confidence,” Updike said.
Arcadia’s next drive began at the O-F 25 following a short punt. Blaschko ran for 11 yards on the first play before Devon Baier finished the drive with an eight-yard touchdown run two plays later. Again, the two-point try was no good, but Arcadia was starting to pull away with a 20-0 lead and about seven minutes remaining in the third quarter.
The next Arcadia possession began in O-F territory after a stop on a fourth down play. Max Sobotta quickly moved Arcadia down the field as he gained 39 yards on the first play to put Arcadia at the Thunder six-yard line. Three plays later Kaiden Rotering kept the ball on a quarterback sweep and found the end zone. The two-point pass was incomplete as Arcadia led 26-0 with 2:19 left in the third.
The final score came from Rotering as he hooked up with his brother, Jordan, for a 25-yard touchdown. Kaiden Rotering lofted a pass for Jordan Rotering, who made an over-the-shoulder grab and sprinted to the end zone.
The Rotering duo also hooked up for Arcadia’s first score of the game, another 25-yard pass on the first possession. On that play, Arcadia faced a fourth down before Kaiden Rotering threw to his brother in traffic. Two O-F defenders were in the area, but Jordan Rotering made a play on the ball before turning up field for the touchdown.
The Thunder threatened Arcadia’s defense a few times early in the game, but Arcadia dominated the second half, despite missing a few players.
“I was happy because we had a few guys out … so our depth wasn’t there,” Updike said. “We had to go deep into the freshmen/sophomore pool and I thought everybody was able to add value to the team.”
The Thunder marched down the field late in the game against mostly Arcadia reserves, but the Raiders got the stop inside the five-yard line to preserve the shutout.
O-F averaged just 2.3 yards per play in the game as they went two-for-12 on third downs and one-for-six on fourth downs.
Kaiden Rotering completed nine-of-15 passes for 124 yards, two touchdowns and an interception. Most of his yardage came in the first half as he connected with Maverick Drazkowski for 23 yards and his brother for a 25-yard touchdown on the team’s first drive.
The junior quarterback passed to Ted Teske for a 36-yard completion on the team’s second possession, but struggles in the running game made it difficult to sustain drives. In addition to seeing the soft spots in the defense, Updike said the team changed its play calls a bit.
“The quick hitters seemed to be more effective than our slower developing plays,” Updike said. “We struggled to maintain the blocks because (O-F is) pretty good and they have big athletes.”
While O-F didn’t win a game last season, Updike said he was concerned because the team returned 12 seniors with a combination of size and athleticism.
Blaschko led Arcadia with 104 yards on the ground on just nine attempts. The team ran for 186 yards, averaging nearly seven yards per attempts.
Arcadia
Rushing (att./yds.) — Blaschko 9/104 Sobotta 2/40 Baier 8/28 Rotering 2/2 Team 6/23
Receiving (rec./yds.) — J. Rotering 2/50 Drazkowski 2/26 Sobotta 3/10 Baier 1/1 Teske 1/36
Passing (comp./att./yds.) — K. Rotering 9/15/124
Tackles (solo/asts.) — Sobotta 10/3 Blaschko 7/4 Teske 5/2 Baier 3/0 Rotering 2/0 Drazkowski 2/0 Olmos Arias 2/2 Barrientos 2/0 Pronschinske 1/1 Wozney 1/0 Lyga 1/0 Hughes 0/1
