Trojans Defeated at DSU Home Opener

Carl Curtis

This past Saturday, the Trojan football team played their home opener in Madison, taking on their in state rivals Dakota Wesleyen. Dakota State looked to bounce back after a tough loss against Midland last weekend in their season opener. The Trojans lost an ugly one with a scored of 56 to 20.

In the first half of the game, offense could not find a rhythm to get in the end zone. DWU came out and grabbed an early 26 to 0 lead. The Trojans finally got on the board on a pick six by defensive end Josh Lict. The running game struggled to get positive yards in the first half. The passing attack for the Trojans lacked, as they only had 118 yards in the air. Quarterback Brandon Large had pressure from every angle last night when the Trojans tried to go to the air.

“There is a lot of stuff we need to work on, but things will start clicking” said Junior quarterback Brandon Large

All in all it seems like nothing could go right for the Trojans Saturday night. There were a couple momentum swings that the Trojans could not capitalize off of. The Trojans had 10 turnovers compared to DWU’s 4.

The top performers for the offense were Jeb Olsen who had 25 carries for 147 yards. Large was 12-23 with one touchdown and two interceptions. Stacy Berg had 2 catches for 60 yards but was injured on his last catch in the 4th quarter. Wes Dauz added 4 catches for 27 yards. Robert Ortiz recorded the only offensive touchdown in the fourth quarter on a 19-yard pass from Large.

On defense Craig Hertz had 13 tackles, Monize had 12 and Logan and Knudsen both recorded 11. The defense had two interceptions, one by Josh

Lict for a 22-yard touchdown and the other was by Dana Felderman who returned his for 49 yards. The defense also forced two safeties against DWU.

The Trojans will try and bounce back next Saturday against their very first meeting with Doane College, Kickoff is set for 4pm at Trojan Field.