Langdon, ND (Newsdakota.com) – The Oakes Tornados gave everything they had against the top team from Region 2 but came up 2 yards shy of taking home a 1st round upset falling to the RV Langdon Area/Edmore/Munich Cardinals by a final score of 27-24.
The game started out with a long LEM drive as they pushed deep into Oakes territory. However the Tornados defense would stiffen up and stop the Cardinal drive at the 6 yard line turning the ball over on downs. The Tornados would go 3 and out on their opening drive. The Cards would then score on their 2nd play of their second drive when Easton Schaefer would dial up Cody Amble for a 61 yard touchdown pass with 4:24 left in the quarter. They would also score the 2 point conversion making it 8-0. Oakes wouldn’t be denied however as several big runs brought Oakes deep into LEM territory and then quarterback Beau Thorpe would scramble into the end zone from 6 yards out to make it 8-7 with 2:10 left on the quarter.
Oakes would then take the lead in the 2nd quarter as they would once again get several big runs from Carter Ptacek and Braysen Sagert to bring them down into the red zone again. Chris Titus would then get the touchdown on a toss play to him from 5 yards out to get the rushing td making it 14-8 with 9:55 left in the half. LEM would struggle to get offense on the board till late in the half when they would take several shots at the end zone and finally get in from a yard out with :20 left on the clock with Jayden Lee getting the TD. The score at half would be 15-14 LEM leading.
The 2nd half saw several punts to get started before Oakes would eventually march back down the field as they would get their passing going with Thorpe finding Titus a couple times. Sagert would finish the drive with a 1 yard touchdown run with 4:11 left in the 3rd returning the lead to Oakes at 22-15 after the 2 point conversion. LEM would score just over a minute later with another huge touchdown pass this time Schaefer would find Tanner McDonald who would wrestle for a 50/50 ball with Dylan Harris before running into the end zone for the 67 yard touchdown pass. The Cardinals would fail the 2 point conversion allowing Oakes to maintain at 22-21 lead with 3:05 left in the 3rd.
LEM would force Oakes into a 3 and out and then once again march down the field at the end of the 3rd quarter they would then reclaim the lead with 11:32 left in the game with Eastyn Schaefer scoring on a QB Sneak to make it 27-22 again failing the 2 point conversion. The teams would trade the ball back and forth before Oakes started to put together a great drive marching down the field and getting to the 2 yard line with just under 3 to go in the game they struggled to get into the end zone as the Cardinal defense would lock it up on the goal line. On 4th and goal they would attempt a screen pass to Carter Ptacek who wouldn’t be able to handle the ball with several Cardinals also getting to him before he could fully corral it. This would essentially give LEM the win as they would hold the ball the rest of the game and get a 4th down with 2 seconds left at their own 17 yard line Schaefer would take the snap and run to the back of his endzone for the safety to end the game and give the Cardinals the 1st round win with the final being 27-24.
The LEM Cardinals now travel out to Killdeer.
Oakes’ season comes to a close with a 3-6 record.