North Suffers Tough Loss in Homecoming Game

Fargo North’s homecoming was filled with festivities throughout the whole week culminating in the football game against Davies on Friday. However, the structure of the week was a little bit different than other years. North’s homecoming was the first of the Fargo schools, with ours being held on only the third week of school. Also, coronation was held on a Tuesday morning rather in than its usual evening time slot. However, the football team had to block out the unorthodox schedule to get ready for their game against Fargo Davies. Sophomore Blayne Anderson said “The jitters are obviously there but you just have to try and treat it like any other game.” North had high aspirations for the game, as they had started the season with their first 2-0 start since 2005. Sophomore Blayne Anderson started of the scoring in the second quarter with a 58-yard touchdown run, a play that earned the KVRR sports play of the week. After the Blayne’s 58-yard scamper to the end zone, senior quarterback Hyatt Martineau floated a beautiful 22-yard strike to senior Wide Receiver Chandler Ibach. The start time didn’t affect them either, “You just try and not think about it. If you let it get into your head, it can affect the way you play,” said Martineau. Going into halftime, North led Davies 13-0 and was looking to keep the momentum going. However, things began to fall apart for the Spartans. In the second half Davies’ run game began to take over. They scored on a 34-yard to make the score 13-7 in the third quarter. The score stayed the same until late in the fourth quarter when Davies scored on a short run to tie the game at 13. What followed was an unfortunate turn of events that changed the outcome of the game. At first, it appeared that Davies had missed the extra-point and that the game would still be tied at 13 giving North a shot to win the game or at least send the game to overtime. However, a false start on Davies gave them another shot. Now you may be thinking, why didn’t we just decline the penalty? As it turns out though, false starts are dead-ball penalties, or penalties that occur before the play starts. And as a result, you can’t decline those types of penalties. So with another chance Davies made the PAT and made the score 14-13. North had one more shot with a little under two minutes left in the game, but Davies sealed the game with an interception. It was a brutal loss with North looking to go 3-0 for the first time in forever. The loss in the homecoming game may have dampened the excitement of homecoming week a little bit, but it doesn’t take away from a hard fought game and a successful homecoming week.