Unbeaten Red River survives Wahpeton scare 34-28 – Grand Forks Herald

WAHPETON, N.D. – The Grand Forks Red River football team survived its first scare of the season Friday night.

The Roughriders built a 20-point lead in the second half but had to hold on for a 34-28 win over Wahpeton.

“We didn’t quite get it right,” Red River coach Vyrn Muir said. “You did well tonight.”

Red River, the unanimous No. 1 team in the state and now undefeated at 4-0, had not given up more than 12 points all season.

In fact, the Roughriders had given up just 25 points combined in their last five games.

But Red River fell behind at halftime in Wahpeton. Treyton Mauch, who ran for more than 200 yards, opened the scoring with a 1-yard touchdown run.

After Red River scored on two short touchdown runs by Ray Dusek and Thomas Kraft, Wahpeton scored on a 32-yard pass from Bjorn Kubela to Brayden Steffens with four seconds left in the second quarter to take a 14-12 lead into halftime.

The Riders dominated the start of the second half.

Red River took a 20-14 lead on the first drive of the second half with a 52-yard pass from Pearce Parks to Kaeden Maki.

The Riders extended the lead to 28-14 with a 17-yard run by Kraft, one play after a 12-yard catch by Cam Klefstad on a fourth-and-17.

Red River took a 34-14 lead with 2:19 left in the third quarter after a 58-yard run by Kraft that fell just short of the 200-yard rushing mark.

But the Huskies made things interesting from there. Wahpeton cut the lead to 34-20 with a 66-yard touchdown run by Mauch on a third-and-2 carry with 43 seconds left in the third quarter.

Wahpeton then scored on the only scoring play of the fourth quarter. 4:54 minutes before the end of the game, Mauch scored from 12 meters away. Kubela had a 2-point conversion keeper to make the score 34-28 for Red River.

However, the Riders would remain in control in the final moments.

Red River scored two key conversions in the third and fifth periods. The first came with 2:20 left on a 13-yard catch by Kraft and the second was an 8-yard grab by Klefstad with 1:37 left.

“Mauch played one of the better games I’ve ever seen him play, and the quarterback did a good job,” Muir said. “I’m glad we got the win because we didn’t play the best. I give credit to Mauch and Wahpeton’s plays on a lot of our plays, but there are a lot of technical things on our end that we could have done a better job of helping us.

Staff reports and local scoreboards from the Grand Forks Herald Sports Desk.