Sports, Local Schools

Coming off a third straight championship in the Bigfork Tournament, the Littlefork-Big Falls Vikings suffered one of its most disappointing defeats of the fall in a 3-2 loss Monday at Tower Soudan.
L-BF erased a 2-0 deficit, but lost in five games (25-13, 25-19, 9-25, 18-25, 15-7).
After losing the Northern Lakes Conference championship on Thursday to Nashwauk-Keewatin, the Vikings rebounded with three victories Saturday to grab the Bigfork Tournament title.

Big third quarter powers Rails past FHS

The Broncos came in fired up for Friday’s Homecoming contest against Proctor, but the Rails spoiled the celebration with a 37-21 victory at Sports Stadium.
The Rails, who have won four in a row after opening the season 0-2, scored a late touchdown in the first half to take a 21-7 lead and opened it up in the third, finishing the quarter up 34-7.
“It’s a big mental turning point,” Broncos coach Stuart Nordquist said about the late first-half score. “Should’ve never happened. Was a big breakdown by a couple of individuals.”

By TOM KLEIN, Cook-Orr Timberjay

COOK — Littlefork-Big Falls scored three touchdowns Friday before the first quarter ended as the Vikings spoiled Cook's homecoming and cruised to a 53-0 win over the Little Gophers. The win improved the Vikings to 6-0 for the season.
"We seem to play better when we get off to a quick start," said Vikings coach Derek Bilben. "Momentum for our team is big. If we get down, we play that way. But if we get up, we play that way also."

Girls finish ninth, boys 19th

The Bronco girls cross country team is hitting its stride at the right time of the season, giving coach Paul Hjelle numerous options for his varsity lineup.
Saturday the Broncos competed at the annual Swain Invitational and the girls finished ninth out of 30 teams with 293 points. The boys team came in 19th out of 30 with 499 points.
“We had some nice efforts out of our runners today,” Hjelle said. “This is the most challenging course we will face all year and the kids handled it pretty good.”

The Littlefork-Big Falls Vikings have set the bar high for success at the Bigfork Tournament.
Littlefork-Big Falls won its third straight Bigfork Tournament — in three years of the tourney’s existence — Saturday with impressive victories over Northome-Kelliher (25-15, 25-12), Cherry (25-20, 25-18) and Bigfork (25-22, 25-19).
Eight teams participated and all of them came out of Section 7A.

Coming off an impressive victory Thursday over Ely, the Falls Broncos failed to ride any momentum into Saturday’s Esko Tournament.
The Broncos lost to Cloquet (25-20, 25-23), Esko (25-17, 25-17) and Greenway (25-9, 25-17) before beating Moose Lake-Willow River (25-23, 25-15) in the seventh-place match.
“After a great match against Ely, our overall effort and team play did not carry over to the tournament where we faced some tough competition,” Broncos coach Erin Shikowsky said. “It was certainly not our best showing, but we were happy to end the day on a good note with a win.”

The Broncos used Saturday’s swim meet at Duluth’s Morgan Park as a reward for six of their older varsity participants.
Morgan Bruess, Paige Herzig, Tamera Stouffer, Erika Mitchell, Ashley Hasbargen and Rachel Adams all participated, and the six finished 11th out of 11. However, the meet was viewed as a reward as some teams competed with as many as 40 swimmers.
“We had a nice time,” Broncos coach Jill Herzig said.

Littlefork-Big Falls fails to hold leads twice in 3-0 defeat

LITTLEFORK — After winning back-to-back Northern Lakes Conference titles in coach Kim Wimmer’s first two seasons, the Littlefork-Big Falls Vikings were eager to win it back after watching Hill City take the crown last year.
The Vikings then beat Hill City on Tuesday to set up a battle of conference unbeatens at home against Nashwauk-Keewatin.

The Broncos made quick work of Ely on the road Thursday 3-0 (25-12, 25-13, 25-20).
Sydney Gordon led the Broncos (9-5) with 13 kills and seven ace serves, while Sophie Fredrickson tallied eight kills. Danika Stelton moved the ball around and had 20 set assists and Taylor Raboin made seven digs. Jennessa Spry also added three ace blocks.
“We played with energy, we hustled and offensively we were tougher than we’ve been all season,” Falls coach Erin Shikowsky said. “Everyone contributed to the win and that made the match a ton of fun.”

International Falls lost to Warroad 132-51 Thursday at the Falls Natatorium.
The Broncos failed to grab a top finish, but notched six runner-up finishes.
The four individuals were Tamera Stouffer in the 200-yard individual medley (2 minutes, 48.14 seconds), Rachel Adams in the 50 freestyle (29.31), Morgan Bruess in the 100 backstroke (1:14.90) and Paige Herzig in the 100 breaststroke (1:26.04). The two relays to finish second were Bruess, Herzig, Stouffer and Adams in the 200 medley (2:12.63) and Adams, Dorothy Johnson, Stouffer and Herzig in the 200 freestyle (1:59.73).