Lakeville North had to overcome deficits twice Friday night — including a two-touchdown hole early before the Panthers’ offense even touched the ball.
But on each occasion, senior running back Sam Ripplinger and his teammates proved equal to the task.
Ripplinger rushed for a pair of touchdowns, including one with 9:02 remaining that put the Panthers on top to stay in a 24-21 victory over Rosemount before a big crowd at Lakeville North High School.
“(Head coach Brian) Vossen coaches us to be resilient and it showed,” said Ripplinger, who finished with 30 carries for 143 yards. “That was a tough game, but we came out on top.”
Indeed they did, improving to 2-0 in the process. But that outcome seemed in doubt early in the first quarter. The Rosemount running game — which came up big in a win over Eastview a week ago — was effective again to start Friday.
On the game’s third play from scrimmage, Irish junior Ja’khi Hollie rumbled 74 yards for a touchdown. Then, after Rosemount recovered a fumble on the ensuing kickoff, senior quarterback Gavin Caswell kept the ball himself on a 10-yard scamper to put the Irish on top 14-0.
“When something like that happens so quickly, it’s about diagnosing what the mistakes were, getting them fixed, then really putting some time into calming the kids down,” Vossen said.
“We got punched in the mouth early and we had to find a way to regroup.”
Lakeville North did manage to stem the tide with a 28-yard field goal by senior Drew Kolander on its first possession, then the Panther defense found its groove — forcing two-straight Rosemount punts.
It was after the second of those that senior quarterback Riley Grossman led his team 90 yards to score on a 1-yard run by Ripplinger that cut the gap to 14-10 with 1:55 to play before halftime.
“We just kept our heads up,” Ripplinger said. “We knew the plays were there. The line blocked great and that got us going.”
The Panthers’ defense then came up big as well, recovering a fumble at the Rosemount 32-yard line with under a minute to go. From there, Grossman connected with senior Caleb Pedersen on a 9-yard touchdown pass to put Lakeville North on top 17-14 at halftime.
“We got in the position we did (early) because they turned the ball over,” said Irish coach Jeff Erdmann, whose team fell to 1-1. “Then, when we turned the ball over, they did the same thing to us.
“That’s high school football. You can’t turn the ball over.”
Erdmann’s team didn’t roll over, though, retaking the lead at 21-17 on a 3-yard touchdown run by senior Finn Biegel with 2:03 to play in the third quarter.
But on Lakeville North’s next possession, a 27-yard pass from Grossman to senior Ayden Forsgren helped set up a touchdown run by Ripplinger from just outside the 1-yard line. The Panthers then drove all the way to the Rosemount 4 on their final possession to run out the clock.
Grossman finished with 194 yards passing, completing 20 of 25 passes.
“What a great game for the players,” Vossen said. “I don’t even know how many passes Riley threw tonight. But it seemed like every time they gave our receivers space, he hit them right on the fly.
“When the pass starts to become like the run, and you can be guaranteed a few yards on each play, it opens up the box for the running game. So it was just a really well-done job by the offense kind of hitting them with a bunch of different options.”
Now the Panthers move on to a road matchup at crosstown rival Lakeville South next week. The Cougars improved to 1-1 with a 50-29 win over Farmington Friday.
“We made some mistakes tonight, and we made some mistakes (in a season-opening win over Stillwater) last week, but I feel like we’re going to keep coming,” Ripplinger said.
“It was a roller coaster tonight, but we figured it out and got through it. We found a way to win.”
