Shrine Bowl: 9-man East wins in 4th quarter after West rally

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FARGO — The 9-man East team has never lost the Shrine Bowl two years in a row, and they weren’t about to start now.

Zach Rynning threw for 175 yards and connected with Napoleon-Gackle-Streeter’s Wade Rath-Wald twice for touchdowns as the East held off the West 28-20 in the 39th annual North Dakota Shrine Bowl game on Saturday at Fargo Shanley’s Sid Cichy Stadium.

“It feels like an honor,” said Rynning, from Kittson County Central, Minn. “I’m really appreciative I was brought in to play on this team. It’s just a blast to play on.”

The West scored on the opening drive of the game when starting quarterback Matthew Landenberger of Central McLean found Divide County’s Andreas Holm across the middle for a 12-yard touchdown pass that put the West up 6-0.

Rath-Wald answered back for the East with a 51-yard reception from quarterback Jonah Schwartzenberger, his N-G-S teammate, for his first touchdown of the night.

Rynning squeezed by on a 1-yard quarterback sneak for a TD and later chucked a 53-yard pass to Justin Arp who caught it in the corner of the end zone to put the East up 20-6.

Rath-Wald finished with 71 yards and two touchdowns on five receptions. Arp — a Sargent Central graduate who will be a preferred walk-on at North Dakota State this fall — caught two passes for 69 yards and a touchdown.

“He’s an amazing athlete,” Rynning said of Rath-Wald. “He’s got great hands and seemed to be in the right place at the right time.”

The West wasn’t ready to give up though as Landenberger found Calvin Oberg of Ulen-Hitterdal (Minn.) 23 yards downfield for a touchdown to tie the game up at 20-20 in the third quarter.

But the East got back on top when Brett Schurman tackled quarterback McCahen Schweitzer a Mott-Regent graduate, in the end zone for a safety in the fourth quarter.

“The tight end wasn’t really getting off so I figured I’d go hard and once he rolled back, I knew I had him.” said Schurman, from North Border

That set up an 11-play, 60-yard drive capped by Rath-Wald’s second touchdown reception that set the score at 28-20, a lead the East would not lose.

“When we were jelling, we were jelling,” East head coach Kelly McCleary said. “We made too many mistakes to be in that ball game. We were killing ourselves on penalties, but we made some big plays that helped us out a lot. It’s an all-star game so you like to have fun, but at the end you’d like to win.”

East 8 12 2 6 — 28

West 6 8 6 0 — 20

FIRST QUARTER

W–Holm 12 pass from Landenberger (kick failed),

E–Rath-Wald 51 pass from Schwartzenberger (Arp from Scwartzenberger)

SECOND QUARTER

E–Rynning 1 run (kick failed)

E–Arp 53 pass from Rynning (kick failed)

W–Holm 14 pass from Landenberger (Holm pass from Landenberger)

THIRD QUARTER

W–Oberg 23 pass from Landenberger (kick failed)

E–Safety

FOURTH QUARTER

E–Rath-Wald 14 pass from Rynning (kick failed)

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING: E, Schwartzenberger 7-22, Bell 7-4, Rynning 3-9, Hartz 3-(-2), Jochim 1-1. W, Sager 5-7, Oberg 3-10, Landenberger 2-11, Bakke 6-2, Holm 3-14.

PASSING: E, Schwartzenberger 11-17-1 119 yards. Rynning 12-17-1 175 yards. W, Landenberger 13-16-0 154 yards, Schweitzer 4-9-0 7 yards.

RECEIVING: E, Hartz 2-14, Wentzel 4-66, Rath-Wald 5-71, Arp 2-69, Laxdal 2-18, Elhard 1-8, Flanagan 1-10. W, Sager 2-21, Holm 6-56, Haugen 3-29, Oberg 5-31, Hulstrand 1-3, Young 1-9.

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