Titans beat back Bottineau, 28-13
The Dickinson Trinity football team didn’t have much success this year playing at the Badlands Activities Center.By: Royal McGregor, The Dickinson Press
- Ben Gordon
- Mason Heth
The Dickinson Trinity football team didn’t have much success this year playing at the Badlands Activities Center.
But the Titans are perfect at the newly renamed Biesiot Activities Center.
Trinity scored one touchdown in all four quarters to defeat Bottineau 28-13 on Thursday in a Class 2A, West Region game.
“We needed to win and it was the biggest game of the year,” Trinity head coach Randy Gordon said. “Bottineau is a great team. They played Beulah right to the end.”
With the win, the Titans (5-3, 4-2 West) inch closer to nabbing a playoff spot.
Trinity got a boost from senior running back Mason Heth, who missed the last couple weeks due to a concussion.
Heth had 17 carries for 90 yards, while senior Brendin Steiner added eight carries for 57 yards and a 12-yard touchdown run. The two combined for a solid 1-2 punch for the Titans.
“Brendin and I share the ball a lot,” Heth said. “We have a little bit different styles. I like to run people over. He likes to run around them. It’s pretty equal.”
However, the Braves (1-7, 0-6 West) had their own punch in a single player, Trevor Wettlaufer. The 5-foot-11, 195-pound senior running back rushed for 170 yards on 33 carries and two TDs.
Unfortunately, Wettlaufer was the only dimension for Bottineau offense.
“He’s an awfully good running back,” Bottineau head coach Rob Bedlion said. “He’s had a lot of success this year, even though the team has struggled a bit. We’ve sure leaned on him and he’s came through for us.”
Jeremiah Aberle mustered only 37 yards passing and seven yards rushing for the Braves.
Aberle is the backup to junior starter Harrison Aide, who is out with a broken left wrist.
To the Titans’ credit, the defensive linemen were able to pressure the quarterback in the backfield.
“It’s comforting,” said Trinity senior defensive lineman Dalton Soehren, who had one sack and two tackles for a loss. “It’s good to know we have the speed and ability to get sacks. It’s nice a couple people that can do that.”
On the flip side, Trinity quarterback Ben Gordon carved up the Braves’ secondary, going 11 of 21 for 155 yards and two touchdowns.
The 6-foot, 185-pound senior found four different receivers including Travis Heidt for an acrobatic 19-yard touchdown catch in the second quarter. On the play, Gordon was getting tackled by a pair of Braves lineman.
“We did some things well,” Bedlion said. “We’d had some pretty good success this season with the ground game, but we struggled a little bit with the pass and against the pass.”
The Titans scored their first touchdown with 7 minutes, 2 seconds left in the first quarter on a Steiner 12-yard run.
The turning point was when Bottineau started marching down the field with Trinity leading 21-13. The Braves failed to covert on fourth-and-5 with 52 seconds left in the third quarter.
Trinity didn’t waste any time, turning the turnover on downs into six points in a span of 57 seconds with a 9-yard touchdown pass from Ben Gordon to senior Jacob Volk on the first play of the fourth quarter.
Volk had three catches for 63 yards and senior Jacob Good had four catches for 46 yards.
“There were definitely ups and downs,” Soehren said. “We had more ups than downs this game. It definitely showed in the end.”
The Titans have a short week, hosting the No. 4-ranked Beulah (6-1, 5-1 West) at 7 p.m. on Tuesday at the BAC.
Randy Gordon said the coaching staff has already started preparing the Miners.
“You got to do a lot of things in three days,” Gordon said. “It’s only day shorter. In fact, they have a shorter week, because they play on Friday.”
Bottineau 0 7 6 0 — 13
Trinity 7 7 7 7 — 28
First quarter
T–Brendin Steiner 12 run (Connor Friske kick), 2:01.
Second quarter
T–Travis Heidt 19 pass from Ben Gordon (Friske kick), 5:56.
B–Trevor Wettlaufer 8 run (Alberto Moncera kick), :19.
Third quarter
B–Wettlaufer 2 run (pass failed), 6:27.
T–Gordon 32 run (Friske kick), 4:18.
Fourth quarter
T–Jacob Volk 9 pass from Gordon (Friske kick), 11:55.
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING: B, Trevor Wettlaufer 33-170, Jeremiah Aberle 17-8, Tanner Bickford 1-0. T, Mason Heth 17-90, Brendin Steiner 8-57, Ben Gordon 10-55, Lane Herberholz 1-0.
PASSING: B, Aberle 4-13-0, 37; Bickford 1-2-0, 0. D, Gordon 11-21-1, 155.
RECEIVING: B, Cody Bedlion 3-24, Cody Beaver 1-13, John Gohman 1-0. T, Jacob Good 4-46, Jacob Volk 3-63, Travis Heidt 2-26, Isiah Binstock 2-20.
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