KINDRED - After Dickinson Trinity handed Kindred a lopsided loss in Dickinson last season, the Vikings seemed motivated to return the favor.
Friday night, Kindred delivered the Titans a 49-27 loss to drop Trinity to 1-1 this season. Kindred improved to 2-0 on the strength of a rushing attack that piled up 291 yards.
"Kindred's a good football team. We think they'll be an East playoff team, and they showed it tonight," Titans head coach John Odermann said. "They looked at what we gave them last year at home and wanted to get some revenge for that."
The Vikings led 42-27 at halftime but were limited to just one scoring drive in the second half.
"Our defense played a lot better in the second half," Odermann said. "They didn't call the dogs off, but we just did a lot better of a job. That hole that we dug for ourselves was just too much to overcome. We just didn't have it tonight."
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Kindred went ahead early with a pair of rushing scores in the first quarter, but Titans senior quarterback Lucas Jones found junior receiver Noah Sickler for a 20-yard touchdown to cut that lead in half by the end of the opening frame.
Kindred scored four touchdowns in the second quarter - two of which came from Nicky Zink, who finished with 73 total yards and the two scores on just two carries. Four other Vikings also found the end zone on the ground in the game.
"They just gashed us on the option. We weren't doing our job - weren't getting to the pitch back, weren't getting to the quarterback - and they just marched down the field," Odermann said. "It wasn't a lot of big gainers. It was death by a thousand cuts.
"For the most part, it was a tale of two games. Last week, we were aggressive defensively, and we weren't that same team that we saw last week. We didn't show up on the physical side of the game."
Jones finished 11 of 21 passing for 215 yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions. He also had a 25-yard rushing touchdown.
Sickler, in addition to his 20-yard score, also caught a 60-yarder in the second quarter. In all, he made six receptions for 176 yards.
Sophomore Kaden Kuntz caught four passes for 30 yards and had a 27-yard touchdown in the second quarter. He also led the team with 52 rushing yards on three carries.
Logan Karsky and Joe Bates each led the Titans with five tackles.
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Kindred 49, Dickinson Trinity 27
DT 7 20 0 0 - 27
K 14 28 7 0 - 49
First quarter
K - Zach Cossett 12 run (Brock Benson kick)
K - 8 run (Benson kick)
DT - Lucas Jones 20 pass Noah Sickler (Alex Scherr kick)
Second quarter
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K - 4 run (Benson kick)
K - Ethan Lingen 24 run (Benson kick)
DT - Jones 25 run (Scherr kick)
K - Nicky Zink 67 run (Benson kick)
DT - Jones 27 pass Kaden Kuntz (Scherr kick)
DT - Jones 60 pass Sickler (Scherr kick)
K - Zink 6 run (Benson kick)
Third quarter
K - 37 pass (Benson kick)
Fourth quarter
No scoring
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING: DT, Kuntz 3-52; Jones 3-20 1 TD; Sickler 1-16; Dawson Kram 11-10; Joe Bates 1-7. K, Zink 2-73 2 TDs, Lingen 2-19 1 TD; Zach Cossette 1-12 1 TD.
PASSING: DT, Jones 11-21-2 215 yards, 3 TDs. K, Lingen 0-6-0.
RECEIVING: DT, Sicker 6-176 2 TDs; Kuntz 4-30 1 TD; Dillan Kovash 3-16.
DEFENSIVE: DT, Logan Karsky 5 tackles, 1 TFL; Bates 5 tackles.
