Fort Dodge, Ia (Northwest Iowa Now) – It was a road trip to Fort Dodge for the Spencer Tigers Friday night in Class 4A District 1 action.
The Tigers had a rough start, fumbling the football on their first drive. The Dodgers followed that up with a 40-yard pass completion from Tru McBride to Kyree Rochon, breaking into the Spencer Red Zone. From there though, it was all Spencer.
The Tigers would force a turnover on downs with their backs against the wall, then went on a 17-play march, consuming over 9 minutes of game time before punching it in with a Temi Otaniyi 4-yard Touchdown run.
Spencer found the endzone again on a 10-play drive that went over 5 minutes this time, capped off with a Jace McCormick Touchdown Run to make it 14-0.
That score remained going into the locker room. Spencer held Fort Dodge to only 59 yards of total offense in the first half, 40 of those on the Dodgers first play from scrimmage.
Fort Dodge had a promising drive to start the second half, getting deep inside Spencer territory. The Tigers would pick up an interception though to keep the Dodgers off the scoreboard. Spencer followed up the forced turnover with another marathon drive that totaled 15 plays and almost 9 minutes. Most importantly, that long drive ended in a Touchdown as Larson Vulk barreled in for his 7th rushing Touchdown of the year, putting Spencer up 21-0 just underway in the 4th quarter.
After a few desperation drives from the Dodgers, Spencer was able to pick up another score on a Colton Platt Touchdown run. A botched snap by the Tigers on the PAT was ran in by Vulk, bringing the game to what would eventually be its final score of 29-0.
Fort Dodge Quarterback Tru McBride had entered the game with over 1000 yards passing, 9 Touchdowns and no interceptions. Spencer would not only contain McBride to only 5 completed passes in 17 attempts for 73 yards but intercepted him 3 times on the evening.
The Tigers ran the ball 57 times for 257 yards and 4 Touchdowns. Temi Otaniyi had his best performance as a Spencer Fullback, carrying the ball 37 times for 154 yards and a Touchdown.
Spencer improves to 4-2 on the year and are now 2-0 in Class 4A District 1. Next week, Spencer travels to Sioux City on Thursday where they will face West High. Fort Dodge falls to 4-2 on the year and 0-2 in Class 4A District 1. The Dodgers will try to bounce back from two straight losses when they host Storm Lake.
