Saints win in all facets in 67-0 rout

By Kristi Nixon

SHEFFIELD — Offense, defense, special teams, you name it, St. Ansgar football excelled at it against West Fork.

The Saints scored seven offensive touchdowns, one of which was the result of a turnover, two interception returns for senior Griffin Carlson and a punt return for a TD in the 67-0 shutout of the Warhawks on Friday, Sept. 3.

“We had a lot of things to clean up from last week and I felt like we represented ourselves very well,” St. Ansgar head coach Drew Clevenger said “Certainly, the other team had something to do with that, but we focused a lot on the Saints this week and we cleaned up our offense.”

West Fork went 3-and-out in its opening drive and the ensuing punt went out of bounds near midfield, helping the Saints cash in with a short field. They went nine plays, ending with a one-yard touchdown run by Mason Bissen, one of two offensive scores for the junior running back.

Once again, the Warhawks went 3-and-out on their next possession and the ensuing punt resulted in a 48-yard punt return by Bradley Hackenmiller.

The first sustained drive by West Fork ended on an interception by Tate Mayer, that set up the Saints with another short field on the 15. Four plays later, Bissen went in for his second score as the Saints held a 20-0 lead after the first quarter.

Defense continued to prevail, forcing another West Fork punt, this time it was muffed for another short field. One play later, Mayer called his own number for 27 yards and Logan Rysavy’s kick made it 27-0.

The next two Warhawks possessions resulted in pick-sixes for Carlson, who had a total of 82 yards of interception returns, the second pick came off of a tipped pass.

“I don’t know,” Carlson said. “I was just seeing the open guy and going to the open guy, I guess. It all just happened so fast.

“I was just going over to make the tackle and it was right there, so I decided to catch it.”