A striking victory

The New Rockford-Sheyenne/Maddock Rockets just keep on rollin'.

Taking on the Nelson County Chargers at home on Friday, Sept. 13, the Rockets made it look easy as they dispatched yet another team in dominant fashion.

NR-S/M entered last night's game ranked No. 3 in the state, and fans and players alike felt they should be ranked even higher after taking down the previous No. 2 team a week earlier.

The Rockets were determined to make quick work of Nelson County, who've been struggling so far this season.

This time last year, Nelson County was among the stronger teams in 9-man football, and they nearly defeated NR-S/M in their regular season matchup. On this occasion, however, the Rockets made it clear that they're simply in a different league this year.

They got the scoring started early with a 17-yard touchdown connection between quarterback Easton Simon and wide receiver Easton Benz, who dove across the goal line for the evening's first score very shortly after kickoff.

Benz has emerged as a favorite target of Simon so far this year, and as they did in the game against North Prairie a week earlier, they once again connected for multiple touchdowns on Friday.

In fact, Simon and Benz also connected for a touchdown on the following drive, this time on a 34-yard pass after Benz emerged in the secondary completely uncovered for what's sure to be among the easier touchdown catches so far in his varsity career.

On defense, meanwhile, the Rockets were just as forceful. The Chargers found themselves moving backwards more often than forward for most of the first half, and not once did they cross the 50-yard line into NR-S/M territory.

Simon got his third touchdown pass of the first quarter when he connected with Bennett Meier from the 5-yard line, and a few minutes later it was Kage Walford's turn to catch a completely uncontested touchdown from Simon, as the Nelson County secondary suffered yet another busted coverage.

By the end of the first quarter, Simon had thrown four touchdown passes and the Rockets held a 28-0 advantage.

In the second quarter Simon threw two more touchdown passes, one each to Meier and Paxton Neppl, and then Carter Engebretson earned his first rushing touchdown of the evening.

With the Chargers simply incapable of making progress on offense, the Rockets' lead simply grew more and more insurmountable. The score was 48-0 when the halftime buzzer finally sounded, and yet again the Rockets would be playing an inconsequential second half.

With the clock running, NR-S/M earned two more touchdowns in the final two quarters – another connection between Simon and Benz in the third quarter, and then a touchdown pass from Simon to Grant Engebretson in the fourth, bringing the final score to 60-0.

The Chargers, meanwhile, raced against the clock at the end of the fourth in an attempt to get one on the board against the Rockets' reserve, but came up short of the goal line as the buzzer sounded.The final score in New Rockford was 60-0.

It was yet another dominant display from the Rockets and in particular their quarterback, Easton Simon, who finished the night with a whopping eight touchdown passes.

Stats from Friday's game against Nelson County will be published in next week's edition of the Transcript.

Elsewhere around the state in 9-man football, No. 1 LaMoure-Litchville/Marion survived a close and low-scoring first half to ultimately take down May-Port CG by a score of 42-8.

No. 2 Westhope-Newburg-Glenburn took down Divide County 68-15, and No. 4 South Border survived a relatively close game against Napoleon/G-S 28-14. No. 5 Linton/HMB also defeated New Salem-Almont 28-6, meaning every team in the top five won this week.

Meanwhile, the Rockets' next opponents, Four Winds, defeated Larimore by a score of 44-14 on Friday.

The undefeated Rockets will play Four Winds – who are now 3-1 this season – in Fort Totten on Friday, Sept. 20 at 7 p.m.