'Dogs cruise past Tornadoes 33-6

It sure seems easy to march down the field when you have Hunter Rohde in your backfield.

The junior Le Mars tailback carried 20 times for 215 yards - an average of 10.8 per carry - and four touchdowns as the Bulldogs defeated host Storm Lake 33-6 in Class 3A District 1 football action on Friday in Storm Lake.

With the win, Le Mars (4-1, 3-0) kept pace with No. 4 Heelan at the top of the district.

(Sentinel photo by Roy Tucker) Le Mars' Hunter Rohde rushes for first down yardage in Friday's 33-6 win at Storm Lake. [Click to enlarge]

Rohde has recorded a new season-high in rushing yards during each of the Bulldogs' five games this season and has scored four touchdowns two weeks in a row.

"(Rohde) has the ability to make things happen," Le Mars head coach Jim Boyd said. "He's not the fastest kid, but he has good vision and he makes cuts and uses his blocks very well. The thing I like about him is that he has a lot of yards after contact. It takes more than one guy to bring him down."

Le Mars struggled early before erupting for 20 second quarter points to turn a scoreless game into a rout.

(Sentinel photo by Roy Tucker) Le Mars' Tim Miner and Curt Durr bring down Storm Lake quarterback Bobby Brown during Friday's 33-6 win over the Tornadoes. [Click to enlarge]

"It was a chess game trying to figure out how to attack the other guy," Boyd said. "Our offensive line for some reason didn't come off our line the way we wanted them to. We weren't doing anything different, but we told them about it.

"Sometimes early in a ballgame things aren't clicking and you have to adjust and we just didn't do a very good job. Once we got it figured out in the second quarter, then we started moving the ball."

Kyan Ludwig put up the first points of the game as he ran in from eight yards out and Rohde added runs of nine and 37 yards before halftime to put the 'Dogs out in front.

"I don't think people realize how good Storm Lake is," Boyd said. "They may be coming up on the short end of the win column, but defensively they gave us some real problems and offensively they were real solid."

Rohde added touchdown runs of 11 and 19 yards to cap Le Mars' scoring effort in the second half as the Bulldogs' defense took over.

Storm Lake quarterbacks Bobby Brown and Michael McCabe combined to complete 22-of-38 pass attempts for 213 yards, but did not throw any touchdown passes. The Tornadoes tallied their lone score on a Brown 1-yard run late in the final quarter.

Boyd was particularly pleased with the play of his secondary, which included Jeremy Bohlke (nine tackles) and Anthony Schimek (seven).

"I can't say enough good things about (Schimek)," Boyd said. "For as small as he is, he plays like he's six-foot and he plays so much faster than what he is and that's because he's so smart. He reads coverages, he reads the offense very well and he reacts."

Curt Durr led the 'Dogs with 10.5 total tackles while Tyler Kommes and Bryce Dahm each added eight and Zach Reed and Tim Miner each had 5.5. Reed had a sack and 1.5 tackles for loss.

The 'Dogs will now turn their attention to MOC-Floyd Valley (3-2, 2-1) which visits next Friday. The Dutch are coming off a 35-7 loss to Heelan last Friday.

"I think they're very physical and they have some big kids and some talented kids," Boyd said. "They had a taste of the playoffs last year and they want to get back in the hunt."