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You’d have to say that Joe Carter looked good running the football at Malosky Stadium. Can’t say whether he’ll ever get the chance to attain his ambition to play for the UMD Bulldogs, but the Proctor senior got closer than most could ever hope to when the Rails defeated an impressive Esko outfit for the Section 7AAA playoff championship. There were three or four of us trying, with futility, to stay dry while walking the sideline and shooting pictures of the game. One was a woman wearing a Proctor letter jacket, even though we were on the Esko side. Esko took a 6-3 lead into the second quarter, and stellar quarterback Marc Peterson was passing the Eskomos toward a distancing touchdown. But Proctor’s Frank Napoli intercepted his touchdown try and returned it 44 yards to midfield. A minute later, Proctor’s No. 4 broke through the Esko line and sprinted straight to the end zone, ignoring a diving last defender on a 21-yard run to put the Rails ahead 10-6. Then, in a blur of activity, the same green-clad No. 4 sped around right end and simply outran everyone for a 34-yard touchdown, making it 17-6. A quick exchange later, and No. 4 again circled right end and outran the Esko defense, and his three touchdowns in the span of 3:17 lifted Proctor from the 6-3 deficit to a 24-6 halftime lead.

In the persistent rain, I walked up to the woman shielding her camera with the Proctor jacket. “Any idea who No. 4 for Proctor is?” I asked. “That’s Joe Carter,” the woman said. I remarked about how fast the kid was, and wondered how Proctor could be behind 6-3 after one quarter unless Carter had been left on the team bus by mistake. The woman added that he was also a real good kid, and then she quickly pointed out why she knew so much about him and why she might be a bit prejudiced: “He’s my son,” she said proudly. She added that he’s always wanted to someday play for UMD, which made it fitting that he was quickly filling up the Malosky Stadium scoreboard. In the second half, Esko made an inspired rally to get back into the game when Peterson passed to Aaron Olson for two touchdowns in  a1:02 span to cut the deficit to 24-21. So Carter went back to work, scoring his fourth touchdown and piling up a Proctor school record yardage for one game. The Rails needed all of them, and I hope Joe Carter’s mom got some good pictures of her kid. If not, I’ve got a couple.

UMD EYES REPEAT SENIOR DAY

I apologized to Chris Vandervest, one of the posse of outstanding seniors on UMD’s team, but I didn’t get too weepy for Senior Day last Saturday, when the Bulldogs whipped Souithwest Minnesota State 57-3 in the final home game of the regular season. The reason, I told Vandervest, was that I anticipated UMD might win their final two games on the road, at University of Mary and Northern State, and wind up at home for a playoff game - and maybe a follow-up “Senior Day.” Vandervest agreed wholeheartedly. “Exactly,” he said. “We plan on winning the next two and being at home for the playoffs. But Mary’s got a good team; they played Mankato well. And Northern too. But we need a couple of tougher games to finish up with, to get ready for the playoffs.”

Coach Curt Wiese got into the spirit of senior day, substituting liberally when it became obvious early that UMD’s starters would be running to daylight with ease. Logan Lauters ran for an early touchdown, then Zach Zweifel sprinted up the right sideline and gathered in a Drew Bauer pass for a 33-yard touchdown, the first of two thrown by Bauer in the first quarter. In the second quarter, Wiese put outside linebacker Nate Zuk -- another of those seniors -- in on offense and Bauer promptly hit him for a touchdown pass. Bauer connected with Aaron Roth on another TD pass before going to the bench for Eric Kline’s signal-calling.

Southwest got its three points on a 34-yard field goal with time running out in the first half. Wiese let other reserves rack up 15 more points in the second half, but it could have been name-your-score.
“It was great to be able to give scoring chances to a few guys who have put in a lot of time to help us make this program what it is,” Wiese said.

UMD WOMEN TRIP OVER HUSKIES

St. Cloud State hadn’t beaten UMD’s women’s team for four years, and maybe that figured into last weekend’s stunning Bulldog vulnerability against the Huskies at AMSOIL Arena. In case you missed it, the teams played a scoreless first period, and then Julia Gilbert, from Hermantown, and no relation to any writers we might know, scored a power play goal for St. Cloud State. Amy Olson of Roseau scored 8 minutes later, on another power play, then Sydney Burghardt scored, and Olson got her second. Just like that, St. Cloud State had taken a 4-0 lead on goaltender Kayla Black, whose play wasn’t sharp, but was probably sharper than most of her teammates’ functioning level. Coach Shannon Miller called it the “worst performance this program has had in my 15 years here.”

That would cover every game UMD has played in varsity hockey, and there wasn’t reason to disagree. I asked if the media might have benefitted by having a recording device in the UMD locker room after the second period, and Miller laughed, sarcastically, and acknowledged it might have been pretty lively. Her strong words worked, to some extent. There was no undoing the feeble first two periods, but at least the Bulldogs came out shooting, peppering St. Cloud State goaltender Julie Friend with 31 shots in the final 20 minutes.

Freshman defenseman Lara Stalder finally scored for UMD, but the Bulldogs lost 4-1. Having seen most of UMD’s games over 15 years, and paying attention to all of them, I asked what the record for shots in one period was. After two days of studious record-searching, the UMD staff said that 30 was the most every found, and agreed that the 31 shots on goal in the third period was a team record. Small consolation.
The next night, UMD figured to come out smoking and blow out the previously winless St. Cloud bunch.

But Jenna McParland’s power play goal in the second period was all UMD could muster. Kayla Black, playing much better, was headed for a well-deserved shutout in the final minute of the third period, and 1-0 would work just fine on the battered psyches. But with the goalie pulled, Julia Gilbert whacked away to knock in a rebound with 23 seconds left, and the Huskies had a 1-1 tie.
It stood up through overtime, and UMD gained the extra point when Meghan Huertas and McParland scored on the shootout, and Black stopped both Huskies. We think Shannon Miller was pleased with the performance, if not the result, but she was, as they say, unavailable for comment. “It was better than last night,” said co-captain Jamie Kenyon. “We played well at Mankato to win twice, and if we had played that well this weekend we would’ve won both games. We’ve got a week off, and we’ve got a lot of things to work on before we play Ohio State.”