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UMD freshman quarterback John Larson completed a 51-yard touchdown run in the second quarter of Saturday's 37-0 victory. Photo credit: John Gilbert

UMD receiver Jason Balts made a sprawling catch in the end zone for UMD's fourth touchdown and a 28-0 halftime lead over Minot State. Photo credit: John Gilbert

Sometimes the TD pass attempts were incomplete, leading to this bit of end zone ballet. Photo credit: John Gilbert

If you chose to run yourself ragged trying to see as many UMD athletic teams as time would permit last weekend, you probably had a Happy Homecoming if you saw what I saw. At the start of all sports seasons, coaches wonder who might step forward and become a catalyst for team success.
 Bulldog football coach Curt Wiese was uncertain which of three young quarterbacks he’d try first to start the season. He decided, then he had to decide again, in the face of injuries. Last weekend, he gave freshman John Larson his second start ever against Minot on homecoming. Larson had been OK in earlier chances, but he was out of sight against Minot.

In all his previous appearances, Larson had gained a total of 49 yards. Against Minot he was just as hot running as passing, and after the Bulldogs built a 14-0 lead, Larson took off on a rollout to his right. Seeing little for potential, he cut back and ran all the way across the field, then turned it up and finished a 51-yard touchdown run up the left sideline.

Larson, a freshman right out of Braham High School, 97 yards rushing for the game, 85 in the first half, and he also was 12-20 passing for 193 yards and two more touchdowns, hitting Dominic Bonner for a 15-yard touchdown to start the scoring, and ending a 28-0 first half by finding jason Balts for a sprawling 22-yard touchdown.

Merrimack's Tyler Irvine scored on UMD goalie Nick Deery at 4:02 of the second overtime Friday - a goal that officially didn't count. Photo credit: John Gilbert

UMD freshman Naomie Rogge's shot Saturday night can be seen striking the left pipe as Minnesota goalie Alex Gulstene looked to the right. Photo credit: John Gilbert

Ashton Bell, another UMD freshman, scored for a short-lived 1-0 lead Saturday night. Photo credit: John Gilbert

When Larson was ranked third to start the season, fans may have lowered their expectations for him for this season. Now he carries the team’s hopes to Bemidji State, where a victory is vital if the Bulldogs want a chance to advance to the playoffs.
Maybe it seems out of sorts for a freshman to star at Homecoming, but in men’s hockey, we have Jared Thomas, a senior from Hermantown. Now, I watched Thomas play at Hermantown, and I was pretty sure he would be a big-timer at UMD. But he had become something of an enigma. He always skated hard, seemed to be in the right place at the right time, and made good plays, while also paying attention to his forechecking and backchecking. But he never seemed to score.

With an abundance of forwards, I even kidded coach Scott Sandelin about whether Thomas had some compromising photos of him to stay in the lineup. The following week, he was a healthy scratch, and I felt bad, as though maybe I had planted the seed for him to come out. He went back in at center between Avery Peterson and Parker Mackay on a line that suddenly came to life on Saturday.

“The floodgates opened and everything seemed to go in tonight,” Thomas said after that second game. “Hockey’s a funny game that way.”
 Thomas had one assist for his efforts this season, and over four years, he played 124 games with 10 goals and 25 assists -- not a lot for three-plus years. But on Saturday, he and Mackay assisted Mikey Anderson on a goal midway through the second period, and they both assisted Peterson on his first two goals of the season in the final five minutes of the third period. The way he played, and the way the whole line played, Sandelin has found some chemistry.

The line of Peter Krieger centering Joey Anderson and Nick Swaney also was ignited Saturday night, with Krieger scoring a goal, Swaney a goal and an asssit, and Joey Anderson assisting on the game’s opening goal. Getting the chemistry to click on two of the four lines leaves the door open for the other two to catch first at Maine this weekend.

 On the women’s hockey side, we’re going back to the freshmen. Naomi Rogge from Eden Prairie High School plays left wing, and Ashton Bell, from Deloraine, Manitoba, plays right wing on a line centered by sophomore Ryleigh Houston. Bell scored UMD’s goal for a 1-0 start Saturday, although Minnesota scored twice in the third period to win 2-1 and sweep the series.

But Rogge was all over the ice attacking the Gophers. She had several outstanding scoring chances, and she had a breakaway thwarted by a pipe.But as coach Maura Crowell likes to say, as long as they keep getting chances, she’s sure the goals will come. Maybe this weekend at Bemidji State.