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UMD quarterback Kyle Walljasper was 17-for-23 for 270 yards passing for the Bulldogs. Photos by John Gilbert.

The big sports story in the Twin Ports last weekend was when UMD, led by the remarkable Kyle Waljasper’s four touchdowns, whipped Sioux Falls 42-34 for coach Curt Wiese’s 100th coaching victory — 91st as UMD’s head coach.

The Bulldogs hit the road this week, and maybe that’s for the best, because the story this week is Friday night when Denfeld goes to Duluth East for a renewal of their intercity rivalry. These are the two schools that survived the school board’s notorious “red plan” to close Central and disperse their students to Denfeld in the west and East in the east end of the city.

But going way back to when Central, Morgan Park and Duluth Cathedral all joined Denfeld and East for football games at Public Schools Stadium for most of the 20th Century, the big rivalries evolved to be Denfeld-Central and Central-East, with Denfeld-East emerging later.

The Red Plan shattered the city’s social structure and dissolved a lot of the athletic rivalries, leaving the Denfeld-East matchup as the biggest remaining natural rivalry in Duluth football.

Last year, Denfeld stole the game from heavily favored East, in what was the biggest victory for the Hunters and quite the surprise. This year, if Denfeld wins Friday night’s game at East-Ordean Field, it will not be an upset, nor a surprise. Denfeld took care of the city’s biggest football surprise this season when the Hunters overcame a two-touchdown deficit and stunned Grand Rapids 24-21 as a speedy sophomore running back who rushed for 188 yards and two touchdowns, then added the game-winning touchdown on a 76-yard kickoff return late in the third quarter.

The Hunters traveled down I-35 to Pine City last Friday and won again, this time in a romp, and Taye Manns scored on a 35-yard scoring run in a 46-6 blowout. But he had a lot of help this time. Manns has been very impressive, and many consider him the fastest running back this side of Esko. But when all is right, he might be Denfeld’s third-fastest running back!

Walljasper reached end zone welcome after 46-yard touchdown run broke a 14-14 tie with Sioux Falls Saturday.

There are a pair of twin brothers — Dashawn and Daquan Moore — who are juniors, and who could rank 1-2 on Denfeld’s depth chart at running back. That would mean Manns scored all those points and gained all those yards as the No. 3 running back on the roster. T

he situation was a bit tangled, as the Moore brothers were both caught up in an eligibility situation where neither could start the season playing. At Pine City, Daquan Moore was cleared to play, and he scored on a 49-yard touchdown run the first time he touched the ball.

This week, his brother Dashawn will also be in uniform, wearing the No. 1 jersey that attracted attention from some Division I schools a year ago. With Luke Pearson firing passes to the likes of  K.J. Pulliam and that herd of running backs, the Hunters are 3-0 and will be favored to notch the 2023 version of the city’s big rivalry game.

Up at UMD, the Bulldogs had the perfect tune-up to load onto the buss to Southwest Minnesota State this weekend, and coach Curt Wiese was just about as elusive as Kyle Walljasper, his emerging superstar sophomore quarterback. When Sioux Falls made a belated run at the Bulldogs for three of the game’s last four touchdowns, the Cougars  closed the deficit from 35-14 to a suddenly respectable 42-34. I mentioned to Walljasper that the game not only became respectable, but challenging, and he said, “Nah. We were always in control.”

However, one more touchdown in the final two minutes and Sioux Falls could have gone for a 2-point conversion and a tie.

“We were set up for that, too,” said Sioux Falls quarterback Cam Dean. “We have a special play all set up for a final try.”

Dean — who wears No 12, same as Walljasper — ran for two touchdowns and was the Cougars version of Walljasper. He gained 190 yards passing against the surprised Bulldogs, and also carried 13 times for 78 yards as the Cougars leading rusher.

Compare that to Walljasper’s 13 carries for 136 yards and 270 yards passing, and it was closer than comfortable.

But as the Military Appreciation Day crowd of 3,942 — which was properly inspired by a flyover by four 148th Air National Guard F-16s — spilled out onto the field after the game, Wiese was the center of attention, as his extended family, friends and boosters all flocked to him and presented him with a commemorative black t-shirt they had made up and were wearing. It had a life-size photo of Wiese on the front, and on the back, the name “Wiese” was stenciled, along with the number 100 for his milestone. He thanked everyone and was all smiles, then he slipped out of the crowd and hustled off the field to, presumably, a radio or television interview. In typical Wiese fashion, he thanked everyone for the accolades but insisted, “I didn’t get here alone. We owe it to the players, my staff, the administration, the fans and all the boosters. I got a great program when I got here, and all we’ve had to do was maintain it.”

No question, he has carried out all the details of the heritage of UMD football from the previous 60 years. But if Kyle Walljasper is the most elusive quarterback the program has ever had, it’s possible no previous coach was as elusive as Wiese when he escaped from the gathered crowd on Malosky Stadium’s turf.

St. Scholastica's Kyle Schmidt went high for a header in a short-handed 2-1 loss to Concordia of Moorhead.