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TGU runs over Tioga

TOWNER – Towner-Granville-Upham coach Scott Thorson looked his players in the eyes moments before their nine-man playoff game against Tioga Saturday in Towner. His message was simple.

“The last thing I told our guys before we took the field was ‘Guys, we are going to run the football.’ That was our focus. We have to be solid at that before anything else will work for us.”

The Titans dominated Tioga 44-0 to advance in the single-elimination playoffs behind four rushing touchdowns, two of which came from at least 50 yards out. TGU (6-3) advances to face New Salem/Glen Ullin in the second round of the nine-man playoffs on Saturday in New Salem. A start time has yet to be announced.

TGU got on the board 5 minutes into the contest with a 60-yard touchdown pass from senior quarterback Kolter Schell to senior tight end Cole Bethke. After Schell ran in the two-point conversion, the Titans took an 8-0 lead.

Tioga had its chances on offense early after two early first quarter turnovers from TGU, but turned the ball over on downs on both occasions.

“I was upset with the mistakes we made,” Thorson said. “We haven’t turned the ball over in the first quarter all season and then do it twice today. You can’t do that in the playoffs, but we were lucky to recover from that.”

Sophomore running back Shayden Luna sprung TGU’s run game to life with a 50-yard touchdown run in the second quarter to give the Titans a 16-0 lead. Later, Schell completed another long touchdown pass, this time from 70 yards out to Lane Bachmeier. Senior running back Caleb Cross added a five-yard rushing touchdown and Schell had a one-yard quarterback sneak touchdown of his own to extend the lead to 38-0 at halftime.

Schell finished with three touchdowns on the day (two passing, one rushing) and intercepted Tioga quarterback Austin Hove twice as a defensive back.

“It’s that time of the year where you have to turn it on,” Schell said. “You have to have your best performance each time, that’s how I feel and I think my teammates feed off of that.”

Luna scored the Titans’ last touchdown of the day in the third quarter, scampering 72 yards on a stretch play to cap off a 44-point effort.

“We had a tough time stopping them,” Tioga coach Tim Schaffer said. “They have a lot of weapons with their skill positions and they stayed on their blocks. We couldn’t make enough plays against them and we didn’t tackle very well. They were a lot quicker off the ball than we were today.”

Tioga ends its season at 4-5.

Garrick Hodge covers Minot State athletics, the Minot Minotauros and high school sports. Follow him on Twitter @Garrick_Hodge.

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