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TGU topples Berthold on the road 48-20

Alex Eisen/MDN TGU junior running back Brodey Keller (30) cuts his way through the Lewis & Clark-Berthold defense Friday evening in Berthold.

BERTHOLD — Justin Koble raced past the Titans’ secondary.

The Lewis & Clark-Berthold junior spark plug only saw green grass in front of him on a 54-yard sprint for the first score of the game.

The TGU defense needed to tighten up.

“We needed to keep focus and rally back,” TGU head coach Ben Wollenzien said. “That wasn’t going to define who we are for the rest of the game. We just had to do our thing.”

The Titans (2-1, 2-1 Region 3) zoned in for a 48-20 road victory over the Bombers (1-2, 1-2 Region 3) Friday evening in Berthold.

“It was senior leadership and guys just dug in,” Wollenzien said. “Jared Lovro went down at quarterback — tweaks an ankle — and had to have Cy Luna come in and play (quarterback). He added a spark and caught some balls. Brodey Keller ran the ball hard.”

A pair of rushing touchdowns were swapped in the first quarter.

After Koble escaped for his lengthy score, TGU senior quarterback Lovro scrambled in from 20 yards out with 21 seconds left in the frame.

“I told the team to keep their chins up,” Lovro said. “We know how we can play, and we knew we could play better than that. That wasn’t Titan football right there.”

Midway through the second quarter, the Titans took the lead.

After Lovro picked up a fourth-and-three in the red zone with his legs, a bad snap pushed TGU back to the 24-yard line.

Lovro went to the air on the next play and picked out junior Cy Luna in the corner of the end zone. Brodey Keller ran in the two-point conversion to give the Titans a 14-6 lead with 4:51 left before halftime.

Lorvo went down with an injury in the first half.

“I released the ball, came down and landed on my ankle funny,” Lovro said. “I heard a pop and it hurt. But, I came back in, and I was ready to lead my team.”

TGU was back in the end zone three minutes after Keller’s touchdown. Luna ran to the pylon for the extra two points.

Not backing down, Berthold used an air raid attack to march the length of the field in a minute to score with two seconds left in the first half.

TGU held a 22-14 lead at halftime and started the second half with the ball. The Titans took advantage with a methodical four and a half minute drive that ended with Keller running in from three yards out.

Lovro failed to punch in the two-point conversion, 28-14.

Berthold thought they had answered that score twice on its next drive. But, a touchdown catch was ruled out of bounds, and a touchdown run was called back on a holding penalty.

Patrick Simons ended up throwing an interception on fourth down to give TGU the ball back. The Titans didn’t waste any time flipping field position and scoring again.

Lovro capped the drive with a quarterback sneak into the end zone. His second rushing touchdown of the game.

“We have to fix some things up front,” Wollenzien said. “But we will be OK… We are in the meat of our schedule here. We got some big games coming up in the next four to five weeks. We just have to keep getting better every day, and making that a focus.”

The rest of the fourth quarter was mostly a formality.

Koble scored another rushing touchdown, and Lovro connected with Blake Lunde to push the final score to 48-20.

The Titans host Surrey next week Friday (Sept. 13) in Towner. It will be the first meeting between the two programs since 2016.

The Bombers, on the other hand, will take next week off before playing Ray/Powers Lake on Friday, Sept. 20.

Alex Eisen covers Minot State athletics, the Minot Minotauros and high school sports. Follow him on Twitter @AEisen13.

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