Mike Kraft/MDN Bismarck High’s Deegan Stadinger (16) shakes off a tackle from Minot High’s Tariq Bell (9) en route to a 10-yard touchdown run during the fourth quarter of a Class AAA football game at Duane Carlson Stadium on Friday, Sept. 26.

Minot High was hoping that a combination of Homecoming Week coupled with the start of the West Region schedule would serve as the turning points to what has been a difficult start to the season thus far.

Instead, Bismarck High had the Minot faithful heading for the exits early, while delivering the Magi some unwanted history in the process.

Carter Petron rushed for three touchdowns and the Demon defense forced four turnovers, handing the Magicians their most lopsided defeat of the season to date in a 43-7 rout on Friday, Sept. 26, at Duane Carlson Stadium. It is the first time the Magicians have ever started a season 0-5. Entering Friday’s contest, Minot had the distinction of being the only current member of the West Region to never start a season with five consecutive losses.

“It was not our best football,” Minot High coach Chauncy Hendershot said. “We have to stay together and get back to work on Monday. There’s no training wheels in this. We’re going to get every team’s best and it felt like we did tonight. Credit to Bismarck, they executed a great game plan and they took it to us.”

Bismarck (3-2) controlled all three facets of the game, winning the battle in the trenches on both offense and defense, won the turnover battle and consistently pinned the Magi deep in their own territory with a quality punting performance. It was a punting miscue that put the Demons in front early. Backed up deep in their own end after an opening drive that began on their 3 yard line, Ryder Sutton – serving as the emergency punter due to Blake Anderson continuing to recover from a lower body injury – punted into the back of the up man, causing the ball to go straight up in the air and land at the 8 yard line. On the next play from scrimmage, Petron scored his first of three rushing touchdowns on the night to put the Demons in front 7-0 midway through the first quarter.

“We thought we played well in all three areas,” Bismarck coach Mark Gibson said. “We played complimentary football really well tonight. Field position was in our favor all night, which was huge. They’re an explosive football team, so we knew we couldn’t give them short fields and we wanted to make them earn it. Defensively, I thought we were lights out and offensively, we made some mistakes but we got better from a week ago.”

While that wasn’t considered a turnover, Bismarck’s ensuing touchdown was the direct result of a takeaway. With the Magicians again pinned back deep in their own end thanks to another punt downed inside the 20, Declan Sims tipped a Sutton screen pass into the air, secured the interception and ran untouched into the end zone to double Bismarck’s advantage.

The Demons would tack on another touchdown right before the half on their biggest play from scrimmage in the game. The Magicians defense bit on the play-action, allowing Deegan Stadinger to sneak out of the backfield uncovered, turning a 5-yard completion over the middle into a 52-yard touchdown reception from quarterback Hayden Bondley.

Minot’s lone points came on its first possession of the second half. The Magicians marched down the field and avoided a potential shutout with a 1-yard quarterback plunge up the middle from Sutton to cut into Bismarck’s lead, 21-7.

That was as close as the Magicians would get as the Demons responded by scoring the game’s final 23 points – 15 provided Petron on runs of 4 and 5 yards, respectively. Staudinger added the final touchdown with 1:12 left in the third following Sutton’s third interception of the game.

“Carter’s a horse,” Gibson said. “It’s a nice 1-2 punch we got. Deegan is kind of a slasher and Carter is a bruiser. We have to keep those two kids healthy and I can’t say enough about Kyle Schlobohm, our fullback. He’s a kid that throws his body in there and doesn’t get noticed as much. Overall, it’s a team win and we’ll take it.”

The size of the Demons up front was able to wear down the Magicians in the second half, allowing them to gain large chunks of yardage on the ground and control the time of possession.

“It’s one of our areas where we’re thin,” Hendershot said. “They execute what they do very well and down the stretch here we need to get healthy and keep competing and stay together and keep fighting.”

Garett Randolph provided the other interception on defense for the Demons and Dresden Zottnick recovered a fumble late in the fourth quarter.

The Magicians hit the road for the next two weeks, beginning Friday, Oct. 2, at Bismarck Legacy.