Mike Kraft/MDN Minot North junior wide receiver Gavin Tobey hauls in a touchdown pass in front of Grand Forks Red River’s Mo Kamara (15) during the first half of a Class AA football game at Sentinel Stadium on Friday, Sept. 12.

Minot North’s defense has been a little shop of horrors for opposing offenses so far this season.

In reality, it’s been more like a superstore of nightmares, and visiting Grand Forks Red River was just the latest victim.

The Sentinels defense forced two turnovers, bending at times but never breaking, making key momentum-changing plays deep in their own territory in a 45-14 victory over the fourth-ranked Roughriders in Minot North’s home opener at Sentinel Stadium on Friday, Sept. 12. The No. 1 team in Class AA has now created 11 turnovers through three games this season.

“Coach Rudolph on the defensive side is creating great plans week in and week out,” Minot North coach Jacob Holmen said. “Guys prepare so hard every week. They are eating lunch in his classroom. They are doing little things that high school kids don’t like doing and it’s showing on the field right now. But we know we have our work cut out for us ahead.”

It took all of one drive for the Sentinels to force the first turnover of the contest. With the Roughriders driving, Minot North junior Cooper Chick picked off quarterback Reese Walters at the Sentinels 25 to end the threat.

“It really set the pace for everybody,” Chick said. “It got us down there and we scored. I started dropping back. I saw the quarterback’s eyes looking right at me, saw the ball coming, jumped up and picked it right off the sky.”

Red River had unintentionally extended the drive earlier when Noah Iverson couldn’t handle a low snap during a punt attempt and instead scrambled for a first down to keep the Roughriders on the field.

The Sentinels took advantage of the turnover and marched 64 yards on nine plays, taking roughly four minutes off the clock. The biggest play came on quarterback Brayden Blikre’s first pass attempt of the game, a 29-yard completion to Josia Jaquinet, His only other throw on the drive resulted in a touchdown, with Blikre finding Gavin Tobey in the end zone for an 18-yard strike, putting the Sentinels in front 7-0 with 3:50 left in the first quarter.

After Jaquinet returned a kickoff all the way to the Roughriders’ 29 late in the first quarter, the Sentinels needed just 41 seconds to find the end zone. Chick capped off the short drive with a 19-yard touchdown burst as the Sentinels grabbed a 14-6 lead after one.

“Cooper’s a great kid, first off, and he played really well,” Holmen said. “We have our two best tailbacks that are hurt right now, so we have guys in that stable that can play and Cooper has really come into his own. He was really little a couple years ago and really got swallowed up, but he’s improved his speed, he’s improved his strength and his vision has been really good.”

Tobey, like Chick, made big plays on both sides of the ball. He took points off the board for Red River when it appeared like the visitors were on the verge of tying the game. The wide receiver/linebacker made a one-handed interception in the corner of the end zone after Red River’s Matthew Dosch fell down on the play.

Between the touchdown run and the interception, the defensive play was his favorite of the two.

A pair of Blikre touchdown runs on Minot North’s final drive of the first half and opening drive of the second half pushed its lead to 28-6. Blikre’s first run was a 7-yard bootleg and his second was a 4-yard dive up the middle.

The Sentinels offense didn’t let up and neither did their defense. The defense forced a turnover on downs, stopping the Roughriders’ just short on a fourth down at the Minot North 18 in the third quarter and Chick turned that into a 57-yard touchdown run to put an exclamation mark on his day.

“The O-line up front was helping me out all night,” Chick said. “Max Hall, Gabe (Montgomery), all those men up front were helping me break off big runs. I want to thank all of them and overall just a really good night from everybody.”

Not to be forgotten, Minot North’s special teams got in on the action, as Cian Hannon blocked a punt deep in Red River territory and the Sentinels turned that into seven more points with Harrison Schaefer running it in from 20 yards out.

“We’ve been emphasizing blocking a punt for two years now and it finally came through,” Holmen said. “We practice it quite frequently.”

The only costly mistake of the game for the Sentinels came late in the first quarter when Blikre surrendered a pick-six to Dosch. Undeterred, Minot North responded by scoring the game’s next 28 points.

“We talk about responding instead of reacting,” Holmen said. “When adversity strikes, it’s really easy to react. Our guys have grown up and they’ve responded very well. They know what we can do and they are confident in their abilities. When stuff happens in a football game, we do a nice job of bouncing back.”

Minot North’s defense pitched a shutout until the final play of the third quarter, as the Roughriders were able to find pay dirt when Reese Walters connected with Brody Neil for a 28-yard TD.

The Sentinels host Fargo North in their final non-conference game of the regular season on Friday, Sept. 19, at Sentinel Stadium at 7 p.m.