With his team clinging to a 15-13 lead on fourth down and 3:37 to play, Litchfield coach Jim Jackman faced his biggest decision of the game Friday.
Punt? Or try to pick up the necessary 2 yards and a first down that would help the Dragons continue to run precious time off the clock against Dassel-Cokato.
Conventional wisdom might have said that, from their own 25-yard line, the Dragons should not risk giving the Chargers a short field if they failed to convert on fourth down. Jackman wasn’t listening to conventional wisdom.
“I just didn’t want to give the ball back to them,” Jackman said. “I really didn’t want to. So we did what we felt was best, and it was keeping the offense on the field and keeping the ball in our playmakers’ hands.”
The decision was made somewhat easier because Drew Kotzer, Litchfield’s first-string punter, was injured earlier in the game and unavailable. But it still seemed a risky decision.
But a decision that played out well for the Dragons. And not just once. Litchfield converted that first fourth down when quarterback Ben Alsleben bulled his way up the middle for 3 yards. Then, with 2:47 remaining and Litchfield facing a fourth-and-2 from their own 38-yard line, Alsleben connected with Bennett Lecher for 5 yards and a first down.
Finally, with less than a minute to go, and fourth-and-5 from their own 45, the Dragons converted again, using the familiar Alsleben-to-Lecher connection for 7 yards. They ran one more play and watched time run out for their fourth consecutive win of the season.
“It’s always nice to end the game with the ball and on offense,” Jackman said. “Obviously, they’re a very good team, they’re coached very well, disciplined. And we really didn’t want to give up the ball.”
Litchfield, 4-0 overall and ranked No. 8 in the state in Class 3A in the latest Associated Press poll, earned a measure of revenge with the victory. Dassel-Cokato beat the Dragons in the section semifinals on its way to a second-place finish in the state last season. The Chargers fell to 2-2 overall with Friday’s loss, but Jackman said they’re still a team that could make some noise in the postseason – like they did last year.
“Eli (Gillman, Chargers quarterback) is a tremendous athlete, and he is a kid that can find a way to hit a seam and go for a score,” Jackman said. “Our goal is to stop him from doing that. We’re gonna let them grind and grind, make them work for it, and hopefully get a turnover here and there. They’re a good team, and they’re going to find a way to get better. They definitely will.”
Litchfield must continue to find ways to get better, as well, Jackman said, after an uneven first half in which they made mistakes that led to big plays for Dassel-Cokato.
Dassel-Cokato took an early lead as Jacob Niemela recovered a Litchfield fumble in the endzone near the end of the first quarter. The extra point by Kyle Aho put the Chargers up 7-0.
Litchfield responded late in the first half with a pair of scores. Lecher’s 1-yard run with 4:02 to go in the second quarter pulled the Dragons within 7-6 after a failed extra point.
Dassel-Cokato looked to be driving for another score before halftime when the Dragons recovered a fumble at their own 28-yard line.
Alsleben, who finished 15-for-27 passing for 163 yards, hit on the longest play of the game for the Dragons, a 37-yard pass to Logan King. Later, on fourth down, Alsleben hit Lecher, who finished with eight catches for 66 yards, for an 18-yards completion to the 5-yard line with 20.7 seconds.
Alsleben scrambled to just outside the end zone as the clock ticked under 10 seconds. Litchfield quickly lined up, and many expected Alsleben to spike the ball to stop the clock and set up one final play. Instead, Alsleben sneaked into the end zone for a 12-7 Litchfield lead.
“That’s one of those things, again, having a senior quarterback, he feels pretty confident,” Jackman said. “We’re running out of time there (so) I’m just gonna call this, we’re either going to spike the ball or run QB sneak, and with time going like that, you just got to get up and get to the land and go. We have those things in place to do, and you know, that’s a big turning point there.
“We didn’t get the two(-point conversion), but it’s always good to finish the half like that,” Jackman added.
That failed attempt at a two-point conversion at the end of the half, which would have given the Dragons a 14-7 lead, made Garrison Jackman’s 22-yard field goal with 10:12 to play in the fourth quarter field goal the winning points in the game.
Jackman’s field goal pushed the Dragons’ lead to 15-7, an important eight-point spread, as Dassel-Cokato came back to score on a 1-yard run by Gillman with about six minutes to play. The Chargers went for the two-point conversion in attempt to tie the game, and Gillman’s run came up just short.
Dassel-Cokato’s offense never saw the ball again, thanks to Litchfield’s calculated risk-taking on offense.
“You know, that’s what football is all about,” Jackman said. “There’s some ups and downs, and there’s times where we looked really, really good. And then other times, we did not look very good. But you know, the kids continued to battle.”
