Braves defeat Rockets in home opener

On August 27, The New Rockford-Sheyenne Rockets (0-2, 0-0) were looking to get their season on track after a dismal outing at Rolette, but their plans were spoiled by the Bottineau Braves (2-0, 0-0), as they breezed to a comfortable 50-14 win.

The problems for NR-S began early and often on Friday night. The Braves first drive was a long, methodical march capped off by a touchdown catch from junior Gabe Nero, and the ensuing Rockets possession set the tone for the night. After failing to get a first down, a fake punt attempt from senior Nick Berglund deep in the Rockets own territory went awry, setting up the Braves with fantastic field position.

The Rockets soon found themselves in a hole and needed to start digging themselves out. But as it was in Rolette, the Rockets' offense remained stagnant all night. Their first seven offensive possessions ended with a turnover on downs, a punt, an interception, a punt, another punt, a fumble, and another interception. Their first venture into enemy territory didn't come until late in the third quarter, when a long catch from senior Koby Duda set up Haydon Meier for a short scamper into the endzone.

"Our line blocking and the skill guys executing just wasn't there, and we need to figure something out," said Rockets head coach Elliott Belquist. "Spread football maybe isn't for this group and we need to go back to some ground and pound type stuff."

Meanwhile, things weren't going any better for the Rockets on defense. The Braves were able to run the ball at will and did so all night. As the game progressed, Bottineau's ground game only improved, allowing the Braves to control the clock and avoid turnovers. Having suffered a similar fate the week prior, the ground game seems to be the Rockets' kryptonite early this season.

"We just need to find guys that want to give effort and find that toughness. We have a lot of things to improve on and hopefully these older guys want to," explained Belquist. "And we're extremely young too. We only have a handful of guys that played a lot last year, and then we got a bunch of young guys, so there's some growing pains right now."

To make matters worse, the Rockets suffered a number of injuries Friday night. Freshman running back Bradyn Collier was helped off the field with a knee injury, and starting quarterback Luke Yri will likely be out for the season with a broken collar bone. The loss of Yri was felt almost immediately on Friday, as the Rockets suffered two interceptions and a lost fumble in his absence.

"Luke getting hurt early in that game hurt us a lot," said Belquist. "In 9-man football, we don't really have a lot of time to work on backups ... So we're going to change up our offense a little bit, go back to running the ball, go back to a little option and trying to control the clock more. Three yards and a cloud of dust type."

Stats from the game were not available as of press time.

The Rockets played the St. John Woodchucks on Friday, September 3.