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Thursday, September 24, 2009
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CLC going into battle of unbeaten, ranked teams COLLEGE FOOTBALL Sports Writer Colt Gatzemeyer will not be 100 percent, but he will be the starting quarterback when the 20th-ranked Central Lakes College Raiders face the 16th-ranked Rochester Yellowjackets Saturday.
The last remaining unbeatens in the Minnesota College Athletic Conference will meet in what has become an annual clash of the Southern Division's top two teams the last three seasons.
Gatzemeyer was injured in last Saturday's 17-7 victory over Itasca. The sophomore, who inherited the starting job when Andrew Maskell was lost for the season with a knee injury, will be backed up by tight end Cody Hendrickson.
"Colt is beat up, but he's going to start and he'll be fine," said Raiders head coach Greg Medeck. "He's working through the pain."
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Dusty Parker (left) returned an interception during Central Lakes College's 17-7 victory over the Itasca Vikings Saturday. Parker leads the Southern Division with four interceptions in four games. Brainerd Dispatch/Steve Kohls
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Hendrickson was a high school quarterback at Hayfield, before moving to tight end this season.
"Typically, junior college football you don't bring in three or four quarterbacks because you want your guys to have an opportunity to play," Medeck said. "We had Colt and we brought in Andrew to give us a couple of options.
"Right now we have Cody taking reps with the second team for the remainder of the year."
Gatzemeyer was just one of the Raiders to feel the pain brought on by Itasca. The Vikings held CLC to its lowest point total, but Medeck still was pleased with his team's performance, especially on defense where the Raiders held Itasca to under 200 yards of offense and less than 30 yards rushing.
"Itasca played well," the third-year head coach said. "They are a well-coached, solid-fundamental team and I give a lot of credit to their coaching staff. They got their team ready to play and they had a great defensive game plan against us.
"I'm happy with the way we played. It was a tremendous effort by our defense. Offensively, we had things going early and then Colt got dinged up. We did run the ball fairly well, but we missed some opportunities like we have all season. Overall, we got a win, though."
Rochester dominated Fond Du Lac 31-9 last week. The Yellowjackets are led by the trio of Robert Ricks (5.8 yards per carry), Jerry Brewer Jr. (6.0) and Curtis Perry (4.6).
CLC, Rochester
When: 6 p.m. Saturday
Where: Rochester
Records: CLC 4-0, Roch 4-0
Rankings: CLC ranked 20th, Rochester 16th in NJCAA/JC Football.com poll
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Quarterback Carey Poarch owns the highest completion percentage in the division (64.1 percent). He's thrown for 690 yards and nine touchdowns with just one interception. Last week, he was 9-for-11 for 253 yards with three touchdowns. His main target has been Chris Hicks with 15 receptions for 398 yards and seven scores.
"They've got a trio of guys who share their running duties," Medeck said. "We need to keep them in check and then take away their big pass play. They've been thriving on the big plays. Their quarterback is a real good pocket passer. We need to take that big play away and hopefully keep the rest of the team in check."
Moving the ball against the division's top defense will be difficult. The Yellowjackets are allowing just 190 yards a game and only CLC has given up fewer points.
CLC's Dennis Taute leads the division with 351 yards on 96 attempts for a 3.7 yards per carry average to go with two TDs.
Gatzemeyer is hitting on 52.8 percent of his passes for 577 yards and six touchdowns. His top two targets remain Tyler Erickson (11 catches, 213 yards, three TDs) and Alex Leach (seven catches, 150 yards, two TDs).
"Offensively, we need to score some points," Medeck said. "They have an incredible run defense, but we need to establish the run game and grind out some yards. If we can get some time of possession, hopefully, that will lead to our passing game being able to take some shots.
"It's a big challenge this week. Rochester is a very good team. They are very deep. The bad part is we have to go down there. Last year, we had a nice home-field advantage."
JEREMY MILLSOP may be reached at jeremy.millsop@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5856.
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