AREA ROUNDUP: Cass Lake-Bena seeks third win Friday at Bagley

CASS LAKE — The Cass Lake-Bena football team will shoot for its third victory of the season Friday when the Panthers head to Bagley.

CL-B enters the contest tied for first place in the North Star East Conference standings as it shares a 2-0 record with Pine River.

The Panthers are also receiving votes in the 9-man division of the latest Associated Press football poll, released Wednesday afternoon. Kelliher-Northome also got votes in the 9-man poll.

Bagley is 1-1 overall and in league play while Blackduck, Red Lake, Pillager and Walker-Hackensack-Akeley are all 0-2.

In last week’s action the Panthers outgunned WHA 34-28, Pine River belted Prairie Valley 38-22, Bagley edged Blackduck 19-12, Fosston stopped Red Lake 54-12 and Lake Park-Audubon thumped Pillager 39-22.

On Friday the marquee area game sees Cass Lake-Bena visiting Bagley in a 7 p.m. battle. Other North Star East contests find Pillager at Blackduck, Red Lake at Prairie Valley and WHA at Pine River.

In Bagley’s win over Blackduck the Drakes scored on their opening possession but missed on the conversion attempt.

Bagley tied the game late in the first quarter when Walker Cage returned a punt 50 yards for a touchdown.

Blackduck answered with a 75-yard pass but Bagley knotted the score at 12-12 when Jordan Loiland connected with Jake Skansberg on a 65-yard TD pass.

The second half was a battle for field position but the Flyers notched the game-winning score as Loiland teamed with Logan Thorson on a 44-yard TD pass. Cage kicked the conversion and Bagley was able to maintain its lead the rest of the way.

Thorson gained 82 yards on 11 carries and Skansberg caught four passes for 90 yards. Loiland completed seven of his 11 passes for 138 yards and two touchdowns.

Taylor McCollum paced Bagley’s defense with 11 tackles and Mikey Ubert had four sacks.

Clearbrook-Gonvick stopped Northern Freeze 34-0 last week in its Top of the State Conference opener. The win also evened the Bears’ record at 1-1.

Sharing C-G’s 1-0 league mark are Goodridge-Grygla, Kittson County Central and Badger-Greenbush-Middle River. Entering this week’s play at 0-1 in the conference are Climax-Fisher, Northern Freeze, Sacred Heart and Stephen-Argyle.

Clearbrook-Gonvick will host Stephen-Argyle on Friday.

In the Great Northern Conference chase Northome-Kelliher improved to 2-0 overall and in league play with last week’s 30-0 triumph over Isle. Also owning 2-0 overall and league records are Cromwell, Floodwood and Onamia.

On Friday the Mustangs will host Nevis at 7 p.m. Nevis enters the contest with a 1-1 record.

Volleyball

Laporte entered the week as the lone unbeaten area volleyball team, ending last week with 3-0 sweeps of Red Lake and Northome-Kelliher.

However, Blackduck spoiled their perfect season Tuesday with a 16-25, 25-16, 25-20, 25-33 victory Tuesday night.

The win moves Blackduck, now 5-2, into first place in the Northland Conference at 1-0.

Laporte is now 2-1. Nevis and CL-B were 1-0, WHA 0-0, Pine River and Red Lake 0-1 and Northome-Kelliher 0-2.

This week Laporte is scheduled to host Pine River today.

Cass Lake-Bena (3-2) has matches against Bug O Nay Ge Shig and Red Lake this week and also will play in the Crosby Invitational on Saturday. Last week the Panthers went 1-2 at the Pine River Invitational. CL-B lost 2-1 to Pequot Lakes and defeated Onamia 2-0. In its final match Cass Lake-Bena fell 2-0 to Park Rapids.

Blackduck also went 1-2 at the tournament, stopping Park Rapids 2-1 before losing 2-0 to Pine River and to Mahnomen.

This week the Drakes face Laporte and Bigfork.

Red Lake (0-1) had last week off and hosts Cass Lake-Bena on Thursday.

Northome-Kelliher (1-3) lost to Laporte and to Littlefork last week and hosts Indus on Thursday.