Decorah runs by Washington, 28-10

By Jim Ecker

CEDAR RAPIDS – The Decorah Vikings played keepaway in the second half against Washington Friday night and kept it very simple.

The result was a keepsake victory for the visitors, 28-10, at Kingston Stadium.

Decorah owned a slim 14-10 lead at halftime after a highly competitive 24 minutes of football, but the Vikings took control of the game on the first possession of the second half.

The Vikings drove 80 yards with 16 consecutive running plays and consumed more than nine minutes for a 21-10 lead on a 2-yard touchdown by quarterback Gus Pole to make it 21-10 with the PAT.

The Warriors never recovered.

Uweza Kalolero, Washington’s star tailback and one of the top runners in Class 4A, ran for 119 yards and a 39-yard touchdown in the first half and appeared headed for a 200-yard night. But Kalolero got only six more carries in the second half because the stingy Vikings would not surrender the pigskin, leaving him at 149 for the contest.

Pole, a hard-nosed QB, carried the ball 19 times for 145 yards and was hard to tackle. He completed only three passes, but two of them went for touchdowns that covered 25 and 31 yards. With the Warriors trying to stop the run, the Viking receivers got open for TDs.

Davis Walter scored twice for Decorah with a 37-yard run and a 31-yard pass from Pole.

Washington fell to 2-4 for the campaign with its third straight loss. Decorah squared its record at 3-3.

The Warriors committed four turnovers, with three interceptions and a lost fumble. The Vikings, meanwhile, never gave it away.

Decorah          7   7   7   7 – 28
Washington     0  10  0  0 – 10

D – Gus Pole 25 pass to Gavin Knutson (Brayan Ortiz Gonzalez kick)
W -FG Logan Barton 22
D – Davis Walter 37 run (Gonzalez kick)
W – Uweza Kalolero 39 run (Barton kick)
D – Pole 2 run (Gonzalez kick)
D – Pole 31 pass to Walter (Gonzalez kick)