GGF football preview: Central's Blake Solberg shines in jump to varsity
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Sep. 10—GRAND FORKS — Blake Solberg stopped playing quarterback in middle school because, in his words, it got "kind of hard to see over the offensive linemen."
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Solberg never lost his ability to read the field, though.
The 5-foot-9 senior has stepped in at wide receiver and defensive back for Grand Forks Central this season. In last week's
40-14 victory over Jamestown
, Solberg finished with an interception and a 2-yard touchdown catch.
"It felt pretty good," Solberg said. "But (the pick) wouldn't have been possible without our defensive line and linebackers putting pressure on the quarterback, forcing him to throw the ball out there, and the other corners doing their job and just letting the ball come to me. And the touchdown takes the lineman blocking and Brody Leddige putting the ball where it needed to be."
Though he was quick to credit his teammates, Solberg has had a strong start to the season — especially considering it's his first year playing varsity football.
Last year, Solberg spent his final season of junior varsity playing wide receiver and safety. Then, roughly halfway through the year, he stepped in at quarterback after the starter suffered a season-ending injury.
"(Solberg) is a smaller guy, and he's the type of kid who has always had it mentally," head coach Jake Schauer said. "He's a very, very smart football player. It's just a matter of using him and putting him in positions where his size doesn't become something that works against him. He's smart, he's instinctive and he's physical enough when he needs to be. He was one of our top contributors in the junior varsity games last year, so to watch him evolve into a varsity-type player is something that we were hoping for."
To play and contribute on varsity has been a goal of Solberg's for some time.
"I knew some of the coaches and had an opportunity to be a ball boy probably when I was in kindergarten," Solberg said. "I've been with the program for a long time here. When I finally got to play here for varsity, it was kind of a dream come true sort of thing."
Solberg describes his field vision and ability to help teammates find the right spots on defense as his greatest strengths.
That in-game intelligence is not limited to the football field.
Solberg was Central's backup point guard behind Brooklan Bruce last season, often flexing his ability to find teammates for assists and shoot open 3-pointers.
"Playing a lot of sports has helped me become more of a leader and be able to read things in basketball and football," Solberg said. "It must be a combination of things; I've just been able to develop a good sense."
Solberg is one of multiple players who have helped the Knights form a strong defensive back-wide receiver room.
Seniors Tyson Vanyo, Jaden Cochran and Brody Schneider are just a few of the WR-DB standouts who have contributed on both sides of the ball this season.
"I think one of the really interesting things that sticks out about them is how there's all sorts of different bodies in that room," Schauer said. "You listen to (UND offensive coordinator Danny Freund and head coach Eric Schmidt) talk about having your room look like a starting five of a basketball team, different frames who can do different things, and that's kind of how our DB group is right now. We've got different frames who do different things well, and it's been a really nice group for us so far."
The group has helped Central to a 2-0 start, but this Friday's road game against Dickinson will test the unbeaten start.
"This will be a tough one," Schauer said. "They had a new coach last year, and he's done a really nice job over the offseason developing some bodies that really look the part. They're physical and they're tough, and if you're not careful about what you're doing scheme-wise, they're going to put it on you quick."
Red River has a goal board each week. The coaching staff goes through each side of the ball, and when the goal is achieved, they put an image of the mascot, Teddy Roosevelt's head, onto the screen.
There was a good amount of Teddy heads after last Friday's contest against Bismarck St. Mary's. But the Roughriders didn't have a win to show for it.
Despite gaining more than 400 yards of offense, the Riders suffered a
27-14 loss to the Saints
in a game filled with mistakes.
St. Mary's opened the scoring with a 92-yard fumble-recovery touchdown. The Riders had an 11-yard punt on one drive and a blocked punt on another. They had a field goal blocked. Senior quarterback Reese Walters threw an interception.
Red River did not score from the red zone — a 41-yard catch from senior Mo Kamara and a 39-yard reception from senior Max Mannausau accounted for its two touchdowns.
"We had times where we were able to get up and down the field, but we didn't score," head coach Vyrn Muir said. "It was frustrating for us on that end. We felt like we should have had more points on the board, but we didn't put points on the board. When St. Mary's had their opportunities, they did."
Muir approaches the nonconference slate as a way to continuously improve before Eastern Dakota Conference play arrives. Ahead of this Friday's home game against Minot North, Muir and the coaching staff are focusing on doing "the little things correctly all the time."
"Little things lead to big things, and right now, because we're not doing the little things correctly, it leads to big things not in our favor," Muir said. "From a 10,000-foot view, we were doing things well enough to give us a chance to win. But we need to do things a little bit better. ... We could very easily be 0-4, but as long as we're playing good football by the time region ball comes around, that's where we need to be with our goal."
Minot North is 2-0, fresh off a 41-6 win over Fargo South.
"As far as the way they play football, it's the same way it's been the last two seasons," Muir said. "They're going to be a physical, downhill football team. ... Different people are doing it this year, but they're very good at running the football, and that's what they want to do."
East Grand Forks opened the season last Thursday with a commanding
31-6 win over Staples-Motley
, avenging the loss it suffered in last year's season opener.
This Friday will offer another shot at revenge. The Green Wave travel to Perham, a team they lost to 14-7 in the regular season and 14-0 in the Section 8AAA tournament.
Internally, however, last year's results aren't the focus.
"It's a different team on both sides," head coach Ryan Kasowski said. "We've got different guys going, they've got different guys going, so we don't look too far in the past. We can learn things schematically from what they did last year, but for the most part we've got a completely different looking team, and so do they."
East Grand Forks showed just how different it was against Staples-Motley. The connection between senior quarterback Jakob Stassen and wide receiver Jaxon Stassen remained strong, but a host of new weapons emerged on offense.
Senior running back Rajael Jones rushed for 174 yards and two touchdowns. Senior wide receiver Adam Farder hauled in a 13-yard touchdown. Senior Traysen Van Camp and Darion Hall each brought in long receptions that flipped field position.
"We have to be able to have multiple guys out there that can do things, and I think we do," Kasowski said. "We've got guys that can make plays. I think Jake does a really good job of spreading the ball around and understanding where his openings are going to be in a zone or in a defense. He's got faith in all those guys."
The Green Wave also looked good at linebacker despite graduating Cole Schmiedeberg and Braden Overgaard in the offseason.
Van Camp and seniors Jack Dietz, Brady Anderson and John Senger have been some of the standouts at the position.
"Coming into the season, that (position) might have been a question mark," Kasowski said. "All four of those guys have really stepped up for us and were a big part of our success in game one."
Perham also opened the season in dominant fashion, defeating Park Rapids Area 41-13.
"They have athletes everywhere," Kasowski said. "They have good receivers and they have a good quarterback who can get outside the pocket and make plays. He did a lot of that last week against Park Rapids. Defensively, they play physical, they play a pretty solid brand of football. It's always a pretty good matchup when the two of us get together, and I wouldn't expect anything different on Friday night."
Polk County West opened the season with a 33-6 road loss to Park Christian last Thursday.
The Thunder will take on Ada-Borup West this Friday at East Grand Forks Senior High.
Polk County West suffered a 7-6 loss to Ada-Borup-West on the road last season.