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Rodin sets 2 national football records

Kenmare quarterback Hunter Rodin set two national records in high school football Saturday as the Honkers annihilated Drake-Anamoose, 70-12 in the first round of the 9-man playoffs.

10/18/16 (Tue)

Honker quarterback Hunter Rodin gets excellent protection from his offensive line Saturday against Drake-Anamoose in the first round of the 9-man playoffs. Rodin set a new 9-man, national record for passing with 2,827 yards in a season and he set a national record for touchdown passes in a season at 39. The Honkers have at least one more game  and could play three more if they reach the state championship. 

By Marvin Baker

Kenmare quarterback Hunter Rodin set two national records in high school football Saturday as the Honkers annihilated Drake-Anamoose, 70-12 in the first round of the 9-man playoffs.

It was just another day at the office for Rodin, who threw for 341 yards and five touchdowns and rushed for 172 yards on six attempts, scoring two touchdowns.

“We knew we had to come out and do what we do every game,” Rodin said. “They’re a great team and we had to wear them down, and we did.”

Rodin, who had been averaging 311 yards passing through eight regular-season games, surpassed the national record of 2,707 by 120 yards, hitting his favorite receivers Kolton Jesz nine times for 218 yards and three touchdowns and his brother Jacob Rodin four times for 92 yards and two touchdowns.

Rodin’s five touchdown passes also establishes a new national record in 9-man football with 39. The previous record was 38.

Rodin was aware of the passing record prior to the game but it didn’t make him nervous.

In fact, he said he had to throw that thought out the window come game time and focus on a team-effort to move on to the second round of the playoffs.

“I have some incredible receivers,” Rodin said. “I just throw the ball up there and they do the rest. It makes my job pretty easy.”

A humble Rodin talks of a team effort and indeed it was. Jay Baumann rushed for 66 yards and a touchdown. Tevin Dix, in on relief of Rodin, threw one pass completion for 67 yards to Bo Thingvold for a touchdown. Jesz threw a 29-yard completion to Rodin. Cody St. Croix caught a long pass for 31 yards.

Rodin also acknowledged his offensive line for strong protection allowing him to hit his receivers down field.

“Honestly, I think all of them should be All-State,” he said.

You’d never know it, but this game was tight going into the second quarter.

The Honkers scored early when Jesz caught a 77-yard pass for a touchdown and the conversion failed.

But then Drake-Anamoose scored two consecutive rushing touchdowns from inside the 10-yard line to briefly take a 12-6 lead early in the second.

After that it was all Kenmare-Bowbells-Burke Central as the Honkers scored four touchdowns by halftime to take a 38-12 lead into halftime putting the Raiders in a deep hole with 24 minutes to try and rebound.

It didn’t happen as the Honker defense held Drake-Anamoose and the scoring onslaught continued with two major scores in the third quarter and two in the fourth.

Jacob Rodin and Jesz each crossed the end zone in the second and third quarters while Hunter Rodin picked up both of his rushing touchdowns in the second, one of them a whopping 96-yard run from scrimmage.

Baumann got in the score book early in the fourth with a 32-yard run, which at that time, with about three minutes remaining, put the Honkers up 62-12.

Hove then took his starters out of the contest including Dix taking the helm for Rodin who needed a well-deserved rest.

But Dix proved he is playoff capable as he connected with Thingvold for 67 yards and yet another Honker touchdown pushing the final score to 70-12.

As a team, the Honkers were impressive once again, erasing any doubt that big regular-season margins of victory were against weak teams.

Scoring 70 in a playoff game is rare for any team and winning by a margin of 58 points is equally as unusual.

The Honkers racked up 700 total yards compared to the Raiders’ 200 including 437 passing yards and 263 from the ground.

The Honkers were penalized seven times for 84 yards and lost two fumbles throughout the game.

Jesz’ 218 receiving yards beat the entire Raider team, Hunter Rodin’s 172 yards rushing easily surpassed the Raiders as a team and Baumann’s 66 yards rushing nearly equalled it.

And Rodin, who was 14 of 18 in passing attempts, took the edge on the Drake-Anamoose who was 13 of 32 from the air.

The Honkers will now travel to Richardton where they will play another Raider team that received a first-round bye as the second seed from Region 5.

That game will begin at 2 pm Mountain Daylight Time (3 pm CDT) at the Richardton football field.

Richardton-Taylor is 6-2, with losses to Bowman and New Salem. One of their wins was 22-12 over Drake-Anamoose in Drake on Sept. 23. The biggest score was a 50-12 win over Beach... Read EVERY WORD on EVERY PAGE of The Kenmare News by subscribing--online or in print!