The Thief River Falls football program lists Nathan Hruby's weight at 150, short-changing the starting tight end by 100 pounds.
"It's a misprint from our program,'' Prowlers coach Aric Attig said. "He takes some grief about it from his teammates. They tell him that he was born 150 pounds.''
When it comes to the beef, however, there's no short-changing the Prowlers' blocking unit. The five starting interior linemen average 225 pounds; four of them are 225 or more. That size helped Thief River Falls power past host East Grand Forks Senior High 34-14 on Friday night.
"We're smash-mouth football,'' Attig said. "We win games with our linemen. They do all the work and let our running backs get all the glory.''
The Prowlers - who started Michael Mosbeck and J.C. Hansen at the tackles, David Erickson and Adam Langan at the guards and Jordan Kazmierczak at center - held a 403-223 advantage in total offense despite completing only one pass. Benefitting from the big line was Ralph Williams (144 yards rushing, two touchdowns) and Kaleb Torgerson (108 yards, one touchdown).
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"They came out and got after us,'' Green Wave coach Scott Oliver said. "It was their size. And it was their hunger and desire. They really went after us. And we're not very big.
"We ended their season last year (when Senior High beat the Prowlers in the 8AAA championship). Good teams don't forget. Nobody's run like that against us this year.''
The Prowlers took advantage of two quick scores early.
Ryker Anderson opened scoring on a broken play. He bumped into quarterback Alex Johnson on the handoff in the backfield. But Anderson kept his balance, cut left to the outside and went 20 yards for the score.
The Prowlers then were successful on an on-side kick, with Alex Finseth recovering on the Green Wave 44. It took one play to score, with Williams busting loose down the left sideline for a 13-0 advantage with 1:55 left in the first quarter.
"That was a big momentum thing for us,'' said Attig, whose team is 2-2. "And that quick (two-touchdown lead) helps with our offense. We don't have to work for quick strikes. We can grind it out on the ground.''
Williams added a 20-yard touchdown run and Torgerson scored from 1 yard in the first half. Nick Erickson caught a 20-yard pass from Brent Hagen with 55 seconds left in the first half to pull the Wave within 27-7.
The teams exchanged second-half touchdowns. Thief River Falls scored on its only completion, a 56-yarder from Johnson to Jacob Mattison. Senior High, 1-3, got a 31-yard touchdown run from Jake Kallock with 3:12 remaining.
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"Their balance makes it hard to defend,'' Oliver said. "You can't key on just one person in their backfield. We threw as much as we could at them on the defensive front. They just kept taking it to us.''
