Oct. 12: Devils Lake (6) at West Fargo (52)

Another game, another blowout.

I sure can pick 'em.

That's seven weeks in a row where the game has been a yawner.

So this is why most Fargo football stadiums don't have visitor-side bleachers...

On paper, this one didn't look that bad -- 5-3 West Fargo vs. 3-5 Devils Lake. On paper, skills don't really show. West Fargo definitely had superior skills.

My wife and I hung out long enough to watch the Packers' burly running back, Preston Lehmann, score five touchdowns. Then we left. That was at halftime.

All kinds of questions came out of watching the Packers do their work. For example -- why was Fargo, 9-12 student population of about 2,000, playing Devils Lake, 9-12 student population of about 500? Why is North Dakota's classification system set up like that? Why is West Fargo the only school in the area to have two-legged goalposts? And, if I ever have children, could I see returning to these bleachers in 18 (or 20 or 25) years to watch MY son playing for what is now my home-area school?

As I bring this venture to a close, the one thing that sticks out to me is how unlucky I was -- the scores of the eight metro games I attended this year, in order, were 21-20, 47-7, 66-7, 35-0, 50-20, 35-20, 47-12 and now 52-6.

Unfortunately, the gameday atmosphere at five of the eight F-M metro stadiums was not enough to make sticking around all that interesting. The three stadiums I found most interesting were, perhaps not coincidentally, the three smallest schools: Fargo Shanley, Fargo Oak Grove and Moorhead Park Christian. The five large metros -- Fargo North, Fargo South, Fargo Davies, West Fargo and Moorhead -- all had their quirks, but none of the five really stood out as truly interesting or unique settings for high school football games.

All five followed the same basic template -- metal bleachers stacked next to the school. None of the five seemed to have any sort of deeper tie to the community around it. I suppose what bothered me about each one of the fields was that I could feel no sense of history at any of them. I couldn't tell if those fields had been there five years or 50. And the metal bleachers and chain-link fence gave me the feeling that those stands could be torn down and the field moved within a day or two, if needed.

Shanley nearly followed this template, as well, but broke from the mold with some brick work (or faux brick, but does it matter?) on the outside of its stadium and with artificial turf on its field. Those quirks helped set the Shanley stadium apart and give it at least some semblance of permanence. I liked that.

The two small schools actually did the best. The Park Christian field -- new this year, as I understand it -- was anchored on the far side by large trees befitting a school with the word "Park" in its name. The stands were still metal, but at least the field had an ambiance built into its setting.

And I've already talked about Oak Grove's setting. I just wish I had been there on a warmer night.

My eight-week excursion into the Fargo-Moorhead football scene, though, has been worth it. I feel more connections to the community I now call my home. I feel I understand better what Fargo folks value, and what they appreciate, and what they reject.

Of course, no matter how disappointing the games, or the stadiums, the players themselves never disappointed -- just as always.

--patrick

Oct. 5: Fargo South (47) at Fargo Davies (12)

Eighty-seven seconds.

Fargo South only needed that much time to let everyone at Davies Field know they were silly for coming out on such a cold and wet night.

The Bruins were going to beat Fargo Davies. They were going to beat the Eagles by a lot. They were going to keep rolling, the second-ranked team in North Dakota's big-school classification, by beating a team barely a couple years past the imagination stage.

At first I was like...

With wind chills hovering at about 20 degrees all game long, and with a steady snow expected to arrive sometime during the night, the message was pretty clear: This one's over.

Zach Reich's touchdown run just 87 seconds into the game was all the Bruins needed to let everyone know this game was merely a cold, wet formality to putting another notch in their win column.

And yet, a devoted fan base -- not more than maybe 400 people, both schools, combined, in the Davies bleachers, significantly down from the number that filled South's stadium last week for the Bruins' game with West Fargo -- stayed.

The crowd there at the beginning of the game was the crowd there at the end. Cold, snow, wind? A North Dakota high school football fan fears not these things.

 And then I was all...

With apologies to Davies fans and players, everyone on the field and in the stands had a pretty good idea of how this one was going to turn out. Even so, the fans stayed. After 87 seconds, after Davies fumbled away possession on its third offensive play of the game, after South recovered a squib kick after its second touchdown, after a Davies shanked punt gave the ball to South on the Eagle 22-yard line and South's James Johannesson scored on the next play to make it 26-0 midway through the second quarter, after halftime when the snowflakes started to fall, after the third quarter when the snow REALLY started coming down and the wind out of the north made passing the ball an awkward afterthought, after sleet started building up on the bleachers and seeping through shoes and coffee and hot chocolate no longer did enough to prevent toes from going numb, the fans stayed. 

Random observations: Not many. Too busy trying to stay warm. ... I did notice the Davies PA announcer has an amazing voice. Don't know the dude's name, but he has to have some kind of broadcasting background. Any Davies fans who can fill me in?

Next week: Devils Lake at West Fargo. First home game I'll see for my hometown Packers.

--patrick