Prep football: Stackpool’s speed leads Virginia to victory over Cloquet

• Cade Stackpool

Virginia quarterback Cade Stackpool rushes the ball during Friday’s game against host Cloquet. (Clint Austin / caustin@duluthnews.com)

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CLOQUET — Track and field season doesn’t begin until next spring, but Cade Stackpool began his 100-meter training early Friday night.

The Virginia junior quarterback, who runs the 100 in 11.49 seconds, keyed the Blue Devils’ 15-6 high school football victory over Cloquet by running 95 yards for a second-half touchdown at Bromberg Field.

“That was a big

momentum-changer,” said Stackpool, who took the ball around left end, raced through a pair of tackles and outsprinted the secondary to the end zone with 8:24 left in the third quarter. “I was just trying to get a first down and keep the drive going. I saw (open field) at about the 30 and then I said, ‘Go.’ I’m a sprinter and run the 100, so I know how to go.”

Stackpool finished with 159 yards rushing on 14 attempts and kept alive a 16-play, seven-minute drive in the fourth quarter with three first downs — two on third-and-long and another on fourth-and-1.

But the key play was his burst through the line after his team was forced into a second-and-23 situation at its own 5 and holding a precarious 8-6 advantage.

“When we spread the defense out and he gets past that first level, it’s tough to catch him from behind,” Virginia coach Ed Cremers said. “It’s not going to happen too often because he has the wheels.”

Virginia (2-1 overall, 2-0 Sea-Range Conference) needed a big game on the ground from Stackpool because their usually explosive passing game was held to three completions for 7 yards. It didn’t help that the Blue Devils lost senior captain Marc Krebsbach to a broken collarbone.

“He was our go-to receiver so it’s a big loss,” Cremers said. “It took us a while to figure out how we were going to patch that hole. We’re going to have to do some adjusting to compensate for that.”

Before Krebsbach left, he caught a 12-yard touchdown pass from Stackpool to give Virginia an 8-0 lead. The defense, which accounted for the first two points on Austin Strukel’s sack of Cloquet quarterback Kellin Lamirande in the end zone, also set up the touchdown when Marty Thorne intercepted a deflected pass at the Cloquet 10.

The Blue Devils then turned more to the running game, which produced 291 yards, to help drop the Lumberjacks (1-2, 1-1) to .500 in the conference.

Cloquet narrowed the gap to 8-6 when Traz Collelo scored from 2 yards out with 2:29 to go in the first half and then seemingly turned the momentum its way by recovering the opening kickoff of the second half.

But Virginia’s defense held on fourth down and two plays later Stackpool turned on the jets for the game-breaking moment.

“He’s a tremendous athlete, we knew that coming in,” Cloquet coach Tom Lenarz said. “They do a good job of getting him in space, and he made a couple guys miss and ran the rest of the way.”

Virginia 2-6-7-0—15

Cloquet 0-6-0-0—6

V — Safety, Kellin Lamirande sacked by Austin Strukel in end zone

V — Marc Krebsbach 12 pass from Cade Stackpool (pass failed)

C — Traz Collelo 2 run (pass failed)

V — Stackpool 95 run (Marty Thorne kick)

Tags: iron range, carlton county, sports, football, preps, virginia, cloquet