By John Molene

The first two games of the season, the Park Wolfpack got pushed around pretty good by top-ranked Lakeville South and by Eagan.

But in a wild game Thursday at Eastview in Apple Valley, when the Wolfpack got pushed around, they pushed back.

The result was Park scoring two touchdowns in the final 1:38 to pass the host Lightning for good, winning 43-36.

Both late touchdowns came on short throws from senior quarterback Sam Berrey to senior running back Derrik Brown Jr., the first on a 76-yard pass play, the second a 79-yard touchdown off a screen pass.

Brown had himself a career night, scoring four touchdowns on 156 yards rushing and 161 on three receptions. Along with a 14-yard kickoff return, he totaled 331 yards in total offense.

Brown scored on a 75-yard run, a 51-yard run and then 76 and 79-yard pass receptions, the last one the game winner.

Quarterback Berrey wasn’t bad either in his first action of the season, completing 11 of 19 passes for 270 yards and three touchdowns.

“This was an amazing win,” said Berrey. “I thought, I expect to win every game, but I no idea that this feeling would be so great. Our O-line blocked amazingly. I don’t think on the ground outside of designed runs. Our receivers are absolute dogs. That’s all I have to do. I just have to get the ball in their hands.”

Berry connected with six different receivers, led by Brown’s 16-yard day. David Ola-Kazeem caught three balls for 40 yards, Adam Tait caught 2 for 34, OT Omot had two receptions for 27 yards and a score and Jalataa Shenkor had one catch for eight yards.

“I feel like the points on the other side are going to go down,” said Omot. “I trust in my defense, its all-around game. I’ve been playing with these guys since Little League, and it’s been so fun. It’s been a journey and for us to get our first win together as seniors, and juniors like Taran, all those other guys stepping up, its’ really big for us and we hope to continue getting a lot of wins.”

It was an action-packed game from start to finish with the offenses of both teams dominating.

Park trailed 20-6 after one quarter and folks in the stands had to be wondering if this was going to be a repeat of the first two games.

“I think a lot of people thought we were down and out in the first quarter to be completely honest,” said Park head coach Rick Fryklund. “You know, here we go again type deal. If you would have looked on the sideline, we had kind of steely eyes and weren’t going to go down easy. And I’m proud of the kids for continuing to fight. We had to make some adjustments against some schemes we weren’t prepared for. It obviously wasn’t pretty on the defensive side. But they fought hard and thankfully I have a fantastic offensive coordinator in Tim Walton that always puts up points. That guy is a beautiful mind on the football field.”

Instead, Park got its offense rolling and scored the next three touchdowns, taking a 28-20 lead early in the fourth quarter.

Park scored on a 1-yard run by Taran Blasy, a 6-yard pass from Berrey to OT Omot and a 51-yard run by Brown for a 28-20 lead.

“We need to work on loving each other as a team,” said Blasy when asked what the Wolfpack need to do to keep improving. “We’ve got to work together and trust every single person out there. I think we did a really good job today representing that trust that we have in our defense and in our offense and in our special teams. And I can trust the guy next to me to give his all-out effort every single play. And I don’t have to worry about that.”

The fireworks were just beginning, however. Park scored three touchdowns in the final period – all by Brown – to two for the Lightning.

Eastview tied the game at 28-all with 5:35 left. Park then scored on a 76-yard pass from Berrey to Brown. But the Lightning came right back on punched in a score, then added a two-point conversion to take a 36-35 lead.

That set the stage for Park’s game-winning heroics. Park got the ball at their own 21 and Berrey dropped a short screen pass out to Brown who blazed 79 yards down field for the touchdown and the win. That set off a wild celebration by the Wolfpack, and why not. After suffering two crushing losses to open the season, Park’s players deserved a bit of extended celebration time. Park also played without eight starters, making the win even sweeter.

“I’m proud of the opportunity those players had, stepped into those roles this evening when we needed them most in obviously a big game,” said Fryklund.

Fryklund agreed that the little things Park did Thursday added up to a big win.

“All those little things are what actually adds up to the big things,” Fryklund noted. “And when we knew we were down all those starters I was pretty proud of those kids this week. Just saying yup we’re not to complain about it, we’re just going to go and attack it the best we can and I think that last week when Eagan took it to us very physically and was more disciplined our kids and our coaches had to take a long look in the mirror and realize that we needed to change some things.”

Senior linebacker Alex Carr led the Park defense with 7 solo tackles, 16 assists and one tackle for loss. Brett Salmonson had four solos and 13 assists while Jacob Nickle had 1 solo stop and 11 assists.

“Honestly, I think we learned this week that players have to be leaders, not just coaches,” said Nickle. “And last week coaches were the leaders. And this week we need our players to be leaders and we all learned that the players are going to be the leaders. And I think that if we all do are part on the team and we don’t go off on weekends, dilly-dallying, messing up and we contribute to our team and don’t have little mistakes I know our coach is going to put us in the right spots.”

Park, now 1-2, hosts Hopkins (0-3) Friday, Sept. 23, with a 7 p.m. kickoff. Hopkins is having a tough season so far, with lopsided losses to Prior Lake (0-43), Burnsville (0-43) and East Ridge (6-54). Last season Hopkins went winless, including a 45-7 loss to Park.

Senior quarterback Sam Berrey eyes his receiver in the fourth quarter. Berry passed for 270 yards and three touchdowns in his first outing of the season. Photo by John Molene

Park defenders Fiyin Taiwo (27) and Skyler Morgan (13) drop an Eastview opponent in the second half Thursday. Photo by John Molene

Senior running back Derrik Brown Jr. of Park heads to the end zone with the game-winning score in Park’s dramatic win over Eastview. Photo by John Molene