For the fourth time in as many weeks, the Park Wolfpack offense roared.

The Wolfpack defense, well, they got the stops in the fourth quarter when they absolutely had to have them.

“It shouldn’t be this exciting for the same things that we keep having issues with,” said Park head coach Rick Fryklund. “We’ve got to look at a way to make sure that we stop having those consistent issues game after game after game.”

Park dispatched visiting Burnsville in an offensive whirlwind of a game, claiming a wild 48-35 homecoming victory which was still in doubt until late in the fourth quarter.

The offenses, however, wowed. The two teams combined for 800 yards in offense, 12 touchdowns, while also suffering nearly 200 yards in penalties.

It was Park’s second straight win and the third time in four games this season the Wolfpack have scored more than 44 points.

“We started off a little rocky, but it’s all about the finish,” said Park senior lineman Juan Orozco+Sanchez. “We don’t care how we start, its how we finish.”

A rollicking homecoming crowd of an estimated 4,500 watched as Park stormed up and down the field with one big play after another. The only trouble for the Wolfpack was — for most of the game — visiting Burnsville was doing the same thing once the Blaze had the ball.

Neither team had much luck stopping the other until the decisive fourth quarter when Park’s defenders finally put the brakes to a very potent Burnsville offense.

The second quarter was wild with the two teams combining for six touchdowns in the period. Included in the onslaught were touchdown passes of 5 and 21 yards from Park’s Evan Bearth, a 78-yard run by Blake Johnson and finally a 29-yard touchdown pass from Bearth to Ot Omot. Park led 28-19 at the half.

More fireworks continued in the second half.

Park had 463 yards in offense, an even perfect ratio of rushing yards (219) to passing yards (244). It was perhaps the first time this season that Park’s running game and passing attack were both in synch. The Wolfpack got huge games from senior quarterback Bearth and senior running back Johnson.

Bearth was 25 of 34 passing for 244 yards, with four touchdowns and one interception. He threw scoring strikes of 5, 21, 29 and 56 yards.

“Evan is coached to take certain things based on what he sees and he’s a very coachable player,” said Fryklund. “Coach (Tim) Walton, our offensive coordinator, does a phenomenal job of seeing the space to attack and seeing what space will be open based on some other things so I need to give him a huge credit because there’s no way we would have come out of this game without all the offensive help that we did.”

For the season Bearth is 101 completions in 142 attempts for 1,365 yards and 16 touchdowns. He’s averaging 227 yards passing per game.

“When we got the ball outside we had great success,” said Bearth. “They played a lot of guys off so we took advantage of that and got the ball outside. Second half they brought those guys up so we tried to find the middle of the field.”

Johnson carried the ball 17 times for 226 yards and three touchdowns, including an electrifying 78-yard scoring bust out in the second quarter. Johnson now has 552 yards rushing on the season, averaging 7.6 yards per carry and 110 yards per game.

“Blake had a great night and like you said we’ve got to give credit to those offensive linemen because you couldn’t have any holes to run if you didn’t have all those guys blocking.”

Johnson added a 49-yard touchdown run in the third quarter to give Park a seemingly safe 35-19 lead. But Burnsville bounced back with two scores in the third quarter to tie the game at 35all.

Park finally extinguished the Blaze in the fourth quarter on a 56-yard touchdown pass from Bearth to Omot followed by a 5-yard touchdown run by Johnson.

“I think we moved the ball really well offensively,” said Park linebacker Logan Lucas. “I’m proud of these guys on this field tonight. I think on defense we read our keys really well and did our job really well and it was great to close out this win tonight.”

Senior Brady Perryman led five Park receivers who caught passes with 13 receptions for 85 yards and a score. Omot had three catches for 93 yards and two touchdowns.

But while the Wolfpack offense was doing its thing, so was Burnsville. The Blaze gained 336 yards, including 238 yards rushing, and scored on a 61-yards pass, a 48-yard run, and an 80-yard kickoff return, among others.

“I think it’s just that everyone in 6A is just a good team,” said linebacker Will Smoot when asked why the Wolfpack are having trouble closing out games. “They’re going to come out here, work hard and battle until the end. It’s not going to be easy any week.”

Offensively, Park has shown the ability to score points in bunches this season. Defensively, Park still suffers from a lack of consistency.

“I think if we bring up our effort we can fix that,” said lineman Roy Lane.

Park improved to 3-2 on the season and 3-1 in the Metro-Maroon South.

Burnsville slipped to 1-4 overall and 1-2 in the Metro- Maroon South.

Defensively the Wolfpack was led by senior linebacker Micah Runion who had three tackles and seven assists and junior defensive back Brandan Lee who had four tackles, three assists and an interception.

Park hosts old rival and previously eighth ranked Woodbury (3-1, 4-1) Friday, Oct. 8 in a resumption of their many Suburban East Conference battles. The Royals dropped a 15-14 heartbreaker to archrival East Ridge on Friday for their first loss of the season.

Park hasn’t played Woodbury in varsity football since 2014, but the old Suburban East Conference matchup was mostly in favor of the Royals. Woodbury won four of the last five meetings between the two teams, including blowout wins of 43-7, 49-13 and 44-7.

Park’s Ot Omot makes a juggling catch against Burnsville in the fourth quarter of the Wolfpack’s wild 48-35 win Friday. Photo by John Molene