COKATO — On a wet, drizzly evening, the Chargers (ranked #1 in Class AAA) took advantage of some early miscues by the visiting Watertown-Mayer Royals (#2 in Class AAA) to jump out to an early 21-0 lead, and held on for a 35-25 victory at DC.

The Royals had two snaps sail over the quarterback’s head in the first quarter. The first led to a punt, and DC’s second touchdown. The second was recovered by Jacob Decker, and resulted in DC’s third touchdown, which put DC up 21-0 just nine minutes into the game.

Caleb Thinesen scored the first DC touchdown, on a 44-yard bootleg. Monte Gillman ran it in from 15 yards for DC’s second score, and Tate Link plunged in from one yard out to give the home team a 21-0 lead.

The Royals, to their credit, did not lay down. They scored a touchdown with just 13.5 seconds left in the first half to pull to within 21-6. Then, early in the second half, DL Jason Fenske ripped the ball out of a DC running back’s arms and rumbled down the field to the five-yard line, setting up a second Royals touchdown to pull them to within 21-13.

The Chargers responded with a long drive, but failed to convert on a field goal. Watertown-Mayer then drove 90 yards down the field with relative ease, with Keagan Brassington scoring from two yards out to pull the Royals to within two, 21-19.

The Chargers defense, however, denied that two-point conversion to protect the lead.

DC scored the next two touchdowns, the first coming on a Tate Link 5-yard plunge, and the second coming on another Thinesen bootleg that gave DC a lead of 35-19 with 1:41 left.

Watertown-Mayer was able to drive quickly down the field and score a touchdown with 21 seconds left, but missed the extra point. The Chargers recovered the ensuing onside kick and were able to kneel out the clock.

Tate Link led DC with 152 yards on 27 carries and two touchdowns. Thinesen also topped the 100-yard mark, rushing seven times for 109 yards and two scores. Monte Gillman had nine carries for 34 yards and a TD.

Thinesen also went 3-6 for 20 yards through the air.

Wyatt McCabe had the bulk of the load for the Royals on the ground, rushing 25 times for 136 yards and a TD.

Quarterback Albert Rundell went 10-20 for 131 yards, and also had two rushing TDs.

Both teams are now 3-1 on the season.

The DC girls swim & Dive team had two road meets in recent action, falling to Buffalo Tuesday, and traveling to Litchfield Thursday.

The Litchfield meet has historically been a good one for DC swimmers and divers, and this one was no different. While the Chargers lost to the Dragons 56-45, it was a thrilling meet, with numerous personal and season-bests.

“We had an incredible meet. We had something like 80% best times, and the score was back-and-forth up until the last two events. The atmosphere was crazy, and I had a hard time hearing for a while after the meet,” said Youngs. “We were leading going into the backstroke [the third to last event] but our depth ran out and Litch took the lead and never relinquished it.”

Check out Friday’s Enterprise Dispatch for a full recap.

HUTCHINSON – The DC  cross country teams participated in the Hutchinson Invitational Thursday, Sept. 15 at Lake Marion Park.The girls finished in third place, while the boys – who were missing some top runners – finished fifth.

The Chargers had three girls place in the top-20: Emily Trocke (7th place), Amanda Ashwill (15th) and Kate Jenkins (20th).

Soren Bortnem paced the boys squad with a fifth-place finish in a very competitive field. Dylan Seaberg had his best performance of the season, finishing in 15th place with a time of 18:18.

Check out Friday’s Enterprise Dispatch for a full recap.

ANNANDALE – It was a tale of two halves when the top-ranked team in Class AAA, the DC Chargers, traveled to the #5 team in Annandale.

The Cardinals had a solid game plan to start the game, as they took a 14-3 lead into halftime. And, truth be told, it could have been worse.

However, DC regrouped and dominated the second half, scoring 25 unanswered points in a 28-14 victory.

The ‘D’ staff should be commended for the changes they made at the break, as the Cardinals were stymied at every turn in the second half.

Offensively, running back Tate Link continued his stellar season, rushing 24 times for 167 yards and a touchdown.

A big story from this game was the play of DC quarterback Caleb Thinesen, and his receivers. Usually with the DC wishbone offense, passing is fairly limited; however, against Annandale, Thinesen was called into throwing action in several key situations, and he delivered.

He hit Jackson Schrupp for a 39-yard completion in the first half, and hit Broden Lang twice for 53 yards.

No play was more important than on a 4th-and-6th late in the fourth quarter, where Thinesen lofted a perfect ball that Lang hauled in for a 29-yard score, effectively putting the game out of reach for the Cardinals.

Kicker Toby Colline must also be commended. DC did not even attempt a field goal last season, and had not done so through the first two games of this season.

At Annandale, Colline knocked through two field goals of 30 and 31 yards, and was perfect on his extra points.

Check out Friday’s Enterprise Dispatch for a full recap.

COKATO — The DC Chargers defeated the Little Falls Flyers 35-6 in their first home game of the season Friday.

DC evened their record at 1-1 after falling to Princeton 34-27 on the road in the first game of the season.

Little Falls scored on their opening drive, but were held scoreless by the DC defense after that. The Chargers scored 35 unanswered points.

Tate Link rushed 26 times for 268 yards and four touchdowns to lead the Chargers, as they outgained Little Falls 359-197.

Link has 54 carries for 479 yards and seven touchdowns through two games this season.

Check out Friday’s Enterprise Dispatch for a full recap.

Dassel-Cokato will have five participants at the Class AA State Track meet this year.

Eli Gillman will participate in two individual events at the Class AA state tournament: the triple jump, and the 100m dash.

Gillman set a new school record at the section tournament for the 100m, clocking in at 10.93. He was .05 seconds better than Ryan Bollman’s school record. He also finished first in the triple jump.

The 4×100 Relay team of Monte Gillman, Eli Gillman, Erik Asplin, and Greg Clark took first as well, defeating Rockford by .29 seconds.

Cherish Jorgensen was the lone girl to advance to the state meet, taking second in the 100m hurdles.

The Class AA State Track & Field meet will be held June 9-11 at St. Michael-Albertville High School.