Pirates rally past Cardinals

Hankinson scored four second-half touchdowns, rallying from a 22-8 third-quarter deficit to hand Ellendale a loss in the teams’ nine-man football season opener on Saturday.

Alex Althoff threw three touchdown passes and ran for another score as the Pirates battled back in the final 20 minutes.

Two long second-quarter TD runs by Nate Arnold (one from 30 yards out and the other from 42) gave the Cardinals a 14-8 halftime lead. A 20-yard Josh Morrissey TD run early in the third quarter made it a 22-8 lead for the hosts.

But Althoff connected on a 54-yard TD strike to Danny Hangaard and Jeremy Riemann ran one in from 3 yards out to tie it 22-22 late in the third quarter.

Morrissey hit Nolan Hamar on a 6-yard TD pass early in the fourth to give Ellendale back the lead at 28-22.

But Althoff connected with Garrett Stein on a 56-yard TD pass and Justin Roeder’s PAT kick with 9:19 left gave Hankinson a 29-28 lead.

Althoff’s 1-yard run and a two-point conversion pass from Roeder to Patrick Gulan with 6:13 left sealed the win for the Pirates.

Hankinson 37, Ellendale 28

Hankinson 8 0 14 15 — 37

Ellendale 0 14 8 6 — 28

H—Danny Hangaard 32 pass from Alex Althoff (Althoff run)

E—Nate Arnold 30 run (run failed)

E—Arnold 42 run (Arnold run)

E—Josh Morrissey 20 run (Morrissey run)

H—Hangaard 54 pass from Althoff (Garrett Stein run)

H—Jeremy Riemann 3 run (pass failed)

E—Nolan Hamar 6 pass from Morrissey (pass failed)

H—Stein 56 pass from Althoff (Justin Roeder kick)

H—Althoff 1 run (Patrick Gulan pass from Roeder)

— Sun Staff

Tags: football, nineman, classb, hankinson, ellendale