By AARON HAGEN
The Globe
WORTHINGTON -- Frank Cromer had never taken a collegiate snap.
When an injury forced him into action, it didn't take long for Cromer to make his presence known.
In Saturday's game against Minnesota State-Fergus Falls, the left-handed quarterback on Minnesota West's football team threw a 40-yard touchdown pass on his second career attempt.
"It was my first college snap, unfortunately our starting quarterback went down and I had to step up," Cromer said. "Basically, I had to lead my team. I got the nerves out the first play of the game, I got hit."
It turned out West needed every point against the hard-charging Spartans in a 58-38 victory.
"It was definitely a nail biter," West's Reginald Colson III said. "It's stressful when you go up 44 to 8 at the halftime and they put up 38 points, that's tough. It was really a nail biter, but we found light and we finished. We can't get too down about it, we'll just fix it this week in practice."
West led 51-8 at one point, but Fergus Falls scored 30 straight points in the second half before a late defensive touchdown sealed the win.
"I was disappointed in how we played in the second half again," MW head coach Jeff Linder said. "I think we lost momentum because we took our foot off the pedal too quick. Then we couldn't get it back. We just needed to keep going."
Starting quarterback Andrew Ortiz led the offense to a 23-0 first-quarter lead. After the defense forced a safety, Ortiz ran in from a yard before Khaileb Desmond (13 carries, 78 yards) scored from three yards out. Ortiz then found Colson III for a 10-yard strike -- that Colson III caught one-handed.
"It was one on one and nobody in this conference can guard me one on one, I believe," Colson III said. "I made a move and he threw it. He kind of threw it too far, so that's why I had to grab it with one. It was a nice throw by the quarterback and a nice read."
After FF answered with a second-quarter touchdown, Ortiz went down with an injury, forcing Cromer into action.
"I told them to play for Drew. If he was out here, I know he'd want me to do good, and same with him. When he was out here, I wanted him to do good," Cromer said. "So just play for Drew, I know he wanted us to win today."
On his first college snap, he threw a nine-yard pass.
"My coaches had me prepared," Cromer said. "The first play I was nervous, but once I got hit, I was like OK, it's not as hard as I thought it was going to be. I was kind of nervous, but after the first play I knew this was my game."
His second throw was a 40-yard score to Colson III.
"Coach told me to read the safeties," Cromer said. "They were playing off the ball, so I told Reggie to run the post and he want open. Just reading defenses. My coaches taught me well to prepare me for this moment."
Cromer was 14-for-24 passing for 210 yards and four touchdowns on the day. He found Gary Smith III for a four-yard touchdown and a 13-yard touchdown as West led 44-8 at half. Out of the break, Cromer connected with Colson III for a 25-yard touchdown as the lead was 51-8.
However, Fergus Falls answered in a big way. Led by quarterback Winston Sweeting -- who was 29-for-55 passing for 410 yards and three touchdowns -- the Spartans were within two scores early in the fourth quarter.
"We started off the game real good and we got sluggish in the second half," Colson III said. "I guess we thought we had the game out of reach. But obviously any team can come back on anybody on any given day. This week in practice, we're going to work on that. When you start strong, you have to finish strong."
The West defense came up with a big play when it needed it the most. As FF was driving, Steven Lucas Jr. intercepted a pass on his own 15 and returned it 85 yards for a game-sealing touchdown.
"We really needed something to happen to change momentum a little bit," Linder said. "We were out of position, we weren't doing our jobs, we were getting lazy. We were rotating guys, so everybody should have been kind of fresh. I'm just extremely disappointed in the second half. Last week against Mesabi, we probably played a full game. We've had two weeks now where we haven't. That has to change."
Colson III had three receptions for 76 yards, while Caleb Tinklenberg -- who was a perfect 8-for-8 on extra points -- had 48 yards receiving. Juan Moore had a 59-yard fumble return and led West with eight tackles. Tony Henry and Mateus Bassotto each recovered a fumble.
The Bluejays improve to 2-1 overall and 1-0 in the division and are at North Dakota State College of Science on Saturday.
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