Oakes, ND (NewsDakota.com) – It was a battle for the top spot in Region 1 on Friday September 19th as the Oakes Tornados hosted the Lisbon Broncos on their homecoming. The Broncos were able to get their first victory over Oakes since 2020 with a final score of 18-8.

The game started with Lisbon coming out swinging with Riley Lacina running roughshod on the Oakes defense leading them down the field with only a handful of plays before running into the endzone from 6 yards out to make it 6-0 with 9:36 left. Oakes wouldn’t be able to find much footing as they would be forced to punt the give the ball back after a failed 4th down conversion. The next drive for the Broncos would be the Eli Lyons show as it would be his turn to spring for big yardage and drive them down the field eventually running in from 3 yards out to make it 12-0 with 4:28 left. Oakes would be forced into a 3 and out. Landon Titus would intercept Evan Tuhy to give Oakes good field position but they wouldn’t be able to do anything with it. The score at the end of the quarter and the end of the half would be 12-0.

The trenches would remained stalled between as Oakes would shut down the running game for the most of the half and Lisbon’s defense would bend but not break as Oakes would get to red zone several times but couldn’t find pay dirt. The Broncos would even pick off Beau Thorpe with Sully Kelsen getting a pick in the 3rd. Oakes would get a touchdown called back as well with Thorpe finding Zade Heier for a 50+ touchdown pass only to be called back on offensive pass interference.

The next scoring play to stick would be after a long methodical drive by the Broncos that ended with a 1 yard run by Eli Lyons to make it 18-0 with 7:59 left in the game. Oakes would quickly march down the field with Thorpe connecting with Heier several times to make it 18-8 after a 6 yard pass to Heier with 7:04 left. That would be the last scoring play of the game as the Broncos would hold onto win the ball game.

The Bank North Player of the Game would be Zade Heier.

With the win the Broncos sit alone a top of the Region with a Region record of 3-0 as the Tornados enter a 4 way tie for 2nd in the Region with EEK, Valley City, Northern Cass, and Oakes all with a 2-1 Region record.

Next up for Oakes is Sargent County in Gwinner on Friday September 26th. You can catch all of the action on KDDR the Tornado with coverage starting at 6:00 pm with the Full 9 Yards with Ricky and BJ.