STORM LAKE — It took a while for the scoreboard to reflect what was happening at the line of scrimmage, but the seventh-ranked (Class 4A) Fort Dodge football squad eventually landed the knockout punch in a 35-0 victory over Storm Lake here on Friday night.

The Dodger defense made life miserable for quarterback Cameron Boyd and his Tornado teammates, as Fort Dodge set a single-game program record by holding Storm Lake to negative-103 yards rushing. Senior linebacker/defensive end hybrid Dreshaun Ross and his fellow front-three teammates — juniors Jayon Preston-Grady and Alex Beekman — had a field day, with Ross recording 5.5 sacks and the Dodgers tallying 13 total tackles for loss.

The Tornadoes’ misery was compounded by having four errant snaps fly over Boyd’s head for a combined negative-75 yards.

“Our defense came to play,” FDSH head coach Nik Moser said. “We were confident we could do some things and really get after them (up front), and that happened. Shutouts are pretty rare in 4A football — especially against an explosive offense like Storm Lake’s (which leads the class in every major passing category).

“With that being said, it took a while to get all 22 of our guys on the same page and ready to go. We didn’t finish drives or look particularly sharp in the first half, but we locked in from there and were solid on both sides of the ball. I’m proud of how we responded in that third quarter.”

Ahead just 6-0 at intermission despite multiple trips deep into Tornado territory, the Dodgers (6-1 overall, 2-1 in Class 4A, District 1) finally opened the floodgates when Ross took the first snap of the third period and sprinted 80 yards to the end zone. Fort Dodge put together a four-touchdown flurry in just over nine minutes of game time, as junior tailback Will McElroy scored twice and junior Kyree Rochon hit paydirt on a jet-sweep pitch from Tru McBride.

McElroy (25 carries, 179 yards, two touchdowns) and Ross (four for 108 and two TDs) spearheaded a Dodger ground attack that completely dominated throughout. Fort Dodge had a pair of goal-to-go situations go bust in the first half, though, keeping the score deceptively close for a while.

The Dodger defense never gave Storm Lake (2-5, 1-2) any breathing room to seriously challenge. Boyd, who had thrown for 1,465 yards and had 1,753 total from scrimmage through the first six weeks — both bests in 4A — finished with negative-36 yards rushing and only 116 through the air. He was sacked five times in the first half alone.

The Tornadoes then had three yards passing and negative-51 rushing after the break.

Junior Cal Pederson returned a punt 48 yards to set up one of McElroy’s touchdowns. Sophomore Bryce Tessandori recovered a fumble for Fort Dodge.

“We’re going to move on quickly from this one and concentrate on Le Mars (for Homecoming this Friday),” Moser said. “We’ve got momentum back in our corner again, so we need to prove we can handle success and, in the words of (former Fort Dodge head coach) Matt Miller, keep the main thing the main thing.

“We have to stay focused and be ready to go physically and mentally all week. There can be a lot of distractions during Homecoming week…we need to show we’re mature enough to handle this next challenge, because Le Mars is a talented ballclub.”

The Dodgers face the Bulldogs (4-3, 2-1) at 7 p.m. on Friday. Le Mars lost to No. 2 Sergeant Bluff-Luton last night, 35-7.

FD SL

First Downs 18 7

Rushes-Yards 44-333 20-(103)

Passing Yards 90 116

Comp-Att-Int 7-14-2 99-207-6

Total Yards 428 13

Punts-Avg. 0-0 8-31.0

Fumbles-Lost 2-1 5-1

Penalties-Yards 8-65 10-87

Fort Dodge 6 0 29 0 — 35

Storm Lake 0 0 0 0 — 0

Scoring Summary

Fort Dodge — Dreshaun Ross (12-yard touchdown run), 6:44 first quarter. Run failed.

Fort Dodge — Ross (80-yard run), 11:46 left third. Will McElroy run.

Fort Dodge — Will McElroy (4-yard run), 9:28 left third. Bo Marsh kick.

Fort Dodge — Kyree Rochon (9-yard pass from Tru McBride), 3:53 left third. Marsh kick.

Fort Dodge — McElroy (1-yard run), 2:24 left third. Marsh kick.

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Rushing — Fort Dodge: Will McElroy 25-179, Dreshaun Ross 4-108, Tru McBride 6-36, Ezrah Barkhaus 8-15, Team 1-(minus-5). Storm Lake: Marco Cortes-Oropeza 11-8, Cameron Boyd 5-(minus-36), Team 4-(minus-75).

Passing — Fort Dodge: Tru McBride 7-14-2-94, Reggie Pederson 1-1-0-(-4). Storm Lake: Cameron Boyd 12-21-0-116.

Receiving — Fort Dodge: Tytrell Mosley 2-33, Zak Jorgensen 1-25, Cal Pederson 2-23, Kyree Rochon 2-13, Tanner Peterson 1-(minus-4). Storm Lake: David William 7-75, Drew Hogrefe 2-27, Marco Cortes-Oropeza 1-8, Bryan Oropeza 1-5, Rylan Richardson 1-1.