Totino-Grace football's rushing attack wears down No. 13 Rocori in Week 1 upset

COLD SPRING — Coming out of halftime, the Totino-Grace football team held firm with a six-point lead and possession to start the third quarter.

The Eagles had been playing well, pounding the rock against a strong Rocori defense and getting scores from both running backs, sophomore Fua Taumalolo and senior Ben Bergan.

Yet it was an eight-minute, 41-yard scoreless drive that ultimately sealed the win against No. 13 Rocori.

After finally getting their defense off the field, the Spartans quickly gave the ball right back to the Eagles. They swiftly marched down the field to punch in the insurance score of a 20-8 victory.

Totino-Grace had possession for 11 of the 12 minutes in the third quarter.

"We have got to execute," first-year Rocori head coach Alex Larson said. "We're putting our guys in position; I think we just got to do a better job of when we get that opportunity to execute on it."

All night long the Eagles' rushing attacked worked effortlessly and effectively, that elusive drive still being the pinnacle of effective game prep and scouting over a Rocori squad that has high expectations in 2026.

The biggest factor to that success was, of course, the offensive line paving the way for both Taumalolo and Bergan.

"They played really well," Taumalolo said. "I feel like if they didn't open the gaps like they did today, [the win] wouldn't have happened. We saw a lot of downfield rushing [on film], which really opened the trap because all we had to do was slide them out."

Such ground dominance soon led to an efficient passing attack from sophomore quarterback Henry Cone, especially in the second half.

"All practice; we were trying to really aim to win the line of scrimmage to get our run game going so we can pop it out for the slips, outs and even our deep comebacks," said Taumalolo, who scored from the flat off a play action in the second quarter. "[The slip out to me] is one of our main plays, we practice that every single day."

While the game certainly did not go in Rocori's favor, the bad became worse as injuries started to pile up.

Sophomore quarterback Tyson Zauhar went down in the fourth quarter with a cramp. Senior linebacker Renner Haven went down on the final drive with a sprained ankle, according to Larson.

"Losing week one sucks," Larson said. "We felt like there's just some plays here and there, like we [would] execute and [then] turn the ball over. Those were big momentum swingers. As an offense, we just got to protect the football and do our job that we've been coaching throughout the whole week. It's just growing pains that we got to work through, and we will."

Rocori is back in action Sept. 11 at Marshall.

You can reach St. Cloud Times sports reporter David Jacobs and send story ideas to djacobs@gannett.com and follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @davidrjacobs10 .