The anatomy of a running game – Wayzata Trojans

<em>Cover photo by Aaron Lavinsky</em> The Wayzata Trojans' running game dominated the 6A title game on Friday night. Senior running back <strong>Christian Vasser</strong> tied or broke two Prep Bowl rushing records en route to a 35-20 victory over Champlin Park. Vasser ended with 285 yards on 49 carries – Prep Bowl record - and five touchdowns -tied a Prep Bowl record. The Trojans ran 57 offensive plays – 53 of the plays were runs. The offense scored touchdowns on five of their nine drives. One of those drives that didn't score was a one-play drive at the end of the first half, and another was a six-play drive that ran out the fourth quarter game clock. The offensive line – <strong>Jac Carver</strong>, <strong>Joe Salonek</strong>, <strong>Alec Rasmussen</strong>, <strong>Tyler Magnuson</strong>, <strong>Graham Viggers</strong>, and tight end <strong>Luke Bodine</strong> had their way with the Rebels' front seven. They ran where-ever they wanted, whenever they wanted. They ran straight at the defense, but most of their big chunk plays came off trap plays. With the ability to read accounts of the game pretty much everywhere, this story is going to break down the Wayzata trap play that wrecked the Rebels' defense and played a considerable role in the victory. Pre-snap Bodine would usually line up flexed a yard off the line of scrimmage. At the snap, the play side guard would block down on the play-side defensive tackle while the center would either help the guard and then move to the next level to cut off the backside linebacker. Depending on the alignment of the defensive tackle, sometimes the center would forgo the defensive tackle and head directly to the linebacker. The play-side defensive end would initially be unblocked because the offensive tackle would move directly to the outside linebacker – giving him a great angle to make the block. The off-side guard would pull across the formation and kick out the initially unblocked defensive end. Along with the guard, Bodine would come across the formation. He would act as the lead blocker, head up the hole and block the first wrong colored jersey that came into his area. At this point, it would be on Vasser to read his blocks. Most of the time, he would either cut it up to follow his tight end up the hole or bounce the run to the outside – usually for positive yardage. The Wayzata offense had so much success with this concept that in the second half, while showing the same action, instead of handing the ball to Vasser, quarterback <strong>Tom Schmidt</strong> pulled the ball out of his running back's belly and reversed field. Because the Rebels' defense reacted to the offensive line action and Vasser, a huge lane opened for Schmidt. His twelve-yard gain on second and four set up Vasser's fourth touchdown of the game. Vasser was not stopped for a loss once in the entire game and was stopped for no-gain only three times.