Through a tornado warning, lightning, rain and hail, East defeats West in 11-man North Dakota Shrine Bowl

MAYVILLE — It took four hours, a tornado warning, and delays for rain, lightning and hail but the clouds finally gave way to sunshine for the conclusion of the 2023 11-player North Dakota Shrine Bowl at Jerome Berg Field.

Following a tornado warning, the game began about an hour after its original 4 p.m. start time with the East scoring two touchdowns — a one-yard punch through the line from Kindred’s Trey Heinrich and a 14-yard run by Devils Lake’s Colton Schneider — before the end of the first quarter.

The East won 21-0 following another Heinrich touchdown in the second half.

Before the final touchdown, however, the game experienced two more delays for lightning in the second quarter. The second came after a downpour accompanied by brief hail.

Due to the delays, the quarters were shortened to 10 minutes with the second half and the last 4:15 of the second quarter played under a running clock.

“It was crazy. It felt like the longest and shortest game of my life,” Heinrich said. “After we got on the field it felt like it took 10 seconds (to finish the game) with the running clock. And I had never played in hail before so that was pretty cool.”

For Heinrich, the two-touchdown game was exactly the way he had hoped to end his high school football career. In his final game as a Kindred Viking, against the Central Cass Squirrels, Heinrich left the game early with an injury.

This ending was much better than that one, he said.

“It’s really awesome,” he said. “I had my coaches wondering if it was a good idea to come back after my last injury. I told them I wanted to end my football career with a bang and we did it. It means a lot to end it with such a good game and with the win with the East.”

The delays also opened up special opportunities for players to do things they’d never do in other games. For example, Minot’s Jayden Speraw took some time during one of the second quarter delays to have a meal break.

“I had a hamburger, fries and a Mountain Dew,” Speraw said. “We were on our fourth delay, another 35 or 45-minute delay. So I said I might as well eat dinner because I was starving. I had time to eat dinner, go to the bathroom and come out and warm up.”

While the West’s loss was disappointing for Speraw, the week leading into the game provided the most enjoyment of the Shrine Bowl experience.

“I don’t think it was even the game I had the most fun in,” he said. “The week of practice with all my teammates was a blast, just preparing. The game kinda blew because, obviously, we lost but all the money is going to a good organization.”

At one point, players stayed on the field after being ordered off during one of the delays. Eventually, the players made their way back to their respective locker rooms. Jamestown’s Payton Hochhalter said the teams just wanted to keep playing.

“We just wanted to keep going,” Hochhalter said. “We were all super excited to get this game played. Everyone just wanted the game to actually get started so we could actually have fun.”

Hochhalter, like Speraw, said the entire week helped build memories and relationships.

“It was super cool,” he said. “I’ll be friends with these guys for plenty of years to come. It was a super fun week with them.”

West Fargo’s Payton McGregor celebrated his team’s victory — which he said was the best way to end his high school career — with a backflip.

Aside from the win, McGregor also noted the bigger picture of the event as other players had.

“It’s really meaningful,” McGregor said of the Shrine Bowl week. “I can’t even put into words being here with the Shriners and the boys. I didn’t know any of my roommates then we got really close toward the end and now we just separate. But, I feel like I’ll know these guys for 20 or 30 years, which is going to be a blast.”