Meredith Carrington of the girls had what it took to make state also. Carrington is a sophomore and her Friday efforts netted her 14th place. She covered the Pierz course in 20:51.9.
We might have anticipated Meredith's sister Maddie being a standout at this stage of the season also. Maddie was dealt a heartbreaking injury in the Homecoming week powder puff football game. The problem was a torn ACL and that requires considerable time to recover. The initial estimate heard by yours truly was 7-9 months. So she's probably looking at being sidelined for the rest of this academic year. She reportedly plans on filling that void by being active in speech. That's commendable and might even have more dividends than athletics!
But surely we'd like to see both Carrington sisters in the state meet spectacle, quite the colorful and climactic event. We now wish Noah and Meredith well, and it'd be nice to see Meredith put a smile on grandpa Tom's face with her performance! Tom sets standards pretty high. But down deep he's nothing but proud.
The top two teams in section and the top eight individuals not on the top two teams advance to state.
The MACA boys team placed ninth at Pierz among 24 total teams. West Central Area was the champion team followed by Staples-Motley in runner-up. Morris native and former UMM Cougar John Van Kempen coaches West Central Area. Kudos to John and his harriers.
The champion male runner was Emmet Anderson of Staples-Motley, time of 15:48.4. Jacob Bright of WCA was No. 2 with his time of 16:01.5.
Stewart was joined in the MACA effort by Thomas Tiernan (19:03.1), Reid Tolifson (19:23.8), Cole Hawks (19:46.0) and Jared Boots (20:00.0). Fans hope Noah will be "in the zone" for the big Nov. 2 affair.
Staples-Motley took No. 1 honors in the girls race among 21 teams. Albany was second. The individual champion was Kyanna Burton of Staples-Motley who covered the course in 19:02.5. Caroline Kuehne of LP-GE was second at 19:53.2. Meredith Carrington was joined in the MACA effort by Anna Backman (22:31.7), Kelly Berlinger (22:43.9), Kaylie Raths (22:48.4) and Isabel Fynboh (23:13.4).
Football: Eden Valley Watkins 40, Tigers 21
Not sure how the Eden Valley-Watkins team is going to react to the tone of the West Central Tribune's coverage of the Saturday football game. The article emphasized the Tigers' quality which would sure go over well here in Motown. The headline (online) mentions only the Tigers and says we were just "too little, too late" with our quality play.
Well, the Eden Valley-Watkins gridders had "a lot" and it was "earlier." The lead sentence of Patrick Bernadeau's article noted how MACA fell into a pretty big halftime deficit. It was to the tune of five scores. The second part of that sentence says "Morris/Chokio Alberta was far and away the better team on the field during the second half."
"Far and away the better team" is a nice compliment but it shrouds how EV-W certainly showed attributes on this day also. Further patting our team on the back, the writer notes how MACA's second half quality was in spite of EV-W sticking with its starters. The writer notes how our third-seeded Tigers (5AA) "dominated throughout the third quarter and through much of the fourth."
Surely our defense came on strong. It seems head-scratching, however, to equate these observations with the game's final score.
The Eden Valley-Watkins Eagles showed plenty of quality to down our Tigers 40-21 at Pederson Field in New London. The neutral field was because of issues at the EV-W facility.
So the Eagles soar forward for further playoff action. The Tigers have the satisfaction of owning the above-.500 final record of 6-4. Second-seeded EV-W is 6-3 now.
We must compliment the West Central Tribune on its extensive coverage of the game with nice photos. Coverage was posted online Saturday evening, before bedtime we note! Our newspaper website in Morris is basically down now, a state of affairs that yours truly has tried waving a red flag about. Forum Communications still has its hooks in things here.
The top photo shows the MACA defense swarming around EV-W senior ballcarrier Mason Molitor. The Eagles will next face Paynesville, the No. 1 seed. This contest is set for 5:30 p.m. Friday at St. John's University.
We see a photo of Tiger Jackson Loge, sophomore receiver, making a bid for a catch. The defense was tight on this play. The highlight photo for the orange and black - Bernadeau himself took these - shows linebacker Jacob Boots making an interception which he returned for a touchdown. My, there's still another very sharp photo and this one shows D-back Jack Riley making a hit on a receiver. Photographers love afternoon high school football games. Football can be the worst nightmare for photographers from the standpoint of minimal light. Photographers are in the clover for afternoon games, and the Saturday affair had a start time of 2 p.m.
Frankly we got rather buried on the scoreboard in first half play. EV-W shot up top 33-0 as 20 points came in the first quarter and 13 in the second.
So, let's savor some of the highlights from when our orange and black found spark in the second half. Signal-caller Zach Bruns connected with Kenny Soderberg on a 15-yard scoring pass. These two Tigers are juniors. Boots is likewise a junior. His big interception return for six constituted our second score. He stepped in front of a slant pattern. His return to paydirt went into the books as 34 yards. The score is now 33-14 as Eli Grove made good on his PAT kicks.
MACA's defense was hardly dispirited in the wake of the first half disappointment. Quite to the contrary as our linemen and linebackers were surging with their effort. Our 'D' had a couple nice stops on fourth downs, plus we allowed just one first down over the first 18 minutes of the second half. Too bad more of those attributes could not have been in place in the first half.
Indeed the West Central Tribune showered praise on our team for its second half performance, almost as if that was the story. Perhaps the headline should include the final score. I'll insert it again, perhaps with emphasis: 40-21. Let's repeat: 40-21. Let's compliment the Eagles.
On the dubious side for us, let's note that five turnovers came into the picture. Our second possession of the second half died because of this. An apparent first down that had Durgin Decker carrying the football turned into misfortune with a fumble. We proceeded to regain possession when the Eagles failed on downs, but at that point our passing game turned snakebit. The ball fell to the ground with thuds.
The scoreboard showed 6:50 left in the game when we got our third and final TD. Bruns delivered a dump-off pass that had Jack Riley clutching the pigskin. Riley found himself completely open and the senior, in his final game with the orange and black, thrilled with this 58-yard reception for six. He accelerated down the sidelines. He later acknowledged Soderberg on a block thrown.
The Eagles got an insurance score when Gavin Watkins raced 32 yards on a jet sweep.
Wind was a factor on this day. The Eagles as the superior seed chose to seize the wind advantage at game's start. Maybe it's no accident that EV-W got its finest results in the first half. Their 20 first quarter points saw quarterback Luke Jansen throw for two scores while runningback Molitor accounted for the other. Jansen ran the ball in from the one in the second quarter. Then he passed to rangy wide receiver Josh Streit for a 13-yard score.
Our coach Pope saw the wind as a definite factor in the first half. He also cited the sheer height on the EV-W roster. Let's not put aside those turnovers. Grove kicked successfully after all three of our scores. We had nine first downs on the day. Decker accumulated 73 of our 107 rushing yards. This he did on just five carries. Bruns picked up 18 rushing yards.
The aerial game saw Bruns complete ten, but in 29 attempts, spelling futility, and his yardage was 168. He had two picked off.
I will say this for writer Bernadeau: he shared incredibly keen analysis in his write-up, to a much greater degree than I could ever do. We're still waiting for the Morris newspaper website under the new ownership to come alive. This deficiency could spell rough-going IMHO.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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