Suddenly it's over. The health crisis necessitates that we shut down again. The exhilaration over the MACA football team's Friday success thus might be tempered. It has to be a letdown. I'll assert again that the federal government could have led a much more concerted effort to get the virus under control last spring. We are paying the fiddler now.
There was a push to get football and volleyball reinstated for fall, remember? And it was realized. But the door gets shut after the 5AA championship game. MACA fans have the contentment of knowing their team ruled the roost. But it ends there. Done. Just memories now. It's sad but it's necessary.
A far better scenario might have been realized if Hillary Clinton had been elected president. Some of you would react to that comment with profanities. Well, good for you. Enjoy your winter.
The Paynesville Bulldogs came to Morris seeking their fourth straight Section 5AA championship. They owned the No. 2 seed. But they'd have to get past our No. 1-seeded Tigers.
The Bulldogs had just one regular season loss and that was at the hands of the Tigers. The Oct. 30 game was a wild one with a score of 33-31. It was wild too because of how Paynesville surged to try to wipe out a deficit. The Oct. 30 game had a 33-7 score after three quarters, MACA dominating, then Paynesville scored 24 fourth quarter points. We held on.
So on Friday the two teams donned their respective colors, green for Paynesville and orange/black for our heroes. "Wild" is kind of a relative term and it seems the high-scoring complexion has become the norm. I should contact Lyle Rambow and ask him why he thinks this is. Do fans like it? I suspect so, until things start getting too much out of hand. Too much of a good thing?
Paynesville entered Friday as the top scoring team in Class AA at 47.3 points per game. That's awesome. But our Tigers had the trick to win on Friday as they showed their own brand of authoritative offense. But would you believe the first quarter ended with the score just 6-0? It was the Tigers getting the first quarter touchdown. It was a one-yard run by Zach Bruns.
The second quarter was a quite different story. The Tigers turned on the jets and muzzled the Bulldogs 26-6. So, four touchdowns by the home team. Bruns scored twice more on runs from the one. Our conversion plays were not clicking. Paynesville got on the board with a big 62-yard pass from Chase Bayer to Tanner Stanley. They too failed on the conversion.
The Tigers struck back with a big pass of their own: 46 yards from Bruns to Kenny Soderberg. Eureka: the conversion play works with a Durgin Decker run. Drew Tangen carried the ball into the end zone from the one for Paynesville. Conversion fails. Next the Tigers score: Toby Gonnerman on an eight-yard pass reception from Bruns. Conversion fails.
One more TD to go for the Tigers: Decker runs in from the two, and Bruns kicks for the conversion point.
Paynesville came on strong late but it wasn't enough. Tangen caught a 19-yard touchdown pass from Bayer. Bayer runs for two. Blake Hiltner carries in from the five. Conversion fails, so the night's scoring is wrapped up, score of 45-26. Season is done. Lots of satisfaction, lots of disappointment too.
I covered the Tigers way back when they played in Prep Bowl. Oh, the Spartans too, twice! I know all about the excitement.
We had 27 first downs on Friday. Bruns had another top-notch night passing the football: 12 completions, 20 attempts, 212 yards. Soderberg had monster receiving stats: three catches, 102 yards. He was complemented in that department by: Gonnerman (four catches, 51 yards), Decker (2-30), Jackson Loge (2-29) and Josh Rohloff (1-0).
Decker posted the most rushing yards: 118 yards on 25 carries. Bruns powered forward for 99 yards on 18 carries. Tristan Raths added 29 yards on seven. Negligible yards came from Soderberg and Lewis Nohl. Our defense intercepted two passes. We had one fumble recovery.
Paynesville had 16 first downs. Hiltner rushed for 102 yards on 12 carries. Bayer completed eleven passes in 26 attempts for 184 yards and had two picked off. He really spread his passes around among receivers. Here we see: Stanley (two catches, 60 yards), Eli Nelson (1-40), Schmitz (1-33), Tangen (3-25), Grayson Fuchs (2-18), Max Athmann (1-6) and Hiltner (1-2).
See you next season.
Volleyball: Minnewaska 3, Tigers 2
The Tigers battled the Minnewaska Area Lakers Thursday in an extended five-game affair. A huge highlight was Tiger LaRae Kram getting her 1000th career assist. She got 40 assists on the night but the Tiger effort came up short. Action was at the Tiger Center.
The Tigers flirted with victory as they led 14-13 and 15-14 in the fifth game. But it wasn't to be. The Lakers came away with a season sweep of the Tigers. The Thursday scores were 12-25, 25-16, 23-25, 25-22 and 15-17.
Sophia Carlsen came at the Lakers with 18 kills. Brianna Marty executed 13 kills and Emma Bowman had eight. Our record at night's end: 5-6. Looks like MACA played again Friday, again at home, and was stopped by C-G-B. Now, the shutdown rules. It's the way it has to be. The Lakers entered Friday at 6-5.
The Minnewaska story had Rylee Metz performing five serve aces. Avery Hoeper had one. Britta Nelson led assists with 13 followed by Metz (12), Haley Shea (11), Hoeper (5) and Avery Fier (3). Brecklyn Beyer came at the Tigers with 18 kills. MaKena Panitzke had eight kills while Brooklyn Larson and Hoeper each had seven. Kristen Glover had five and Fier one.
In ace blocks we see Hoeper (3.5), Panitzke (2.5), Larson (2) and Beyer (1.5). Panitzke topped the digs list with 25. Others with digs were Hoeper (17), Fier (17), Glover (16), Shea (7), Metz (7) and Nelson (6).
See you next fall.
Please visit my podcast
"Our lives change again" is the title for my podcast entry on "Morris Mojo" for today. Yes we are forced into another change due to our efforts in dealing with the pandemic. You can't blame Governor Walz. We must minimize the reach of the virus, but that doesn't mean we have to be happy about it. Please click on permalink:
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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