Last Friday night in perfect weather, it was a great opportunity for the entire community to come together and watch us play a highly respected Minnetonka football team on Homecoming.   Finishing off a wonderful homecoming week, we knew taking the field in front of our filled home bleachers that we had to walk off the field with a victory for the week to truly feel right.    In a hard fought game where it took a long time for us to truly take hold, we prevailed 35-14 and head into the last quarter of our regular season.

Defensively, we never got into a rhythm for most of the night, but we competed and battled and made many key stops that led to our victory.   Grant Hemze had a big game with 13 total tackles and 3 tackles for loss.   Zion Allen also made a great impact with 10 total tackles, 3 tackles for loss and a pressure that led to an interception while Kayode Awosika made a ton of plays up front with a total of 9 tackles and a huge tackle for loss.  Lukas Burrington intercepted his 3rd pass of the season and added 11 tackles on the night.    It still is fun to see this side develop throughout the year.  I think this week taught us some valuable lessons on how to approach each series and for us to accomplish the little things that make a good defense truly great.

Offensively, we had highs and lows throughout the night, but our offensive line did a great job of opening holes throughout, so our running backs ended with great success.    Isaac Collins had another huge game with 185 yards on 12 carries and 3 touchdowns, while Ryan Hanscome added 108 yards on his 9 carries.   Combined, our two backs had 293 yards on 21 carries averaging close to 14 yards a carry.   That is a great tribute to the effectiveness of our offensive line.   Will Reul caught a big touchdown pass from Brad Davison in the third quarter that gave us the lead for good and Sam Ross did a great job blocking from the fullback position.   We need to believe every time we take the field offensively that we can do great things.   There are periods of every game where we do great things, but the ability to finish every opportunity presented still has to improve.   We look forward to trying to do this during our upcoming games so when the playoffs start, we truly are ready to flourish.

Our Special teams did some great things this week.  Teddy Raasch had a great punt that was downed inside the five, and our punt return team blocked well during Isaac Collin’s exciting 69-yard touchdown return that gave us a big touchdown in the first half.   Tyler Knutson was perfect on his five extra point tries, and our kickoff team never gave the opponent any possessions past the 25-yard line.   This season has been full of highs and lows in our special teams, so it was great to see a game where special teams truly made an impact for the positive in all aspects.   We need to continue that as they year goes on.

There is nothing better than the sight of our bleachers filled, fans singing to songs, people cheering loud, the band playing, and the talents of our student body being shown throughout.    Homecoming always provides that and is one of the best opportunities for all to see what a great school Maple Grove truly is.   It makes me proud to see the community come together for such an event and it truly represents all that is good about what a high school has to offer.  This week we have the opportunity, on the road, to play one of the great current programs in Minnesota.  Prior Lake is a great team to play because you know they are going to be well prepared, physical and play every snap to the best of their ability.   We will have to be our absolute best next week because they are a team that knows how to win and does it the right way.   We need all of our fans there.   It is another great venue with a great atmosphere and it will have major implications towards what our playoffs will look like.   Last year, we played them in a great state quarterfinal, and it was a game that truly could have gone either way.  Expect the same this week with two great teams going at it.   Hope to see all of you next Friday night at Prior Lake.  We need it rocking there.   It should be a blast!

Lombo