The Maple Grove High football team challenged the Twin Cities Subs ban Conference football leader Elk River Friday, Oct. 4, and suffered a 69-14 drubbing.

The Crimson stayed close early in the game. After Elk River took a 7-0 lead, senior running back Eric Omberg broke a 23-yard touchdown nth to bring Maple Grove to within 7-6. That's was the beginning of the end for the Crimson as the Elks' powerful offense broke loose for nine unanswered touchdowns to put the game away. Maple Grove scored the game's final points when quarterback C.J. Woodrow threw a 34-yard touchdown pass to Jeff Hesse.

"Elk River is for real," Crimson coach Craig Hansen said. "Our league is a great football league and our kids have seen that first hand against Elk River. Defensively they are real sound and offensively they are very balanced and diverse. That's what difficult to defend. Elk River's really clicking and defensively we struggled. We made plays but we haven't put all 11 together. They are big, fast and play very good football. It really taught us a lot about how physical, fast and precise the game is."

The Crimson had their best offensive night of the season. They scored 14 points, had 272 yards, 15 first downs and had several other promising drives.

Ryan Hastings, starting in place of regular running back Justin Lehman, had 36 yards on 14 carries. Omberg had 66 yards on 11 runs and Ray Flint ran five times for 30 yards.

Woodrow completed 9 of 22 passes for 120 yards with one touchdown and three interceptions. Jeff Hesse had six catches for 96 yards with one touchdown pass and one point after. Jason Amundson had two catches for 19 yards.

"It was a balanced output and we had probably our best night offensively; Hansen said. "We played physical football and improved at getting off the football. That's a big step for us. Cory McNattin, Andy Olson, Erik Nelson and Jason Amundson all had their best games."

The Crimson next visit Hill-Murray Friday, Oct. 11.