It was a strange but great feeling for Maple Grove football coach Craig Hansen and his Crimson last Friday when they hosted Hill-Murray. It was late in the game and they were standing on the sideline, relaxing and celebrating as a victory was firmly in hand.
The second-year Crimson were well on the way to a resounding 35-6 win, only the second victory in the program's history.
"It's kind of funny when I looked at scoreboard and realized what the score was," Hansen said. "It's been a while since we've been on that end of the table, so it was great to see our team continue to improve and see our JV kids go in and punch in a score. It was a different and good feeling."
The Crimson defense has been stellar all year and it again provided the spark in this victory. Sophomore linebacker Caleb Marx stepped in front of a Pioneer pass and ran the interception back 25 yards for a touchdown. Maple Grove never trailed after that.
Junior halfback Justin Lehman scored on a 9-yard TD run in the second quarter to complete an 80-yard drive and quarterback C. J. Woodrow passed to junior receive Jeff Hesse for two points to make it 14-0 Maple Grove at halftime.
"We weren't pleased with our effort in the first half," Hansen said. "We had three turnovers and slowed us down. But we came out in the second half and had a spark in our steps and played mistake free. We didn't have any penalties and turnovers in the second half. We were very consistent in our play all-around."
The Pioneers scored early in the third quarter on an 18-yard TD pass play but the Crimson came right back with a 59-yard drive and scored on a 14-yard TD pass from Woodrow to Lehman just before the end of the third quarter.
The Crimson put it away in the final quarter as Lehman broke loose for a 25-yard TD run. Hansen inserted his reserves and junior Nate Henry finished the game with a 22-yard TD dash late in the game.
"It was exciting. It was our first home win and it was fun to be able to do that," Hansen said.
The Crimson showed a balanced offense. Lehman ran 26 times for 108 yards and scored three times while Woodrow had one of his best games of the season, completing 9 of 11 passes for 108 yards and a touchdown. Hesse had five receptions for 52 and Jason Amundson had two catches for 25 yards.
Defensively, Marx had the big interception, a fumble recovery and seven tackles. Senior defensive end Peter Erickson had six tackles and an interception and junior linebacker Chris Dykhoff had eight solo tackles.
The Crimson, the winner of two of their last three games, finish the regular season Wednesday, Oct. 15 against Park Center at Carl Tonn Field.
Then it's off to the section tournament, which starts Tuesday, Oct. 21. The Crimson will be in Section 6 with Wayzata, Hopkins, Robbinsdale Cooper and Armstrong, Osseo and Park Center.