For five weeks, Maple Grove head football coach Craig Hansen had waited for his offense to click.
It finally happened last Friday when the Crimson outscored Roseville 30-25. Maple Grove scored on the first play of the game and never relinquished the lead.
For the game, the Crimson displayed an impressive offense that featured the great passing of senior quarterback Mike Klosterman to senior wide receiver Jake Johnson and the tough running of senior back Caleb Marx and junior back Josh Throndson.
Johnson gave the Crimson a jump start when he returned the opening kickoff 40 yards to give Maple Grove the ball on the Roseville 40. On the first play from scrimmage, Klosterman hooked up with Johnson for an exciting 40-yard touchdown pass play. "Jake just about sprung the kickoff for a touchdown," Hansen said. "Then on the first play from scrimmage, he beat the kid deep and Mike just laid it there perfectly." Klosterman passed to senior wideout Brent Lawson for the two-point conversion and the Crimson were off and running.
On Maple Grove's next possession, Klosterman tossed a 46-yard TD pass to Johnson and added a two-point conversion pass to Johnson for a 16-0 lead.
"The kids read things well and really executed very well," Hansen said. "They made some great improvement and put it together. Mike and Jake hooked up for some nice passes and the line blocked really well and improved their blocking dramatically. It's really exciting."
The Raiders came back with a touchdown in the first quarter but the Crimson scored on the next possession on a 1-yard run by Throndson. Roseville answered with a touchdown just before half-time to cut the Crimson's lead to 22-12. The Crimson increased the lead to 30-12 on an 8-yard touch-down run by Marx, but Roseville made it interesting with two third-quarter touchdowns to climb within 30-25. There was still one quarter left and Maple Grove's lead appeared shaky. But the Crimson defense rose to the occasion and blanked the Raiders in the final quarter.
"Earlier on in the game we had trouble stopping them, but in the fourth quarter our defense really came up and stopped them when we had to," Hansen said. "And our offense came up with three big first downs to put the game away."
Klosterman completed six of 20 passes for 153 yards, Johnson caught three passes for 107 yards, Adam Hamilton had two catches for 29 yards. Throndson had 19 carries for 130 yards and Marx ran 19 times for 100 yards.
"Both backs had outstanding nights running and blocking," Hansen said. "The line and Brent, Adam and Jake had an outstanding game blocking and our running backs just caught on fire. Defensively, the whole unit stepped up and did a great job in the fourth quarter to take control. And throughout the game the defense gave our offense great field position."
The Crimson next visit Osseo for the Orioles' homecoming game Friday, Oct. 15.