On a night when the offense struggled to find consistency, the Maple Grove defense held things together to lead the Crimson football team to a 27-6 homecoming win over Coon Rapids last Friday.

“Our defense played an outstanding game,” Crimson coach Craig Hansen said. “They played inspired football and were on top of their game They really shut down Coon Rapids’ running game.”

The Crimson offense turned the ball over on the first drive, but the defense did more than just making a stop. It scored. Coon Rapids called a screen pass but Maple Grove end Eric Whinnery read it perfectly, intercepted the pass and ran it back 60 yards for a touchdown and a 6-0 Maple Grove lead.

"Eric did a great job of turning the momentum back into our favor," Hansen said.

The Cardinals came back and scored a touchdown late in the half to lead 7-6 at halftime. But that was all the Crimson defense would allow and the offense regrouped in the second half. Maple Grove took the lead to stay in the third quarter on a 10-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Mitch Brecke to receiver Greg Martin and added an insurance touchdown in the fourth quarter on a 66-yard TD pass from Brecke to back Ben Holland.

"Our offense was misfiring in the first half with penalties and turnovers," Hansen said. "Once we found more consistency in the second half we did OK."

Brecke completed seven of 17 passes for 180 yards with two touchdowns and one interception. Martin had four catches for 78 yards and a touchdown and Holland had two catches for 76 yards and a TD. Ryan Holland had one catch for 26 yards. The Cardinals stopped MG's ground game. Ryan Iskierka led the way with 26 yards on 12 rushes and Ryan Holland 12 carries yielded 24 yards.

But on this night, the defense saved the game. For the game, the Crimson allowed only 180 yards with only 32 yards on the ground. End Jake Lewis and tackle Paul Joelson each had nine tackles, safety Chase Mudd had seven tackles and a fumble recovery, end Justin McLaughlin had one and one-half sacks and Whinnery had the big interception.

The Crimson have won two games in a row and next visit No. 2 Blaine Friday.

The Bengals trashed Champlin Park last week but Hansen knows his team can play with them if it puts it all together.

"Blaine is top ranked and we will be very exciting to play them," Hansen said. "If we are consistent we can play with people and see how the bounces go."