Maple Grove football coach Matt Lombardi said earlier in the season that the 2014 defense, which opened the season with many holes to fill, had a chance to be as dominant as last year’s D.

Well, the 2014 D showed it has arrived last Friday when it put on an awesome show against Totino Grace and led the Crimson to an impressive 28-0 homecoming victory.

“Obviously we have nine new starters from last year to this year so we are still learning every week,” Lombardi said of the D. “But this week we played really well. I thought that was the first time we were swarming to the football. We took a really good running back who was averaging 200 yards a game and we were able to stop him for the most part. We weren’t going to tackle him with one person so we had two, three people there all night. We did a good job overwhelming them with our D. For our defense that was a great victory.”

Buoyed by a packed and boisterous homecoming crowd, the Crimson came out firing on all cylinders. The offense set the tone with a 93-yard scoring drive to start the game with quarterback Brad Davison leading the team and finishing it with a five-yard touchdown pass to Kyle Anderson. Maple Grove’s defense held and the offense added a 50-yard touchdown drive with Isaac Collins scoring from two yards out to open up a 14-0 first-quarter lead.

“I was very proud of the kids. They had a good week of preparation and they were playing a very, very good team and I thought they came out with good confidence,” Lombardi said. “You go out and play a team that has been in the Final 4 in the state the last two years and was undefeated you want to go out there and win by one point. So to go out there and win like we did was a pleasant surprise. We put them on their heels and took advantage of it on both sides of the ball. We put them in a bad spot early and we capitalized.”

A 14-point lead was more than enough for the Crimson D, which stymied a Totino Grace team that averaged 30 points a game. Maple Grove held Totino Grace to 24 yards passing and 101 yards rushing. Chris Fondakowski led the way with 11 tackles, one forced fumble, one recovered fumble and one sack. Adam Brant had nine tackles, Grant Hemze eight, Jake Willson six (one sack), Lukas Burrington, Jack Dahl-McGlone and Mike Rengel each had five, Jebah Doe four, Collins, Christian Uhelyi had three, Ben Shoults, Kraig Uquhart and Anderson had two and Sam Franta, Dominique Thielen and Leroy Kwateh had one.

TEAM

Lombardi said the key to the defense’s success is to fly around and play as a unit.

“We rotate a lot of people in there. We truly have to be a team. It has to be all 11 people playing at the top of their ability,” Lombardi said. “We may be have one star the most on that side of the ball, so the sum of the parts has to be better than the individual parts. If they play together and believe in each other they have a chance to be a really good defense.

While the defense dominated, the Crimson offense also was clicking.

“The offense played a great game,” Lombardi said. “We only had six possessions the whole game. We punted once and we fumbled once on the one-yard line when we were going in to score. We were much more balanced this week so that was a nice addition.

Quarterback Brad Davison was 14 of 16 and threw for 180 yards and scored once. Collins had 122 yards on 22 carries and Clark Wieneke had 72 yards on 14 rushes and Anderson scored twice. Brant caught seven passes for 94 yards, Franta had four for 46, Will Reul two for 24. Tyler Knutson was four for four in extra point tries.

WHAT A CROWD

The evening was perfect for Maple Grove except for one problem: many Crimson fans could not find a place to sit. The game drew a capacity crowd and Crimson Stadium was filled to the rims. Fans who arrived late had to sit in the Totino Grace section or stand along the fence.

“I thought the Star of the Night for our football team was Maple Grove High School,” Lombardi said. “It was an unbelievable atmosphere. The stadium was just packed and you could hear constant cheering, yelling and screaming. It was a really fun atmosphere and a great Friday night for everybody.”

The third-ranked Crimson improved to 5-0 and extended their regular season win streak to 22 games. The schedule does not let up for the Crimson. This Friday they visit Blaine for a 5 p.m. game, then two weeks later it’s the big battle against Osseo.

“We are focusing on Blaine,” Lombardi said. “Blaine is 4-1 and has won four in a row so we will have a game just as big this week. They have a good quarterback who creates plays and their defense is pretty good. And it’s always tough to play at Blaine.”