On the Bench with Byron Higgin
So far the Minneota Vikings football team has played three games — and all three times the games took me by surprise.
First, I didn’t expect Sleepy Eye to be as tough as they were. But that was my fault because I didn’t do my research.
Second, I didn’t expect to beat Dawson-Boyd 47-0. And third, Canby gave Minneota a heck of a fight and I didn’t expect that at all. So where does that leave me for the Friday game against Yellow Medicine East at Granite Falls?
The Sting defeated Wabasso, a team hit hard by graduation — then they lost their other team games.
I’ve got to figure a two-to-three touchdown win — but if the pattern continues, frankly, I don’t know what is going to happen.
Chances are good every team will know Canby was able to throw on Minneota — so that’s probably what we can expect the rest of the way — a lot of teams passing the ball.
But I’ve also got to expect the Minneota defense and the line to play better than they did against Canby. They didn’t get much rush on quarterback Parker Viessman, who stood in the pocket all night passing the ball.
Chances are good Minneota will make some changes and have a good game Friday.
WARS is back
Last week’s virus strike on our Mascot pages tended to leave me grasping at straws, trying to figure out what we had to duplicate, do over or just plain get done in time to get the paper out.
One of the things I forgot was the weekly WARS column I’ve been including in this column. WARS is the weekly prognostications of upcoming games for the week.
They completely slipped my mind. So I’ll get you caught up where I was before the virus gave me temporary leave of my absences.
The first week I was 8-3 and the second week 8-2 for a total of 16 of 21 or 76 percent. Two weeks ago I missed on the 38-21 win by Hutchinson over Willmar.
I picked the Cardinals and Wabasso over Yellow Medicine East. Missed on both of those. This week, here are my picks for WARS ... which you remember means, “We Aren’t Really Sure.”
Minneota 35, Yellow Medicine East 12
Dawson-Boyd 36, Lac qui Parle Valley 18
Canby 28, Lakeview 14
Ortonville 14, Tracy-Milroy-Balaton 7
Sleepy Eye 21, Adrian 0
Murray County Central 32, New Ulm Cathedral 7
Springfield 21, Wabasso 20
Willmar 28, Big Lake 21
Mountain Lake Area 36, Russell-Tyler-Ruthton 14
BOLD 35, Minnewaska Area 21
Red Rock Central 52, MACCRAY 14
Marshall 38, New Ulm 7