Minneota cruises past MACCRAY, 47-6
On a near-perfect night for football, Minneota amassed 471 total yards en route to a convincing 47-6 triumph over MACCRAY to open the season Friday night in Maynard.
Seven different players scored a touchdown for the Vikings in the Camden Conference showdown with the temperature in the mid-70s at kickoff.
"We weren't sure what to expect," said Minneota coach Chad Johnston. "It's a little different year because we usually scrimmage some teams and figure out where we're at. But we went into this season kind of blind. But we did a lot of good things."
Minneota ran for 268 yards and passed for 203, while the defense limited the host Wolverines to 235 total yards.
"It was a good start for us," said Minneota coach Chad Johnston. "We have some younger kids that got a lot of reps. And we had some kids playing different positions that they had to adjust to. But for the most part I was very happy."
On the ground, Conner Sik led the way with 82 yards and a touchdown. AJ Josephson had a 62-yard touchdown run in his lone carry. In all, 10 players had at least one carry for the Vikings. Eight of those gained 14 or more yards.
Senior signal-caller Jacob Hennen completed 12 of 21 passes for 172 yards and a touchdown. Isaac Pohlen came on in relief and completed all three of his passes for 31 yards. Six players caught at least one pass.
Minneota reached paydirt three times in the opening quarter and jumped out to a quick 20-0 lead.
MACCRAY threatened to score twice with the ball in the red zone, but each time were picked off. Kade Lozinski had two of the Vikings' four interceptions.
Sik bulldozed in from four yards out to open the scoring. Hennen then scored on a 16-yard keeper following a blocked punt by AJ Myhre two minutes later. Joel Rybinski then added a four-yard scoring run to cap the first-quarter scoring.
Josephson then scampered 61 yards for a touchdown and Lozinski ran for a touchdown from four yards out to give Minneota a 34-0 halftime advantage.
Minneota scored once more in each of the final two quarters; Hennen connecting with Myhre on a 16-yards scoring aerial in the third stanza, and Zack Fier scoring from a yard out in the final quarter.
Peyton Gillund, a strong-legged sophomore, converted five extra-point attempts.
MACCRAY averted the shutout when Isaac Strommer fired a 35-yard TD pass to Carter Wrede. Strommer finished withy 221 yards passing with one touchdown and four interceptions. The Wolverines were held to just 14 yards on the ground.
"We ran a non-traditional defense because we wanted to take away the pass and dare them to run the ball," said Johnston. "We generally run a 3-5 stack or a 3-4 Cover 2. We kind of ran a combination of those two; a 3-3 stack Cover 2 with AJ Josephson and Joey Rybinski rotating as a type of rover to help out the safeties."
Defensively, Tucker Thooft had 10 tackles, including a sack, for the Vikings. Sik, Jackson Esping and Jacob Citterman also had a sack each.
Hennen and Myhre had the other two Minneota interceptions.
Minneota plays at Canby tonight (Oct. 15) in another Camden Conference game.
Minneota 47, MACCRAY 6
Minneota............20 14 7 6 - 47
MACCRAY........... 0 0 0 6 - 6
Scoring
Min - Conner Sik 4 run (Peyton Gillund kick)
Min - Jacob Hennen 16 run (run failed)
Min - Joey Rybinski 4 run (Gillund kick)
Min - AJ Josephson 61 run (Gillund kick)
Min - Kade Lozinski 4 run (Gillund kick)
Min - AJ Myhre 16 pass from Hennen (Gillund kick)
Min - Zack Fier 1 run (kick failed)
MAC - Carter Wrede 35 pass from Isaac Strommer (kick failed)
PASSING (comp-att-yards-td-int)
Minneota: Jacob Hennen 12-21-172-1-0, Isaac Pohlen 3-3-31-0-0 ... MACCRAY: Isaac Strommer 14-27-221-1-4
RUSHING (att-yds)
Minneota: Conner Sik 9-82, AJ Josephson 1-61, Zack Fier 6-36, Anthony Rybinski 1-23, Joey Rybinski 4-21, Jonah Gruenes 2-17, Jacob Hennen 2-16, Mitchell Rost 1-14, Kade Lozinski 2-4, Isaac Pohlen 1-(-6) ... MACCRAY: Payton Kleinhuizen 9-22, Dreyer Homan 3-4, Isaac Strommer 6-(-12).
RECEIVING (rec-yds)
Minneota: AJ Josephson 2-47, AJ Myhre 2-37, Joey Rybinski 2-35, Cale Sorensen 3-27, Peyton Gillund 1-18, Gerardo Gutierrez 1-13, Kade Lozinski 1-8, Cooper VanOverbeke 1-7, Jonah Gruenes 1-6, Conner Sik 1-5 ... MACCRAY: Carter Wrede 3-89, rest of team 11-132.
TACKLES (solo-assist)
Minneota: Tucker Thooft 4-6, Jacob Hennen 2-0, Jacob Citterman 2-2, Jackson Lacek 2-0, Conner Sik 1-0, Joey Rybinski 1-3, Kade Lozinski 1-1, Jackson Esping 1-3, Jonah Gruenes 1-4, Cooper VanOverbeke 1-1, Mitchell Rost 1-1, Gerardo Gutierrez 1-4, Alex DePestel 1-1, AJ Josephson 0-1, Anthony Rybinski 0-1, AJ Myhre 0-1, Beau Banish 0-2, Kaden Culver 0-3, Cole Myhre 0-4, Jason Gamrak 0-2.
INTERCEPTIONS
Minneota: Kade Lozinski 2, Jacob Hennen 1, AJ Myhre 1
SACKS
Minneota: Tucker Thooft 1, Jacob Citterman 1, Conner Sik 1, Jackson Esping 1