By John Molene

Park threw an early wake-up call to host Lakeville South, scoring first on a 68-yard pass from Miskir Esayas to OT Omot for an early 7-0 lead.

After that, however it was pretty much all Lakeville South as the defending 6A Minnesota state champions rolled to a 69-14 win Thursday in the season opener for both teams.

The game was close to a repeat performance for the Wolfpack and the perennial state contender Cougars, who rolled Park 50-14 in last season’s opener before marching undefeated through the 6A ranks to claim a state championship.

“Lakeville South is a back-to-back state championship program for a reason,” said Park head coach Rick Fryklund. “They have good coaches; they are fundamentally sound and they run their scheme very crisp.

“We did our best to attack them with blitzes and some unique alignments, but their running backs and offensive line was disciplined and took advantage of us.”

Park scored first and last. In between Lakeville South dominated. The Cougars rolled up 483 total yards – including 456 rushing yards and 24 first downs and eight touchdowns.

Lakeville South romped to 32 first-quarter points, led 49-7 at the half and 69-14 after three quarters. Neither team scored in the fourth.

Park’s passing offense was solid enough as sophomore quarterback Esayas completed 13 of 27 passes for 176 yards and two touchdowns. Esayas was pressed into service as injuries decimated the Wolfpack quarterback corps prior to game time.

But the running game for the Wolfpack ran into a Lakeville South brick wall play after play, gaining just 55 yards on 22 attempts.

Park converted just 3 of11 third downs. Lakeville South converted 7 of 9.

Omot led the Park receivers with 87 yards and a score on two catches. David Ola-Kazeem had four receptions for 43 yards, Jalaata Shenkor had three catches for 35 yards and Skyler Morgan caught three balls for 11 yards and a 7-yard touchdown to close out the third quarter.

Park senior running back DJ Brown Jr. rushed for 47 yards on 13 attempts with a long run of 14 yards.

Junior defensive back Brett Salmonson led Park defensively with seven solo tackles and nine assists. Linebacker Alex Carr had six solo tackles and eight assists, Jamie Fick had six tackles and four assists and Brandon Lee had five tackles and five assists.

Park hosts Eagan Friday Park opens the home season Friday, hosting Eagan in a game starting at 7 p.m. Eagan dropped a 39-7 decision to Rosemount in its opener.

“We are going to improve this next week with our effort in getting back to work with a hard hat mentality,” said Fryklund. “This next week, we have to make sure we trust each other as we prepare for a very good Eagan team that runs triple option football and makes each defender do their job or it will lead to big gains.”

Park won a wild one at Eagan last fall, outscoring the Wildcats 44-34.

Park’s OT Omot hauls in a pass against Lakeville South Thursday, Omot caught two passes for 87 yards including a 68-yard touchdown strike to open the game. Photo by Steve Rooker

Park running back DJ Brown Jr. charges into the Lakeville South defense Thursday. Brown gained 47 yards on 13 carries. Photo by Steve Rooker