In a rare Saturday afternoon game, visiting Park just made too many mistakes and six costly turnovers to hang with Burnsville, falling 35-14.

The Wolfpack coughed the ball up six times, losing three fumbles and suffering three interceptions. After a competitive second quarter, Park never got going in the second half. Miscues on special teams also hurt the Wolfpack’s chances Saturday.

“I told them that against good football teams like Burnsville is you have to play four quarters, not just two,” said Park head coach Rick Fryklund. “And I talked to them about that we need to be a more disciplined football team. And we need to do those little things the way they’re coached to do when they’re coached to do them every time. Plain and simple the team in black and gold did that more than we did.

“I’m not going to make excuses,” Fryklund continued. “We just didn’t play well, and they kicked our butt. We need to do better as coaches, we need to do better as athletes, we need to be more disciplined and figure out if you don’t do those little things every single day that’s what shows up on game day. The game is not won or lost on game day, it’s all the way throughout the week.”

The game contrasted dramatically to Park’s earlier wins over Hopkins and Eastview where the Wolfpack did the little things right, had minimum turnovers, tackled better and ran a more balanced offense. The Wolfpack didn’t’ overlook the Blaze, said Park defensive lineman Calik Nute.

“We knew who we were going against,” said Nute. “We knew what type of team they would be. We just need to get better as a team and work together. We thought we were bullies and it ended up they were the bigger bullies.”

Burnsville led 13-0 after one quarter, but Park rallied for two scores in the second period and trailed just 21-14 at the break. Park never got its offense in synch in the second half while the Blaze added a pair of second half touchdowns.

Park got back in the game in the second quarter on a pair of long passes and runs, the first a 53-yard strike to Davis Ola-Kazeem, the second an even longer 67-yard pass play to Skyler Morgan. But that was the end of the offensive fireworks for the Wolfpack.

Morgan caught two passes for 102 yard and a score, Ola-Kazeem had five receptions for 82 yards and OT Omot caught six balls for 62 yards.

After a scoreless third quarter, Burnsville put the game away with a pair of fourth-quarter touchdowns.

A 49-yard punt return by Burnsville’s Henry Saykeo early in the fourth quarter broke the backs of the Wolfpack. Park had trailed 21-14 up to that point and it was still anyone’s game.

“Kudos to them, they made the plays and we didn’t and they were more disciplined than us,” Fryklund noted.

Park, now 2-2 in the Metro- Maroon South and 2-3 on the season and takes on seventh-ranked Woodbury (3-1, 4-1) at Woodbury Friday, Oct. 7. The Royals were rolling through the first four games of the season before running into an East Ridge buzzsaw Friday, losing 280. Woodbury dominated the Wolfpack last season, winning 55-21.

“We’re going to gather ourselves; we’re going to practice hard this week and hope we get better for the rivalry that’s coming up next week,” said Omot.

Burnsville improved top 3-2 on the season and 3-1 in the Metro-Maroon.

Park actually outgained Burnsville, 324 to 270 total yards, thanks mostly to 311 yards through the air. Senior quarterback San Berry completed 17 of 32 passes for 311 yards but hurt his cause by throwing three costly interceptions.

Park’s ground game was pretty much bottled up all game. The Wolfpack gained just 13 yards rushing. Top running back Derrik Brown Jr. was held to 39 yards on 13 tries, a total almost equaled by the munus-32 yards lost by the rest of the team.

Junior defensive back Brett Salmonsen had five tackles and five assists for the Wolfpack. Senior defensive back Chris Wilson had four tackles, four assists, a sack and a tackle for loss. Senior linebacker Alex Carr had three solo stops and six assists. Senior defensive lineman Jesse Truax had just four stops, but all were tackles for losses.

Burnsville’s offensive attack wasn’t anything special, said Carr. “They executed better than we did. And I think we’ve got to stay disciplined at all times. We can’t let off the gas pedal.

“We need to work on staying disciplined and I think we need to play 100 percent all the time instead of letting up sometimes,” Carr added. “But we’ll fix that.”

Park defenders Chris Wilson (21), Alex Carr (4) and Taran Blasy (33) gang tackle a Burnsville opponent (2) Saturday afternoon. Photo by John Molene

Park senior linebacker William Deutsch (3) brings down a Burnsville runner as teammates Jacob Nickle (8) and Brett Salmonson (12) come in to assist. Photo by John Molene