Friday night lights, is there anything better? The boys were finally back on the gridiron after the MSHSL reversed their “Lets move football to Spring” decision. Park opened up the season against Mahtomedi, a team that had two of the sections best defensive linemen last year.

“Mahtomedi is always an extremely physical, extremely disciplined and well coached football program,” Head Coach “We knew it was going to be a fist fight in a phone booth.” Fryklund tried to set the expectations with his guys before the meeting with the Zephyrs. He knew that their margin for errors was very small against Mahtomedi and overall, the Wolfpack played mostly mistake free football. Cottage Grove gave up one turnover, an interception and they only had four penalties for 39 yards. The most-costly mistake was a blocked punt that Mahtomedi returned to the 3-yard line. Mahtomedi lost one fumble and had three penalties for 15 yards. Things were pretty close in that aspect.

Unfortunately for the Wolfpack, their one turnover happened on their first offensive possession. Quarterback, #10 Evan Bearth dropped back to pass and was picked off. That turnover resulted in Mahtomedi working down the field to punch it in on a seven-yard run for six. That would be the only score of the first quarter.

The second quarter, the Zephyrs scored on a one-yard run after blocking a punt and returning it to the three a few plays earlier. They then successfully scored the two-point conversion to strengthen their lead, 14-0. Park fought back on the next drive, scoring on a one-yard run by Bearth. “We had a two-point conversion that we went for right away on the first score so I could kinda let the kids know that we are going always attack and take chances and it’s not always going to go our way,” Fryklund said. Against good teams, sometimes there is a need to take those chances and be aggressive. Mahtomedi answered right back with a 34-yard run by Jordan Hull plus the PAT to make the score 21-6 to end the half.

“At halftime, I challenged our kids to forget about the scoreboard or anything else that was going on and just be as physical as they could and win their one on one match-up because that was the only thing we could control. Although we didn’t come out on top, I was pleased overall with how we performed in the second half compared to the first half,” Coach Fryklund said.

The third quarter saw a lot of back and forth football. Neither team could maintain drives for the third quarter, which says a lot of the defensive adjustments at the half. Into the fourth quarter, the aggressive and physical defensive front had finally worn-down Park’s Offensive line. Bearth was increasingly being pressured each time he stepped back to throw. Park’s two running backs were being hit in the backfield more as well. The frustrations were also clear on the defensive side of the ball. Coach Fryklund explained, “I definitely noticed that, and we had to take a couple time outs because kids weren’t where they needed to be. I could tell that before the snap, they didn’t understand quite what was going on. Part of that is certainly first game jitters and part of that is we have a whole bunch of new starters on defense.”

Mahtomedi extended their lead in the fourth to 28-6 on a 29-yard run by Jordan Hull. Park refused to give up and scored on a 10-yard pass from Bearth to Bennett Morris, making the score 28-12 after the second failed two-point conversion. The onside kick with time winding down was unsuccessful and Mahtomedi would be able to run out the clock for the victory.

On the night, Evan Bearth was 16/22 with 153 yards, one touchdown and one Interception. The leading rusher for park was #32 Micah Runion with eight rushes for 41 yards, his longest run was 16 yards and no scores. Runion was second in Tackles, three, and first in assists, seven on defense. The leading tackler was #35 Austin Hakanson with five.

Your Wolfpack travels south to take on the Hastings Raiders on Friday October 16th, at 7:00 p.m. Park vs. Hastings is always a fun game to be part of and Coach Fryklund is excited to be part of it.

“You never really understand the meaning of local rivalries until you live it,” he said. Hastings has multiple ways to catch the game for free if you are not able to attend. You can watch it live via Facebook through the Hastings Community Television’s page, HCTV. KDWA Radio will also broadcast the game live at 1460 AM or 97.7 FM. Of course, we will chat with Head Coach Rick Fryklund after each game to give you a recap of the action.