The offseason began in earnest on Thursday as the Purple traded Yannick Ngakoue to Baltimore for as close to the same things that they gave up to Jacksonville. It's a lost proposition all around but they made the best of a deteriorating situation. With the trade deadline set for election day (next week, finally!), teams may continue to make moves & there are a few other players that MN would be wise to move, namely Harris & Reiff and maybe Kyle Rudolph for the savings & to take as much of a look as possible at what Smith Jr. has to offer.
Beyond all that, another topic that has been buzzing through the fanbase this week was approached.
Elsewhere on Thursday, Ben Ellefson's ascension to the League took another step as he was promoted to Jacksonville's roster on more than the one-week basis that he had been earlier in the year. In his first game as a non-practice squad player he reeled in a two-point conversion reception, which is a pretty fine way to endear himself to his teammates even more than already may have!
And with the promotion, he will have even more of a space in the next Keep Up!
The MVP for Minnesota Nelson Cruz got some well-deserved recognition this week as he was announced as the Marvin Miller Man of the Year award recipient. It's based on player votes for the one they “most respect based on his leadership on the field and in the community.” As a part of the award, $10,000 will go from the Players Trust to Cruz's charitable work.
More from the Thurs, Fargo's 🏒 team stomped Sioux Falls 6-1 with a 30 shot game by Fargo. The Bolt returned to the ice on Saturday against Sioux City but despite outshooting them 42-21, Fargo lost in overtime 6-5.
A LOADED week on the prep scene started on Wednesday night with a rematch between Brainerd & Moorhead for the right to advance to the section championship. Check out the photos if you're a Potato head but the Spuds advanced after a penalty-kick was put into the net off a deflection.
With the lights turned off in North Dakota on Friday, Minnesota pushed through the snow, which included double-headers at Moorhead high on Friday afternoon/evening & Saturday morning/afternoon. You can check out the coverage of the former pair as Barnesville rolled Roseau while Park Christian was edged by W/A/O in the nightcap.
Then came Saturday.
With many towns in ND playing the first round of the 🏈 playoffs, Sheyenne closed out the regular season against GF Central in their latest domination to finalize the brackets.
While those postseasons are just beginning, North Dakota Cross Country just concluded.
Onnica Stansbury, WF Sheyenne was the top individual finisher for girls A from the region with a third-place time. North & Sheyenne rounded out the top five for the teams portion. On the boy's side, Sheyenne's Jacob Knodle finished second, only five seconds behind Bismarck's Sean Korsmo but none of the teams were in the top-five finishes. On the B side, Kindred's Peyton Gette was the top finisher for the girls while Hillsboro/CV put together the second-best performance collectively, with Kindred in the four spot. The B boys didn't have anyone from the region in the top five individually but Hillsboro & Kindred represented as teams with second & fifth place finishes.
But as if that isn't enough, Moorhead put out a week's worth of results yesterday as well!
Beginning with their section title match against Maple Grove, the Spud boys suffered their only loss of the season 2-0.
But they also achieved new heights with school records, section champions, & state qualifiers in their aquatics while collectively winning the section 8AA team championship.
Not ruling out that there were even more developments from the past week, but those are all the ones I'm privy to & that was a lot!
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