13 - 4 and a bookend win over a division opponent. It was the sort of comfortable win that we had been waiting for since the season opener, with the obvious caveat being that Chicago was already bags packed & one foot out the door for the various vacation destinations.
In losing, as Houston beat Indianapolis, Chicago secured the top pick by virtue of Houston's season opening tie to the Horseshoe. Obviously has nothing to do with the Purple but it is a second development in support of such outcomes - the first being the national spelling-bee from a few years ago.
As for the Pillagers, they got the #1 objective done - finish with everyone healthy. Winning was nice since it kept the chance at the two-seed open for a couple more hours but 'Frisco has pretty well slammed that now.
Before the horn sounded in the Windy City Thielen added to his Ring of Honor bonafides, Patrick Peterson tied Harrison Smith for the most INTs by an active player, Alexander Mattison notched his first multi-score game & Justin Jefferson tied a couple bows on his great run - most receptions, finished as the youngest player to lead the League in receiving since 1936 and became the seventh player with 1,800 yards. Not too shabby!
It was a very good ending to the enigmatic regular season and now we get to wait for what, if anything, they are able to do in the postseason. The 2-seed will host Seattle Saturday afternoon, so after all the years of having to play those Birds Purple Nation finds itself having to root for them in hopes that Minnesota can get the opportunity for another home game. Minnesota's first & only guaranteed one will come 24 hours later against New York, who could still be licking their wounds from the 61-yard game decider. Early expectation is that it will be another down-to-the-wire contest plenty more thoughts to come!
The beginning of the week proved to be a complete contrast from the conclusion as 🤼 out-dueled 19 of the other 20 teams in Chattanooga, including three outright winners! With his second-straight win at 157, Harwood/WF native Jared Franek moved up to second on the national ranking!
The week continued with Thursday night 🏀 against Brookings. The women were shown how much space there still is between them & the rest while the guys got back to even on the season in the conference as Andrew Morgan & Grant Nelson had the sort of performances they will need to hang with the best in the conference! When they got back on the court Saturday versus Vermillion the ladies found themselves with the chance to make a statement in the chase. An efficient shooting night from the field and the line helped them overcome struggles from beyond the arc & snap a 13-game losing streak to South Dakota (Jan 4, 2017)! The guys also jumped-up with their third conference win as Jacari White & Damari Wheeler-Thomas had breakout games to down the Coyotes!
Sunday did put a damper on all that good though.
Without two of their top playmakers from this season the offense just couldn't keep pace as the defense got shellacked as they rare ever have. It didn't take long for it to be the biggest deficit they'd faced and the other team's ability to score eventually translated into one of the most prolific performance's Code Green has seen.
It had been a concern for much of the season and in the most pressing of situations the passing game couldn't hang. Cam Miller's two second-half interceptions sealed the game but forcing the issue, in trying to comeback, will lead to such things sometimes. It was more likely to happen this time because of how much the offense depended on running all season. Excluding those from consideration for a second, Miller ended up being 18/27 with two scores & only one sack. Not a special performance but most days that would have been good enough. If, next season, more isn't put on his shoulders to open-up the offense then that is probably the lesson the coaches took-away as well.
With the lone bright-spot being Zach Mathis (& considering the other young pass-catching options already in the pipeline) a 25-pass threshold should be worked-in during Spring, Summer & Fall. For the record, he only hit that number three times this season & averaged 16 passes/game so it would mark a dramatic shift in philosophy but lessons must be learned & changes made from this so that it doesn't happen again any time soon.
It was a short week between lines but outside them came plenty of developments for Moorhead State! 🏐 added a pair of players to it's latest recruiting class. Mere hours later men's 🏀 was included on two of the three national polls & could be 3/3 as soon as this week with the way they keep going!
In their latest two games, visits by Wayne State & Augustana, they continued to scorch the net and extend their winning streak to 10!
The women got back to even in Conference play with a 10-point W Friday against WSU but were downed by 24 as the Vikings added their 13th victory of the season.
Concordia also began the week receiving national recognition as 🤼 checked-in at #25 while sophomore Ty Bisek remains in the top-10!
With the weekend came the games as 🏀 hooked Carleton. The men had a chance to knock-off the Conference leaders but fell short late while the women continued their good season with a 10-point victory! They were not able to get win #9 as St. Kate's came in Saturday and stifled them to just 44 points.
Things were even tougher on the ice in Duluth as St. Scholastica took the men down 7 - 3 & 5 - 2. At the Moorhead Sports Center it wasn't any better as Wisconsin-River Falls got the puck home 4 - 0 & 9 - 2. (bonus points if that brought the Happy Gilmore scene to mind)
2022 ended with another embarrassment losing to lottery-bound Detroit but like a calendar page being turned, the Howl reeled off four wins since Jan 1 and have been getting progressively more healthy. They will need all of it and more to dig out of the 21-loss hole that they're currently in but the roster does appear to be gelling. With half the season remaining the looming question is what they do with Towns if he gets cleared.
Trying to establish the two-big lineup needs to happen because Towns & Gobert aren't going anywhere but trying to do it in the time that remains this season could sink their chances of even making the play-in. It's not the answer anyone wants but him remaining on the bench could be for the best this season.
The Bolts traveled to Lincoln for a pair but couldn't tap into any winning energy, losing 5 - 0 & 3 - 2, ending a week that began with Player of the Week honors for forward Kyle Smolen & defenseman Joe Palodichuk. It was also announced that coach Nick Oliver would head up one of the All-American teams next week in Plymouth, MI!
Reminder that scores and recruiting news are updated regularly so check back often!
Now for this week's highlights
Tuesday night included some big-time individual performances as Jeremiah Sem had another 32-point night in leading North to a five-point W over Davies, as the Eagles got 35 more from Mason Klabo. Davies bounced back to beat Horace by 44 as they cracked triple-digits. West Fargo also had a good time late in the week, beating Sheyenne by 10 as junior forward Tony Leal finished with 26 & 17, both tops for the season.
West Fargo, Shanley & Davies' girls also all checked-in with wins of at least 25 points. The Eagles then hung a 64-point win on South, finishing the week with a 34-pointer over Horace.
Out of town Halle & Haidyn Crockett combined for 67 points, 37 & 30, in a win over Grafton! Halle followed up with 27 against Central Cass but the Squirrel's balanced paid off with a win. That came after CC beat #2 Shiloh by 29. The Ada/Borup girls took H/CV by 48.
On the last day of the week Oak Grove's girls came out on top in another OT thriller, beating Dickinson Trinity 50 - 49! Down in Kindred, Thompson proved that their #4 ranking is deserved with a 65 - 31 win.
Class B also included Oak Grove's boys beating third-ranked Shiloh as Treyton Hatfield dropped 30 for the Grovers! Hankinson's were also able to carve-out a 25-point W over Sisseton & a 28-pointer over Tri-State. Enderlin was able to squeak-out an OT win against Barnes County North & then took care of Wyndmere/Lidgerwood by 26. Hillsboro's also added a cross-border win in extra time, beating Ada/B by 3. Kindred's boys put a 32-point gap on Tri-State & finished the week with an 11-point win over #5 Thompson!
Across the river Barnesville's boys checked-in with a 38-point win over Park Rapids! Fertile/Beltrami had a pair of 50+ point wins to start the week and their girls weren't far behind as they got to their seventh-straight victory with two 30+ point W as the fifth & sixth! Ulen/Hitterdal's girls also were 30-points better than a visiting Bagley squad. Park Christian recovered from a 36-point loss in Fosston to beat Mahnomen/Waubun by a point, their eighth win in the last nine.
It came in a loss but along with all that, D/G/F's Owen Leach became the first player this season to hit the 2,000-point mark!
On the ice West Fargo went to North for a pair Tuesday, with the visiting girls winning 7 - 2 while the boys flipped the result with the same score. South's boys took care of Mandan with a goal for every day of the week but none for the Braves as senior forward John Lang had a trick. They were back on the ice Saturday against Grafton and "only" scored six this time but maintained the superb defense, limiting G to 13 shots while junior forward Landon Meier got three shots past their goalie. Davies added a 5 - 1 win over Minot. West Fargo showed them all with a 10-goal performance to beat Devils Lake by 8!
Beyond the lines, Shanley's Michael Rostberg was named Player of the Year!
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