Minnesota's performance does not warrant a full post, so mercifully the decision was made to just drop the post-game thoughts here.
The closest thing to a positive takeaway was that Cleveland only scored 14. Some of the credit for that goes to the defense, while the rest is Mayfield's doing.
As for the negatives, the offensive line was a glaring weakness again. Given the fact that Christian Darrisaw was healthy enough to be active today's performance could lead to the first round pick seeing action at LT against Detroit or Carolina. But that's little comfort as they acted like an anchored to the offense's ability to do just about anything consistently well.
There were spurts where it seemed like the offense would get going and maybe with a more seasoned OC it would have happened. After the scripted plays to open the game there never seemed to be adjustments to try & mitigate the OL's domination. That doesn't all fall on young Kubiak but internally, whatever the reasons are for that failing need to be addressed.
There's plenty more slop that could be sifted through but why torture yourself by continuing to read or think about that one??
Bring on Detroit!
Lead by Staples/Motley freshman Beck Erholtz, the men's ⛳️ team started the week with a split of the championship in West Des Moines. It was the latest in a growing list of recent, quality performances by the crew.
Things deflated from there as 🏐 was shutout by South Dakota Tuesday evening before getting the better of Western Illinois 3 - 2 Thursday in a contest that favored NDSU more than the outcomes may suggest.
Friday night ⚽️ hosted ORU and thanks to three goals in the first 25 minutes were able to win by one. The first two scores came off the foot of sophomore Olivia Lovick and less than two minutes apart. They had a chance to make it two in a row against Kansas City Sunday afternoon but were held scoreless while one got by Sofia Howe in the second half.
In-between 🏐 showed that Purple reign may have to wait, shutting out St. Thomas at the same time as the game up North unfolded. That's a good Saturday!
In the waning hours of the week, for his strong contribution to the win in Grand Forks, Jake Reinholz was named Conference Special Teams Player of the Week.
A certain recent quarterback just had his most significant playing time to date which will be mentioned more in the next Keep Up but it just continues the trend of success at the highest levels!
The Fire had a false start Friday as ⚽️ lost 1 - 0 against Mankato & Southwest beat them on the 🏐 court. It got slightly better Saturday as Sioux Falls came to Nemzek but still finished 3 - 1 for the visitors. Meanwhile, outside, 🏈 played evenly with Duluth, taking the lead with two minutes to go in the game as Grady Bresnahan broke loose from 46 out. The ranked Dogs showed why they're still garnering national attention by striking for 49 yards on the first play of the possession & subsequently milking the clock, only to score with 13 ticks remaining. It was a 180 from the teams showing last weekend and will need to be the sort of performance they have going forward to at least keep things interesting.
The week concluded with a southern Conference flair as fútbol went against Concordia-SP, a 4 - 0 win by the Bears and the ⛳️ team in Sioux Falls for an invitational in which they took fourth while having some of their best rounds of the season so far.
West Fargo's Telvin Vah got the week rolling with a two-goal game against St. John's which was just enough to get the victory, 2 - 1. They were back on the field Saturday against St. Mary's and the same man finished with the same number of scores while Erick Torres had a six-save afternoon to ensure a shutout. Then, Wednesday, the women took a turn against St. Benedict but a late score against them proved to be the difference, 1 - 0. They also had a chance against St. Mary's on college football day but a 16 - 5 shot disparity proved to be too much as they fell 1 - 0 again.
Friday St. Katherine's came up for a five set match which they pulled out in the end.
The next day Terry Horan's bunch hosted St. John's but were done-in by a 35-point second quarter en-route to a 49 - 0 loss.
Both of the ⛳️ teams were in Coon Rapids for the conference championship with the men taking fourth while the women were at the bottom of the board.
After last week's churn this week became about the burn of muscles as the players got on the court in preparation for the preseason opener Monday evening. That came with a lot of media time for many of the key members of the organization but until things start getting real (tomorrow) all the talk is just noise.
Reminder that scores are added daily, so check back often.
But now for the highlights as Fall seasons began to conclude.
North's boys 🎾 made it's way out of the play-in round of the East tournament over Wahpeton Monday. The next day the East's portion of the state boys ⚽️ tournament was finalized with Davies leading the way while Sheyenne & Shanley rounded out the local teams bound for Jamestown. The Eagles & West Fargo ended the regular season with style!
Just before the calendar flipped both of Moorhead's cross country teams finished in third at Fergus Falls while their boys ⚽️ team hung a lopsided victory on Sartell.
As the East region 🎾 matches progressed state qualifying came down to Sheyenne vs. Shanley & South vs. Davies. The Eagles kept it close but in the end Sheyenne & South would be the ones earning spots to join the West in Grand Forks this coming Thursday.
Then there was a great Friday under the lights Bismarck Legacy made the trip to West Fargo and for their trouble were served a heaping helping of Parker Nelson runs as he set a record with 273 yards on the ground while coach Gibson got his 200th win. Up north Hillsboro put an end to Langdon's winning streak at 44 while being the team that was the last to beat them in the 2017 Dakota Bowl, a great win for the #3 team in the state! Across the way Moorhead extended their own winning streak to 11 in a rout of Sartell. And not long after DT Elinneus Davis announced an offer by Iowa State, the Feen Machine is putting these guys out! Recruiting news continues to come so stay tuned!
North also had a ranked showdown, in Devils Lakes, but still cruised to a three-score win. Sheyenne did similarly against Minot, but by an even wider margin. The theme continued on the outskirts with Kindred, Enderlin/MV and F/S/H/P all winning going away. If the weather continues as it has been, the difference between the best and the rest may continue to be glaringly apparent!
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