The Tigers triumphed 48-0 over the Thunder Hawks of Montevideo. How one-sided can you get? It was so one-sided it could get boring I'm sure. Sorry, I didn't have enough drive to walk on over. Fans dealt with some unseasonable cold. But word is, warmer temps will be setting in. I hope to get over to Big Cat and get a burger basket sometime, if that promo is continuing.
Monte's "zero" on the scoreboard says a lot. A lot more is said if you dive deeper into the numbers. The MACA defense limited Monte to negative 28 yards rushing on 20 attempts. The passing story was equally bleak for those Thunder Hawks: minus nine yards! So the T-Hawks had 37 total plays from scrimmage and went backwards 37 yards. Hard to believe the disparity between teams is this wide.
And to think our Tigers were humbled just a week earlier at the hands ot the 'Waska Lakers, score of 48-14. Uh-oh, 'Waska plays Monte on Oct. 10 at Monte!
Vagaries of sports
We can praise the MACA defense. But it's never fun to see a team struggle as much as Monte did. That's my editorial comment. In the '80s when I wrote sports for the Morris paper, Monte could manhandle the Tigers. The '80s in general were a ragged time for Tiger athletics. Eventually I heard comments like "oh, we can't compete with Montevideo!"
The vagaries of high school sports!
I remember when Granite Falls was such a football power. Eventually they got absorbed into the new entity called Yellow Medicine East. YME had a hard time being competitive in football for a long time.
Righting ship
Our Tiger fans may have been worried some coming out of the Labor Day weekend game vs. 'Waska. Those worries would seem gone now. Even without Riley Asmus it looks like we'll be fine. Maybe some of the other towns will start to say "oh, we can't compete with Morris." Maybe the addition of Chokio-Alberta helped us turn the corner.
I was present for a historic Morris football win over Granite Falls. Were they the "Kilowatts?" It was an unforgettable game that had us using a trick play at the end, was masterfully drawn up. Our coach was Jerry Witt. The trick play unfolded with a pass to a wideout who was behind the line of scrimmage. The wideout then launched the ball downfield. I remember Kent Moser was involved. I photographed the Rambows - Lyle and Londa - in an embrace in the post-game celebration.
My involvement with the Morris newspaper was severed in 2006. The last MACA football game I covered was at Henning. I never dreamt that night it would be the end.
What grade should the West Central Tribune get for its coverage this morning? The standards are awfully low. So often we see "stats not available" for the MACA teams. Well, this morning I see they did slightly better. But you can see that Monte is a higher priority for them. Their three-sentence article concludes with an announcement of Monte's next game. It will be against Glencoe-Silver Lake at Glencoe. There's no mention of the Tigers' next game.
Go sit under a cow, you West Central Trib staff members.
Safety starts us off
The Tigers gained a 9-0 lead in the first quarter. Initially we got two points on a safety. Uh-oh, here we go with "n/a" for "not available!" This is for the Tigers' first touchdown where we do not see the name of the player who scored. They have "n/a 2 run." So it was a two-yard run by whoever, but strangely the West Central Trib has the name of the kicker for the conversion. It's Landen Gibson. So congrats Landen.
Perhaps we should extend a bigger congratulations to Gibson on his next kick. He kicked the ball through the uprights from 31 yards out. Three points.
The Tigers kept pouring it on with an eight-yard TD run. The WC Trib has the name of the Tiger carrying the football: Kye Suess. We got the two-point conversion, names don't appear for that. What a scattershot system the Willmar paper has. But they got their act together for reporting our next score: Ozzy Jerome passed 15 yards to Jack Kehoe, and Gibson kicked successfully.
Oh no we start seeing "n/a" again. So the Tigers score on a "n/a 35-yard fumble return." Gibson kicked. Continuing, the Tigers struck with a "n/a 86-yard interception return." Gibson kicked. And then we wrapped up the scoring with a "n/a 23-yard run." Gibson's toe was true again. Gibson for his part worked into the paper's coverage well. The paper must have been relying on the Montevideo coach.
The Tigers achieved 13 first downs en route to victory. We had 147 rushing yards on 28 carries. Drake Asmus had 46 yards on just two carries. Suess had ten yards on two. Jerome's passing produced 8 for 16 numbers for 277 yards. Kehoe had two receptions for 22 yards. Hunter Westerman intercepted a pass and Jace Kleindl recovered a fumble. We sacked the quarterback twice.
What are the odds that the Stevens County Times will have game coverage on its website before the end of the weekend? What are the odds we'll see more than the "score" on the kmrs-kkok site? Certain other people need to go sit under a cow.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
