It was a lowly start to the week for the Bison as the women's ⛳️ finished 15th of 17 teams in Idaho. 🏐 made their return to the Fieldhouse but the friendly confines couldn't prevent Kansa City (3 - 1) or ORU (3 - 0) from leaving with the wins. On Friday the cross country men & women were in the Metro but struggled to keep pace.
Even with 🏈 that would have been a light week but with the bye week behind us it's full-go into Winter.
The biggest news off the field came when West Fargo's Carson Hegerle chose to stay close to home. With the other receiver talent that will be coming to town soon there's going to be even more expectation places on Tyler Roehl in the year's to come, which could work well for the future head coach. As the winds of change continue to swirl adding talents such as they are will be more & more necessary.
Moorhead State started the week with a 3 - 0 🏐 sweep of Minot in a contest that wasn't even that close.
Things took a turn after that though. Both of the cross country teams finished outside the top 14 in Minneapolis while 🏐 was shutout by Concordia-SP & Mankato in consecutive days & ⚽️ lost 4 - 0 against Augustana Friday & 3 - 0 to Wayne State Sunday. The ⛳️ team also wrapped up two days on the course in Marshall ahead of Monday with a 10th place finish.
Ending with a semi-high note, it took a 23 point fourth quarter but the 🏈 team got their second win of the season 33 - 28 over Upper Iowa. With very little ground game to speak of Tommy Falk took the Dragons to the air with 428 yards & four scores against one interception. It took all that to beat the dregs of the conference so they could be in for an upside down season. During the game Grady Bresnahan became the all-time receptions leader, a mark that should last many years to come when he walks off for the last time!
The week began with a 4 - 1 loss by men's ⚽️ to Viterbo & didn't improve much in the days that followed. Carleton beat both ⚽️ teams 3 - 1 & 🏐 was swept by Bethel. 🏈 couldn't do much better in their conference opener against Gustavus, 36 - 21.
The lone bright-spot came at Carleton when senior Munir Isahak won his first meet & paced the winning team.
Dysfunction is the Minnesota way. For all the past examples that can be pointed to among their professional franchises, having to fire the president days before season activities get underway in earnest is high on the list.
But in all the consternation about the Foul Howl, it shouldn't be lost that the roster which was assembled during Rosas' brief time in Minnesota may finally, consistently win some games. For all the negativity to rightly be going his & their way, for fans that would make him far better than the many previous flame-outs that have helm the organization.
It seems early for the puck to be dropping but the Bolts had their first contest of the season in Pennsylvania, a 3 - 2 loss to Chicago. They followed that with a contest against the USA select team Sunday afternoon. America went ahead 3 - 0 early but the Bolts battled back to force overtime at 4 - 4 & Tyson Gross got the game-winner!
The feeling must have some foundation because they won't go again for nearly two weeks & then only as a one-off. The season will get going in-earnest the 15th of October with the first three being on home ice.
When the end came, it came quickly as Kansas City swept Fargo out of the championship.
That should not takeaway from the great 2021 season that the Birds had! Here are the numbers:
614 RBI (league record)
1072 hits (most by any AA team since 2012)
3 of the top 6 hitters (Boscan, Krause, George)
Two guys over .340 (Boscan at .344, Krause at .341)
Then, in the postseason, they tied an Association record with 20 doubles.
Considering that they were pretty well gutted by affiliated teams early in the year, the run to the final games is worth a few feathers in Chris Coste & Matt Rau's ball caps! It's going to be a tall task to do it again in 2022.
Reminder that scores are added daily, so check back often.
Now for the highlights
West Fargo & Jamestown visited Shanley as bookends to the prep week while South visited North in-between.
Beyond those, Moorhead's cross country had a third place finish at Rocori, lead by Isaac Martel's third. The Tater's boys ⚽️ also showed out with a 6-0 win over Detroit Lakes Thursday.
Then Friday brought a host of lopsided final scores again with Sheyenne, North, West Fargo, Davies, Central & Northern Cass, Kindred, Enderlin, Ulen/Hitterdal, F/S/H/P, Hillsboro & Hankinson all cruising to victories.
Along with those results came the latest rankings from both sides of the river.