As the high school fall sports season winds down and the calendar turns to November, here’s an extended congratulations to all of the players, runners, coaches, officials, workers and spectators who made all the events happen.
It was a busy season, filled — as usual — with ups and downs, good weather, bad weather, and lots of highlight moments. It’s just a shame that it flies by so fast!
A special congratulations, of course, goes to the Murray County Central / Fulda girls on winning the Section 3A team championship at the Madison Golf Course last Thursday. The Warriors edged Luverne (56-59) to claim the title with both excellent teams displaying exceptional balance, depth and a top-notch lead runner.
MCC/F’s Morgan Gehl (second) and Luverne’s Tenley Nelson (third) are each ranked near the top of nearly 1,500 varsity-level Class A girls’ cross country runners in Minnesota.
Two area volleyball teams were still playing (as of Tuesday evening). The top-seeded Adrian Dragons advanced with a home-court sweep over rival Hills-Beaver Creek last Friday night, and sixth-seeded Murray County Central pulled a bit of an upset by claiming an exciting 3-2 win over third-seeded Red Rock Central at Lamberton.
The Rebels tangled with second-seeded Tracy-Milroy-Balaton at Worthington Tuesday night, after the first semifinal match between Adrian and fifth-seeded Westbrook-Walnut Grove. The Chargers, in four sets, ended the season for a short-handed Heron Lake-Okabena / Fulda squad last Friday night at Fulda.
The Coyotes played without injured starters Sam Untiedt and Maddie Ruesch, and when dominant middle hitter Hailey Liepold — who recently drilled her 1,000th varsity career kill — came down with an illness, the team was without three of its best players.
A big SHOUT OUT is sent to HL-O / Fulda’s football squad for earning a well-deserved playoff victory over the Madelia Blackhawks at Madelia last Tuesday night (October 22). The final score was 32-25 in favor of the fifth-seeded Coyotes, who put together an impressive scoring drive midway through the fourth quarter to take the lead back for good in a contest which had several lead changes.
It was the program’s first playoff victory and sixth triumph in its two years of existence. As one father of a player said:
“The boys played a whale of a game at Madelia. Goes to show when multiple players step up, great things can happen. Best game of the season.”
The Coyotes also had back-to-back highlight victories over Cedar Mountain (HL-O’s Homecoming Game, 22-8) and at Edgerton (42-28) in mid-September. Their season ended (3-7) with 56-20 semifinal loss to powerful Mountain Lake Area at Munson Field on Saturday afternoon.
Adrian, riddled by injuries — as many as eight players sidelined — lost to Russell-Tyler-Ruthton last Tuesday by a final score of 30-7 in the Section 3A semifinals at Adrian. The Dragons finished 4-5 with victories over R-T-R (42-13), Sleepy Eye (29-13), Tracy-Milroy-Balaton (20-6) and New Ulm Cathedral (34-0).
MCC also felt the sting of defeat in its playoff opener, dropping a hard-fought 21-14 decision to Wabasso on the home field of the Rabbits. The Rebels finished another fine season with a 5-4 record, earning wins over Yellow Medicine East (36-14), Adrian (21-6), Minnesota Valley Lutheran (33-14), New Ulm Cathedral (25-8) and Sleepy Eye (29-8).
MCC, which won eight games in both 2016 and 2018, has a solid record of 25-16 (.610) over the past four football seasons, including a sectional championship in ’16 and a sectional runner-up trophy in ’18.
The Minnesota Gophers have moved up to 13th in the national rankings and are still undefeated (8-0), following Saturday’s huge 52-10 victory over Maryland. After a bye this week, the Gophers host undefeated Penn State at TCF Bank Stadium November 9.
Maybe College Game Day will come to the U of M? Coach P.J. Fleck is pushing for that to happen — and he’s proving to be quite persuasive?
Through the first five games of the World Series, the “road” team has won every time. If that holds true, the Nationals will win — but I got a feeling the Astros may clinch in six?
Get ready for winter — it’s lurking nearby!
