C.J. Record (pictured) piled up 237 yards on 37 carries and scored a touchdown to lead the Tigers to a 21-14 come-from-behind win over Red Wing Friday night, Sept. 10, at Tiger Stadium.The victory in the Missota Conference opener for both teams evened Farmington's record at 1-1.
"We changed some blocking assignments from last week and we executed better tonight," coach Mark Froehling said. "We controlled the football and our offensive line did a better job at the line of scrimmage.
"We still made a lot of mistakes and turned the ball over too much. We have a lot of work to do, but there was a lot of improvement from game one to game two."
Early on, the Tigers gave their fans little to cheer about. First, a snap out of punt formation sailed out of the end zone. Then the ensuing free kick went out of bounds and gave the Wingers excellent field position that led to a quick touchdown.
The visitors led 14-0 early in the second period before the Tiger offense finally got out of neutral and scored on Record's three-yard run and two-point conversion just before halftime.
A bad Red Wing snap out of punt formation set up the go-ahead Farmington touchdown in the fourth quarter with Record covering most of the 42-yard drive. Darren Beenken sneaked in from the one and sophomore kicker Aaron Lozano, in for the injured Tyler Grubb, tacked on the extra-point for a one-point lead with 4:06 to play.
Sophomore cornerback Aften Ashton, picked off a pass on the next Winger possession to set the stage for an insurance score, another one-yard sneak by Beenken set up by a 49-yard scamper by Record.
Offensive line coach Pat Hudak said his charges made some big strides from the previous week when the Tigers posted a -11 yards rushing against Hudson. Tommy Korbein, John Schimmel, Cory Johnson, Tyler Bagley, Luke Matthees, Jacob Lee and Dillon Pariseau all played a role in helping the offense rack up 277 yards rushing against a Red Wing defense that shutout Austin in its opener.
"Part of it was a change in blocking scheme," Hudak said, "but the big thing is that these guys grew up a lot tonight."
Beenken threw sparingly but still completed five of 11 passes for 48 yards. Sebren Baer had two catches for 30 yards and Austin Bassett two for 13.
Defensively, coach Gary Burr's unit gave up a 249 yards, 131 rushing and 118 passing.
"Overall, I think we did a good job, especially with the field posiiton we had early," Burr said. "They (Red Wing) never really did put together a long drive."
As for Record's individual performance, it was one of Farmignton's best in many years.
"He gained a lot of yards and most of them were tough yards," Froehling said. "The line gave him some room and he took it from there."
The Tigers will try to build on the momentum from Friday's win when they travel to Chanhassen this Friday (Sept. 17) for another Missota Conference game. The Storm (0-2) lost 35-14 to Shakopee Friday night.
