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| Now hear this. Now hear this...Farmington 19 New Prague 3 (photo by Jim Lindquist) |
The victory was the fourth straight for the unbeaten Tigers who are a perfect 3-0 in Missota Conference play, good enough for a first place tie with state-ranked Chaska in the league standings.
As for the homecoming win, well it had a wart or two. The Tiger offensive machine purred at times but sputtered and stalled at others. The winless Trojans forced seven Farmington turnovers and led 3-0 at halftime. The winners had an extra point kick blocked and had a two-point try end with an errant snap. It was one of those nights.
Winning coach Mark Froehling said he and his staff will have no shortage of things to work on in practice this week but focused on the positives of his team's now routine second half rally.
"Things don't always go the way you want them to," he said. "But we hung together through the adversity and got better in the second half. I give my assistant coaches a lot of credit for making the adjustments and for the players for executing them."
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| Noah Kary 134 yards rushing (photo by Jim Lindquist) |
Farmington moved the ball well in the first half but stumbled near the end zone. Senior Tyler VanWinkle had a nightmare of an opening half. He threw for 132 yards but suffered four interceptions, all on the New Prague side of midfield.
"They were doing some things defensively that made it hard to run our passing game," Froehling said, "so we took what they gave us and ran more in the second half. But Tyler came back and played with confidence and poise in the second half, too."
Sweeping to his right, Kary shook off a couple of tacklers, reversed course and went most of the width of the field back to the left for the score.
Less than two minutes later Godfrey Mpetey forced a Trojan fumble that John LeBlond pounced on at the New Prague eight-yard line. Three plays later VanWinkle hit CJ Wynings from five yards out for a touchdown.
Nick Buhta spelled Kary much of the fourth quarter and his running along with a 34-yard pass play from VanWinkle to Mac Bassett led to the final score of the night, a two-yard plunge by linebacker-turned-fullback Nick Ruark.
The Tigers were knocking on the end zone door again later in the final period before they lost their second fumble of the night, this one recovered in the end zone by the Trojans for a touchback.
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| Center Josh Patterson (photo by Jim Lindquist) |
Kary went over the century mark in rushing for the second straight game, picking up 134 yards on 33 carries. Buhta added 80 on a dozen tries.
VanWinkle completed 12 of 26 throws for 195 yards and a score. Kary had four catches for 32 yards, Bassett three for 73 and Jordan DeCroock three for 63.
Eli Rockett led the Tiger defense with seven tackles. Ruark had 6.5, Mason Auge four and LeBlond 3.5 (and two fumble recoveries).
Those numbers don't nearly tell the story, however. LeBlond, Mpetey, Auge, Ruark and company were all over the New Prague quarterback and the defense suffocated the Trojan running game.
"I think the defense has played well in every game this year," Froehling said.
Both the defense and the offense will need to bring their A game to Chaska next week when the Tigers play the role of homecoming guests for the Hawks.
"Chaska has some great athletes who are playing very good football right now," Froehling said. "We'll have to be ready to play if we are going to be competitive with them."
Chaska pounded Red Wing 67-13 Friday night.
