NY Mills to host PRB on Friday 

By Chad Koenen

Publisher

New York Mills scored 19 straight points to overtake the Wadena-Deer Creek Wolverines in a close 19-14 game on Friday night.

“This was a great high school football game played between two evenly matched teams,” said head coach Matt Radniecki. “WDC came out fast and scored with some explosive plays by their skilled position people.  They have a very good quarterback and wide receivers who cause problems for any defense.”

The Wolverines jumped out to a 14-0 lead in the first quarter when they scored on a short 3-yard pass and made the point after attempt. On their next drive, WDC scored on a 51-yard pass to take what looked like a commanding 14-0 lead in the first quarter.

The Eagles, who are currently ranked fourth in the state, didn’t panic as they went on to chip away at the WDC with touchdowns in the second, third and fourth quarters. They were able to score late in the first half when Brayden Ehnert scored on a 7-yard run and made the point after attempt to make the score 14-7 heading into halftime. 

“I really liked the way our team responded and didn’t throw the towel in. We battled back and got a touchdown from Brayden Ehnert before the half to get the score to 14-7,” said Radniecki. “In the second half we continued to play good defense and came back to score twice the final a 37-yard Ehnert to Robinson pass play.”

Teagan Lausten brought the Eagles within 1 point of the Wolverines in the third quarter when he broke loose for a 53-yard touchdown run to make the score 14-13 in favor of WDC. Unfortunately, the point after attempt failed to leave the Eagles down by 1 point.

As the old saying goes, it doesn’t matter who leads first, but at the end that matters the most. The Eagles took their first lead for the game late in the fourth quarter when Ehnert found DaShaun Robinson on a 37-yard pass to take a 19-14 lead. It was the first time NY Mills led in the entire game. 

The two-point conversion failed, but NY Mills held on for its third straight win to start the season, this time by a score of 19-14. 

“It was good to see that we held the ship and kept battling and some good things happened for us,” said Radniecki. “We were our worst enemy in the beginning with some bad penalties and missed assignments. We came out and played a much better half of football in the second half.”

Throughout the game, Radniecki said the NY Mills seniors did their part both on the field, and by keeping the rest of the team calm as they tried to claw back into the game from an early deficit. 

“Our seniors were great in leading us and keeping everyone focused in the game. They didn’t panic which resulted in our team not panicking. (A) good win for us as we play Pine River Backus next week who is also 3-0,” said Radniecki. 

Leading the way defensively for the Eagles was Blake Unger who had 11 tackles, while Ehnert and Unger came away with a pair of big interceptions.

This week the Eagles will host undefeated Pine River-Backus in NY Mills. Last year NY Mills defeated Pine River-Backus in a pair of tight games, including the semi-finals of the Section 6A playoffs in which the Eagles defeated the Tigers by a score of 38-20. 

The Tigers come into the game averaging 32.3 points per game on offense, while giving up 9.3 points per game on defense. They have defeated Walker-Hackensack-Akeley by a score of 41.6, Bagley by a score of 26-0 and Menahga by a score of 30-22. 

The Eagles are averaging 45.3 points per game on offense, while giving up just 8.7 points per game on defense. 

NYM      0      7      6       6

WDC     14     0      0      0

FIRST QUARTER

WDC- 3 yd pass for touchdown kick good

WDC- 51 yd pass for touchdown kick good

SECOND QUARTER

NYM-  Brayden Ehnert 7 yd run Brayden Ehnert kick good

THIRD QUARTER

NYM-  T. Lausten 53 yd run kick no good

FOURTH QUARTER

NYM-  Brayden Ehnert to D. Robinson 37 yd pass 2 pt play no good