Eagles to host Braves Friday night

By Chad Koenen

Publisher

New York Mills posted its second consecutive shutout as the Eagles defeated Bagley in a tough 20-0 win on Friday night.

While the Eagles were able to win the game thanks to a great defensive performance, head coach Matt Radniecki said the team struggled a bit to get in a good rhythm on the offensive end of the field. 

“A tough game for us as we played well, but couldn’t seem to get into a good rhythm on offense,” said Radniecki. “We drove the ball and Bagley did a nice job of not allowing us to have any big plays. We got positive yardage plays, but couldn’t get the big play.”  

The Eagles took the lead in the first quarter when they put together a drive that lasted almost the entire quarter. Brayden Ehnert put the team on the scoreboard with a 2-yard run to go ahead 6-0, but the two-point conversion failed. The game remained 6-0 for the remainder of the half as the Eagles ended up on the 3-yard line to end the second quarter. 

“In the second half the guys did a better job of executing and we had two nice long drives that we sustained and ate up a lot of clock,” said Radniecki. “We ran the ball very well and our offensive line and Monte Briard did an outstanding job of blocking for Jonah Ruther and Brayden Ehnert.  Jonah ran with force all night long.”

The Eagles dominated the second half on the ground as Jonah Ruther scored on a 3-yard run in the third quarter to put NY Mills up 12-0. The final score of the game came in the fourth quarter when Ehnert scored on a 20-yard run and the two-point conversion on a pass from Ehnert to DaShaun Robinson was good to make the game 20-0 in favor of NY Mills. 

This was the second straight week the Eagles posted a shutout, after defeating Pine River-Backus by a score of 12-0 last week. NY Mills has given up just 26 points in five games so far this season. 

“On defense two weeks in a row of a shut out so very hard to complain about that,” said Radniecki. “The guys did a nice job of getting to the ball carrier and tackling. We gave up a few plays, but overall did an outstanding job. The guys have been working hard and we seem to be getting better and better.”

This week the Eagles will host Menahga as part of their homecoming week festivities. The Braves are currently 3-2 on the season after winning by a forfeit over Red Lake last week. They last played on September 23 when they defeated Walker-Hackensack-Akeley by a score of 34-12. They also defeated bagley by a score of 48-26 and have lost to Wadena-Deer Creek by a score of 42-18 and Pine River-Backus by a score of 30-22.

NY Mills comes into the game as the second ranked team in the state. They are currently tied with Lester Prairie in second place, while BOLD is the top ranked team in the state. Mahnomen/Waubun, who the Eagles will face in their regular season finale, is tied with Mayer Lutheran in fourth place in the state. 

Otter Tail Central is the only other local team in Section 6A that is ranked as they were ranked 10th last week. 

In addition to the varsity, the NY Mills JV team defeated Parkers Prairie last week by a score of 8-0 to also get a win.