Roder scores a pair of late touchdowns

By Chad Koenen

Publisher

A pair of Finn Roder fourth quarter touchdowns lifted the New York Mills Eagles past their Highway 10 rival Wadena-Deer Creek by a score of 12-8 in dramatic fashion. 

“Big win for us against the team that the kids love to play against. WDC is turning into a nice rivalry game for us and it was fun to get the victory on senior night before a big crowd,” said head coach Matt Radniecki. 

Following a scoreless first half, which saw both teams move the ball in the middle of the field, but have their drives stall when they got closer to the end zone, the Wolverines were able to get on the scoreboard in the third quarter on an 18-yard touchdown pass. The subsequent two-point conversion was good to make the score 8-0 in favor of WDC. 

Radniecki said he was pleased with how his defense played throughout the night by limiting big plays on both the ground and the air. 

“I am really happy how our defense played during the game in limiting WDC on the ground and in the air. We did a very good job of containing Loer and tackled much better this week,” he said. 

While the Eagles were able to march the ball down the field throughout the game, they were unable to find the end zone until Roder scored on a 3-yard-run in the fourth quarter. The subsequent two-point conversion was no good to leave the Eagles trailing by  score of 8-6 in the final quarter of action.

Roder scored his second touchdown of the game in what would be the game winning touchdown when he scored on a 2-yard run. The two-point conversion failed, but the Eagles didn’t need it as they came away with a thrilling 12-8 win on Friday night.

Even though the Eagles came away with the win late in the game, Radniecki said the team will need to do a better job of finding the end zone when they get the ball deep in their opponents territory. For example, NY Mills had the ball inside the Wolverine 30-yard line three times and didn’t score a point on those drives. 

“We worked hard on offense and we need to convert the chances that we had. We gave up too many opportunities because of a turnover and poor execution or penalty. We have to get better at that,” said Radniecki. “We had the ball inside the 30-yard of WDC three times and came away with zero points. This is hopefully a stepping stone for better things to come, but our schedule doesn’t get any easier as we play a tough Breckenridge team on the road Friday.”

This week the Eagles, who are 2-3 on the season, will travel to Breckenridge to take on the 1-4 Cowboys. Breckenridge is currently averaging 24.2 points per game on offense, while surrendering 25.8 points per game on defense. Last week the Cowboys fell to Parkers Prairie by a score of 22-15. 

NY Mills, on the other hand, is averaging 12.6 points per game on offense, while giving up 15.8 points per game on defense, which is the second lowest amount in Section 6A. 

Last week the JV football team lost a game to Parkers Prairie, but Radniecki said the team gained some valuable experience. He said the team is getting better and it is good to see them get after it on the football field.