NYM falls to BBE 18-12 in regular season opener
Sports | Published on September 2, 2025 at 2:18pm GMT+0000 | Author: Tucker Henderson
0Eagles to host Bulldogs on Friday night
By Chad Koenen
Publisher
In a game that featured nearly 650 yards in total offense, the New York Mills Eagles and Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa were able to move the ball against one another throughout the opening game of the season. However, three fumbles by the Jaguars and a pair of interceptions by the Eagles lead to an 18-12 win for the Jaguars.
BBE took a 6-0 lead in the first quarter when Aiden Mueller completed a 49-yard touchdown pass to Kameron Hiltner to give the Jaguars a 6-0 lead. The two-point conversion, along with every two-point conversion for the Eagles and Jaguars throughout the night, failed.
NY Mills quickly followed with a touchdown pass of their own when Creed Mursu found Gage Brasel on a 35-yard pass just four minutes later to make the score 6-6.
Early in the second quarter, BBE’s Jesse Nicklaus scored on a three-yard run and with just under two minutes remaining in the half the Jaguars found the end zone for the third time in the half when Mueller found Lance Radermacher on a 17-yard pass to make the score 18-6 in favor of BBE.
First-year head coach Zach Hocking said the Eagles had opportunities in the first half, but made a few too many mental mistakes to take them out of manageable situations on the offensive side of the ball.
“We started off a little slow, making too many mental mistakes that turned manageable situations like second-and-short into second-and-long,” said Hocking. “We went into halftime down, but came out and played our best football in the second half.”
NY Mills played a solid second half on both the offensive and defensive side of the field as Roder found the end zone for the first time in the game as he scored on a 12-yard run in the third quarter to make the score 18-12 in favor of the Jaguars. Unfortunately, it would be the only touchdown of the half for either side as the Eagles would go on to fall by a score of 18-12.
Despite the loss, Hocking said there were a number of positive things to take away from the game as the Eagles look to rebound this week at home against Otter Tail Central.
“We had opportunities throughout the night to win, but just couldn’t execute when it mattered most,” said Hocking. “There were a lot of positives to take away, and now it’s a new week. We need to sharpen a few things up in order to get the job done on Friday.”
NY Mills was able to use the running game to dominate the time of possession as they held a 28:14 to 18:54 margin.
As a team the Eagles rushed for 201 yards on the ground and were led by Roder who rushed 29 times for 150 yards and a touchdown, while Everrett Ruther rushed seven times for 48 yards and Mursu rushed eight times for 11 yards.
Mursu went 6-14 passing for 91 yards, a touchdown and a pair of interceptions.
Brasel caught five passes for 67 yards, while Ruther caught one pass for 24 yards.
BBE rushed for 224 yards and threw for 132 yards through the air.
Defensively the Eagles were led by Roder who had five tackles, while Jeremy Kopveiler had four, Tony Nichols and Grady Roberts finished with two apiece to lead the charge.