NYM to travel to Frazee on Friday for pink out game

By Chad Koenen

Publisher

In a game of inches, New York Mills is coming up just centimeters short of knocking off some of the top teams in the region as the Eagles dropped their third consecutive one score game on Friday night with a 14-6 loss against the defending section champion Parkers Prairie Panthers. 

Friday’s loss comes on the heels of an 18-12 loss to Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa and a 22-14 loss to Otter Tail Central in which the Eagles had the ball deep in Bulldog territory with a chance to tie the game late in the fourth quarter before a turnover ended the comeback attempt.

First-year head coach Zach Hocking said the Eagles are just a handful of plays away from being a potentially 3-0 team as they will look to rebound this week against a tough Frazee Hornet team.

“Another step in the right direction, we played a tough team very physically. We have to find a way to score in the red zone. Once we get there, we stall, have penalties, and things like that,” said Hocking.
“We are a handful of plays from being a 3-0 team, and we need to keep believing in ourselves.”

The Eagles held a high-powered Parkers Prairie scoreless in the first quarter and had several opportunities with offensive drives that ended deep in Panther territory. 

The Panthers broke a scoreless tie at the 6:39 mark of the second quarter when Gavin Boesel scored on an 18-yard run. The two-point conversion was no good as the Panthers led 6-0 at halftime.

After the defenses held strong in the third quarter to keep both teams off the scoreboard, the NY Mills defense and special teams gave the Eagles a breath of life with just 5:54 remaining in the game. NY Mills forced a punt deep in their own zone, before Gage Brasel returned the punt 16 yards for a touchdown to tie the game at 6-6. The two-point conversion failed to leave the game tied with just under six minutes remaining in regulation.

Unfortunately, the Panthers were able to drive the field and Nolan Boesel found AJ Woodworth on an eight-yard pass to make the score 12-6 in favor of the Panthers. The two-point conversion was successful and with just 2:12 remaining on the clock the Eagles were unable to find the end zone and tie the game to fall to 0-3 on the season with their third straight one score loss. 

As a team the Eagles picked up 11 first downs in the game, compared to 13 for Parkers Prairie. The Panthers held a 302-196 advantage in total offense, most of which came from a 259 to 126 yard advantage on the round. NY Mills passed for 100 yards, while Parkers Prairie passed for just 55 yards. 

Individually, Finn Roder once again had a big night on the ground as the senior rushed 14 times for 95 yards, while Everett Ruther rushed five times for 26 yards, Ryder Davis rushed one time for one yard and Creed Mursu rushed eight times for four yards.

Mursu went 10-20 passing for 100 yards, while Ruther caught four passes for 61 yards, Brasel caught four passes for 25 yards and Roder caught a pair of passes for 14 yards. 

Defensively the Eagles were led by Eli Vaughn with seven tackles, while Mursu had six, Roder and Brasel each finished with five, while Everett Ruther and Brock Ruther each finished with four tackles apiece. 

This week the Eagles will travel to Frazee to take on the 2-1 Hornets. Last week the Hornets fell to Breckenridge by a score of 42-18, but were able to defeat Browerville 22-0 in the opening game of the season and Menahga 44-6 in the second week. 

Frazee averages 28 points per game on offense, while giving up 16 points per game on defense.

The Eagles are 0-3 and average 10.7 points per game on offense and give up 18 points per game on defense.