NY Mills to travel to undefeated Breckenridge on Friday

By Chad Koenen

Publisher

After  season of close calls and near misses, the New York Mills Eagles picked up their first win of the season in convincing fashion on Friday night. The Eagles defeated Menahga 40-20 capped off a festive week at the school in recognition of homecoming week and improved the Eagles to 1-5 on the season.

The Eagles took an early lead when Finn Roder intercepted a Creed Koll pass on the opening play of the game and then broke loose and raced ahead of the pack for a 65-yard touchdown run. The two-point conversion failed to leave the score at 6-0. 

On the subsequent drive, NY Mills appeared to force a Menahga punt, but the Braves converted a fake punt and didn’t get brought down until they were deep in Eagle territory. The Braves eventually scored on a Connor Foley run for six yards and converted the two-point conversion to put them in front 8-6. 

From there it was all Eagles as Everrett Ruther scored on a 15-yard run later in the first quarter and Creek Mursu completed a 12-yard touchdown pass to Gage Brasel in the second quarter. The two-point conversion was converted by Roder to leave the score at 20-8 in favor of NY Mills at halftime.

The Eagles tacked on two more touchdowns in the third quarter as Roder scored on a 78-yard run just 55 seconds into the quarter, before Mursu found Ruther on a 27-yard touchdown pass with 1:44 remaining in the quarter to put the Eagles in front 34-8.

Menahga scored a pair of touchdowns in the fourth quarter on a Koll pass at the 10:24 mark, before he found Brad Pietilla on a 42-yard pass with just 23 seconds remaining in the game. 

Sandwiched between those two scores was yet another Roder long touchdown run as he scored on a 95-yard run to keep the Braves at bay. Roder’s three touchdowns came from 65-yards, 78-yards and 95-yards in the game. 

Roder led the way offensively as the senior nearly outgained the entire Menahga offense on the night. Menahga had 343 yards of total offense, while Roder had 310 yards rushing on just 10 carries and one catch for four yards. 

Ruther rushed 15 times for 74 yards and a touchdown, while Mursu rushed three times for 10 yards.

Mursu went 4-9 passing with a pair of touchdowns and 47 yards. He also threw an interception in the game.

Ruther caught two of those passes for 31 yards and a touchdown, while Gage Brasel caught one pass for 12 yards and a touchdown. Roder caught one pass for four yards in the win. 

Defensively the Eagles were led by Mursu with eight tackles, while Roder and Grady Roberts each finished with five. Ryder Davis, Gage Brasel, Ruther and Eli Vaughn each finished with four tackles, Tony Nichols finished with three, Logan Vomhoff finished with two tackles and Elijah O’Dea, Henry Oakes, Blake Hiltner, Bergen Roder, Grayson Meyer, Cass Ament and Elijah Kaufmann each finished with one tackle. The Eagles defense also forced three turnovers in the win and held the Braves to just 141 yards rushing and 202 yards passing. 

Meanwhile, NY Mills picked up 436 yards of total offense including 389 yards on the ground and 47 yards through the air. 

This week the Eagles will hit the road to take on state ranked and undefeated Breckenridge, before returning home next Wednesday night to take on the Wadena-Deer Creek Wolverines in their regular season finale. 

Breckenridge comes into the game with a perfect 6-0 record and averages 41.7 points per game, while giving up 12.8 points per game on defense. So far this season the Cowboys have defeated Benson 55-34, Parkers Prairie 21-12, Frazee 42-18, Wadena-Deer Creek 42-0, Otter Tail Central 42-0 and Lake Park-Audubon 48-13. 

NY Mills currently averages 16.7 points per game on offense, while giving up 20 points per game on defense. 

On Wednesday, Oct. 15 the Eagles will host the 2-4 WDC Wolverines. The Wolverines have victories over Menahga and Long Prairie-Grey Eagle. Last week they fell to Frazee by a score of 46-12 and kick off will be at 7 p.m.