NYM to play at Wadena-Deer Creek on Friday night

By Chad Koenen

Publisher

The New York Mills Eagles have followed up their first ever state tournament semi-finals appearance last season with a pair of commanding wins to open the 2022 season. The Eagles have outscored their opponents by a commanding 117-12 margin as they improved to 2-0 overall.

This week the Eagles will make the trek down Highway 10 to take on the Wadena-Deer Creek Wolverines on Friday night, before preparing for their second home game of the season next Friday against Pine River-Backus. 

September 1

Five touchdowns in the first quarter lifted the NY Mills Eagles past Red Lake by a score of 70-6 on September 1. The Eagles were led by Jonah Ruther, who scored three touchdowns in the first quarter on runs of 50, 36 and 49 yards, while Monte Briard scored on a 2 yard run and DaShaun Robinson scored on a 47 yard pass from Brayden Ehnert.

The Eagles added three more touchdowns in the second quarter on a pair of Braxton Ehnert runs, before Joe Mann scored on a 2-yard run to give the Eagles a 54-0 lead at halftime. 

“A great way to start for us.  The guys played well.  We knew what we wanted to do and got it done early.  This game allowed us to play everyone from a team standpoint and get valuable time for our young guys,” said head coach Matt Radniecki. “We did some nice things and kept working to get better and I was happy with that.  I am really proud of how we came off the bus ready to play and got our job done.”

Radniecki said the Eagles had a good few weeks of practice leading up to the game. The practice provided some much needed experience as they look to replace a number of key players from last year’s team.

NYM        32       22       8      8

Red Lake  0         0        0      6

FIRST QUARTER

NYM – J. Ruther 50 yd run B. Ehnert kick

NYM- M. Briard 2 yd run B. Ehnert kick

NYM- D. Robinson 47 yd pass from B. Ehnert PAT no good

NYM- J. Ruther 36 yd run PAT no good

NYM- J. Ruther 49 yd run PAT no good

SECOND QUARTER

NYM- Braxton Ehnert 52 yd run 2 pt Braxton Ehnert to C. Wilson 

NYM- J. Mann 2 yd run 2 pt Braxton Ehnert to C. Wilson

NYM- Braxton Ehnert 28 yd run 2 pt no good

THIRD QUARTER

NYM- J. Mann 18 yd run J. Mann 2 pt run

FOURTH QUARTER

NYM- E. Menze 8 yd run E. Menze 2 pt. run

Red Lake- 23 yd pass 2 pt no good

Friday

NY Mills wasted little time in jumping all over Walker-Hackensack-Akeley during its home opener on Friday night. The Eagles scored three touchdowns in the first and second quarter as they jumped out to a 40-0 lead at halftime. They would go on to take a 47-0 lead and hold on for a 47-6 win over the Wolves.

“We played really well tonight in all phases of the game.  Brayden Ehnert did a great job for us at quarterback and DaShaun Robinson had an outstanding game,” said head coach Matt Radniecki. “We need to give credit to our defensive and offensive lines as both did their job and really controlled the line of scrimmage for our team. We made a lot of explosive plays, something that is really nice to see. We had some big runs and big passes and big plays on specials teams. The punt fake on the first drive was executed as well as you can.”

The Eagles jumped out to a 7-0 lead in the first quarter when Brayden Ehnert scored on a 1-yard run and made the point after kick. 

NY Mills used a bit of trickery to score their second touchdown of the quarter as Jonah Ruther threw a 42-yard halfback pass to DaShaun Robinson to make the score 13-0. 

Monte Briard made the score 19-0 at the end of the first quarter when he scored on a 4-yard run.

The Eagles scored three more touchdowns in the second quarter when Robinson intercepted a pass and returned it 67-yards for a touchdown. Ehnert threw a pair of touchdown passes to Robinson from 50-yards out and Ruther from 39-yards out to make the score 40-0 at halftime.

Radniecki said he was pleased with how the defense played on Friday night, as they gave up just one touchdown for the second straight game. 

“On defense we continued to tackle and play the run well,” said Radniecki. “Our pass defense needs to shore up some but we did not give up the big play. We are getting better and we will need to be at the top of our game next week when we face a very good WDC team that really likes to pass the ball.”

With a large crowd in attendance, Radniecki said the team really appreciated all of the support from the home fans on Friday night. He hopes to see a similar crowd of NY Mills faithful in Wadena this week. 

“A big shout out to the crowd last night.  We had a really good size crowd and the team appreciates the support shown for them. We hope to see you at Wadena this coming Friday,” he said. 

NYM        19       21      7      0

Walker       0         0      6      0

FIRST QUARTER

NYM Brayden Ehnert 1 yd run Brayden Ehnert kick

NYM Ruther to Robinson 42 yds kick no good

NYM Briard 4 yd run kick no good

SECOND QUARTER

NYM Robinson 67 yard interception return Ehnert kick

NYM Ehnert to Robinson 50 yd pass kick no good

NYM Ehnert to Ruther 39 yd pass Ehnert to Robinson 2 pt

THIRD QUARTER

NYM- Ruther 4 yd run Ehnert kick good

Walker – 16 yd scoring run kick no good

FOURTH QUARTER

No Scoring