The St. Louis Park Oriole football team heads down Highway 5 Friday night for their first road game of the season and second straight against a Carver County opponent as they battle the Waconia Wildcats.
The Orioles opened their 2019 last Thursday night against a team who played in last year's Class AAAAA state tournament the Chaska Hawks and got shut out 23-0. New Hawks quarterback Grif Wurtz reached the end zone three times on keeper touchdowns.
As for the Orioles, they had scoring opportunities throughout the game. In the first quarter, Aaron Ellingson, also the quarterback, intercepted a Wurtz pass but St. Louis Park lost the ball on downs. Turnovers would also plague the Orioles and McCabe Dvorak almost put St. Louis Park on the scoreboard but his touchdown was called back due to a pass interference penalty.
Waconia began the regular season last week, heading to New Hope to face the Cooper Hawks and got two second quarter touchdowns from Tim Stapleton and a strong defense that led them to a 14-12 win. Cooper cut the lead to two points :55 into the fourth quarter on Joseph Russell's touchdown pass to David Conners. The Hawks would go for the two point conversion but the pass was incomplete. The Wildcat defense held Joseph Russell to -23 rushing while his brother Sherrod carried 13 times for 54 yards. Waconia was led by Stapleton's 19 carries for 98 yards.
The key to the Orioles beating Waconia is find opportunities to get the ball over the goal line. Ellingson has to find the open receivers and Sajid Nathim has to establish the ground game like he did last season. The defense has to shut down Stapleton and the Wildcats rushing attack as well as force turnovers.
Waconia will have to use their strong defense anchored by Erix Groneveld and Jack Fritz and the backfield will need another solid game from Stapleton.
No threat of rain is in Friday night's weather picture. Game time is 7 PM.
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