A Royal Soccer Split

 The 2020 home soccer season opened Tuesday night for the St. Louis Park Orioles soccer teams as they faced their former Classic Lake Conference rival the Hopkins Royals.  The boys team blasted the Royals 6-1 and the girls fell to Hopkins 7-1.  

Chalk up win number one for new St. Louis Park boys soccer head coach Anson Opara as Abdi Abdullabi scored four goals to lead the Orioles to a 6-1 rout of the Hopkins royals.  

The Orioles struck first early as Raul Sanchez Sandoval made a centering pass to Abdullabi and he fired it into the net 1:36 into the first half.  It would be the only goal of the half.  

St. Louis Park would go up by two in the second half as freshman Tylor Puentes scored on a penalty kick.  He almost had his second goal but it was disallowed due to an offside call.  Hopkins would cut the lead to one on Isaac Sanders left side goal.  It would be the only goal for the Royals since the Orioles would score four unanswered goals to put the game away.  The first three would come in a stretch of 2:15.  Puentes would score his second goal, then a ball the deflected off of Abdullabi entered the net.  He would score the Orioles final two goals, including the final goal where he got in front of the crease and rebounded Daniel Bevell's shot.  

St. Louis Park improved their record to 1-1 and hosts the Eden Prairie Eagles on Thursday, September 1 at 7 PM.  Hopkins fell to 0-1 and will also return to action on the first as they host the St. Michael-Albertville Knights at 7 PM.  

Heading into the second game, it was Avery Petty and Charlotte Li who scored three goals apiece to lead the Hopkins Royals to a 7-1 drubbing of the St. Louis Park Orioles.  

The Royals ascended to the throne in the first half with four consecutive goals.  Two were scored by Petty and she would get credited for the assist on Charlotte Li's goal.  Abby Hoiska would also add to the Hopkins ledger :33 later.  

Hoiska would begin the second half scoring for the Royals to give them a five goal lead.  Petty would get the hat trick with 27:00 to go and Li would tally twice to wrap up the Royals scoring.  There would be no shut out for Hopkins that night as Maren Wilsey's left side shot would enter the net.  

Hopkins opened the season with a 1-0 record and hosts the St. Michael-Albertville Knights on Thursday, September 1 at 5 PM.  St. Louis Park fell to 0-2 and hosts the Minneapolis South Tigers, also on the first at 5 PM.  

Practice Begins for 2022 Fall Sports Season

 It's a sign that summer is heading toward the homestretch when high school athletic teams throughout Minnesota open fall sports practice Monday, August 15.  

Teams in football, soccer, volleyball, cross country, girls swimming and tennis get ready for competition.  Here's when St. Louis Park's teams open up their season.  

The first out of the gate is girls tennis as the Orioles host the Hopkins Royals on Tuesday, August 23 at 4:30 PM.  

A new era begins in boys soccer on Saturday the 27th as Anson Opara, who takes over the coaching reigns from Chato leads the Orioles in their season opener against a tough nonconference opponent the perennial power Wayzata Trojans at 3 PM.  

Also on the 27th, the girls soccer team heads to St. Paul for a noon game against the Cretin-Derham Hall Raiders.  

Both the boys and girls teams will be in action on Tuesday, August 30 at Hopkins with the boys underway at 5 PM and the girls at 7 PM.  There's a home opener doubleheader on Thursday, September 1 with the girls hosting the Minneapolis South Tigers at 5 PM and the boys hosting the Eden Prairie Eagles at 7 PM.  

But wait.  There's more action on the 27th as the volleyball team heads to Bloomington to face the Kennedy Eagles at noon.  They will head up Brooklyn Blvd. to face the Park Center Pirates at 7 PM on the 30th and their home opener will be against the St. Paul Harding Knights on September 1 at 7 PM.  

The following night, Friday, September 2, the Oriole football team opens its 2022 campaign as they host the Simley Spartans at 7 PM.  Earlier in the day, the cross country teams will run in the Rosemount Invitational.  

Moving into the next week, the girls swimming diving teams open their season in Waconia on Thursday, September 8 at 6 PM.  A week later on the 15th is their home opener against the Benilde-St. Margaret's Red Knights, also a 6 PM start.  

Get ready for plenty of exciting fall sport action.  

HSGN Reviews NBC's Password Revival

This week, Password returned to NBC 33 years after Super Password was the last show to air in the 12 PM ET time period and 13 years after the show's last incarnation Million Dollar Password.  

HSGN did watch the premiere episode and it did some good points and bad points.  

First, let's look at the good points.  The basic set design is back with the two teams on each end of a table and a podium for the host in the middle.  As for the game, it's back to the original version of Password with a few modifications.  

The scoring system has been slightly changed from the first two versions.  Instead of 10 points for guessing the password on the first clue, the top value is reduced to six.  The first team to score 16 points (25 in the original) won the game.  Two games won the match and a chance to play the bonus round.  We'll get to that in a moment.  If both teams are tied at one game, then the contestants pick up signaling devices and are given clues to another word, which resembles Password Plus and Super Password.  The first player to identify the word wins the match.  

Looking at the bonus round, the contestant stands at a podium and 10 words arranged alphabetically like Alphabetics in the later Password runs.  The contestant picks a celebrity, which is regular Jimmy Fallon or in the first episode Jon Hamm and they have 30 seconds to guess as many passwords in the time frame.  Then the second celebrity plays using the words that have yet to be played.  If all 10 words are guessed before time runs out, the contestant wins $25,000.  less than 10, and it's $1000 per word.  

Now for the bad points.  Keke Palmer had no business hosting a show like Password.  She's way too loud and the best way of putting it, her style of hosting is like original host Allen Ludden on steroids.  If you saw Leslie Jones hosting ABC's version of Supermarket Sweep, she was also a screamer.  Palmer fits that description well.  But does the audience have to be so loud.  It was the type of audience that would be attending a rock concert instead of a cerebral word game.  

To sum it all up, it was great to see Password on TV again, the way it should be played but it would be a better show if they got a host like Anderson Cooper or Al Roker who didn't scream all the time.  It's your call.  Give it a shot on Tuesday nights or watch the earlier incarnations on BUZZR and YouTube.  

NBC's Last Soap Opera Moves to Peacock

 "Like sands through the hourglass, so are the Days of Our Lives."  

Those words began each episode of the long running NBC soap opera Days of Our Lives but after 57 years and more than 14,000 episodes, the last sand will go through the hourglass on September 9 as the network will move the show to its streaming service Peacock beginning September 12.  However, it will available to premium subscribers who pay a $4.99 per month fee.  

The switch to streaming marks the end of an era for NBC.  The network, which has been home to soaps such as Another World, The Doctors and Sunset Beach will have none on the air.  

The main reason for the switch is declining ratings.  Days of Our Lives is the lowest rated of the four surviving soap operas, trailing CBS's The Young and the Restless, The Bold and the Beautiful and ABC's General Hospital, the longest running of the daytime soaps.  

Days of Our Lives made its debut on November 8, 1965, replacing a short-lived Canadian produced serial Moment of Truth.  The show struggled in the ratings for three years and was on the verge of cancellation but it gained viewers and by January 1975, it moved to 1:30 ET, which was a problem time period for the last seven years due to the departure of Let's Make a Deal to ABC.  Three months later, Days of Our Lives expanded to an hour and it's been that way ever since.  

There have been many cast members over the show's 57 run, including several who went on to greater success on other shows.  They include Deidre Hall, who starred in a Sunday family drama that featured a young Shannen Doherty, Our House; Jed Allan, who hosted Celebrity Bowling; Alison Sweeney (still on) hosting The Biggest Loser and Charles Shaughnessy, who later played Maxwell Sheffield in the sitcom The Nanny.  

Days of Our Lives has built a solid fan base that includes a number of celebrity fans.  Supreme Court justice Thurgood Marshall was known for calling recess so he can catch up on the latest doings in the show's fictitious town of Salem.  Actress Julia Roberts and a former aide to then president Bill Clinton Monica Lewinsky.  Can the fan base sustain itself when it moves to Peacock?