Wednesday, September 13, 2023

Apple Valley Eagles-SLP Orioles Football Preview

 Two weeks on the road and the St. Louis Park Oriole football team is gonna make it home Thursday night to host the Apple Valley Eagles. 

Both teams are 1-1 and have faced the Mankato East Cougars who have accounted for their lone defeat in the early season.  

Last Saturday, the Orioles picked up their first win when sophomore running back Mason Helfmann made four trips to the end zone to lead St. Louis Park to a 33-21 win over the Minneapolis Washburn Millers.  Helfmann had 22 carries for 182 yards and Josh Rickford completed 11 of 14 passes for 105 yards, including a touchdown pass to Ben Bauer.  The Oriole defense also prevailed, sacking Millers quarterback Andrew Backhaus five times.  

The key to the game for St. Louis Park is for Helfmann to continue his momentum and shred the Apple Valley defense.  

The Eagles, following a 29-7 win over the Rochester John Marshall Rockets in the season opener, hosted the same team the Orioles faced that week in the Mankato East Cougars and got blown out by Mankato East 42-21.  The Cougars defense couldn't do what the Orioles tried to do the previous week is stop Rafe Bowman who scored two touchdowns and ran for 192 yards.  Apple Valley has a dual threat quarterback in junior Jackson Thornburgh.  In the season opener he passed for 1172 yards and ran for 84 yards and two touchdowns.  

The key to the game for Apple Valley is for Thornburgh to have another big game and for the defense to shut down Helfmann.  

There's good news in Thursday's weather picture.  It will be warmer than Wednesday with the high temperature around 80 degrees.  Game time is 7 PM.  

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