The wait is over for football fans as the St. Louis Park Orioles begin a new era Friday night under first year head coach Jason Foster with a tough road test against last year's Class AAAAA champion the Chaska Hawks.
Foster takes over for Ben Wolfe, who stepped down last season following a 4-5 2019 campaign.
Not only will there be a new coach on the sidelines, there will also be a new quarterback for the Orioles since three sport athlete Aaron Ellingson graduated. The new signal caller will be junior Will Dvorak, who backed up Ellingson last season. There's a possibility of frequent scoring drives concluding with Dvorak to Dvorak since Will's brother McCabe, a senior is one of several Oriole receivers.
In the backfield, senior Austin Amelse and juniors Zeke Oppegaard and Darryl Kemp have opportunities to run the ball.
Looking at the St. Louis Park defense, seniors Michael Boxley-Harmon and Carlos Acevedo, who is listed at 360 lbs. bring senior leadership to a young defensive corps.
The Orioles will have to get a good start against a Chaska team that took home the Class AAAAA championship trophy last season with a win over the St. Thomas Academy Cadets. It was the first state title for the Carver County school. Though there's no roster listed online for Chaska, HSGN consulted last season's roster from the state tournament program and found out that quarterback Grif Wurtz graduated and the big question is who will replace him? Last season, Wurtz had three backups. They were Brayden Sanders, Matthew Paul and Brendan Suhr. Which one will start for head coach Bryan Dahl?
On offense, the Hawks return a key component from last season's state title team, wide receiver Nic Snuggerud. A lot of players who were sophomores last year are now juniors and on the offensive line could be a junior in Cole Zweifel at 6'4" and 310 lbs. Defense was a key Chaska's title run in 2019 and they have a returning linebacker in Spencer Goetz.
It will be a warm weather picture for Friday's season opener. Due to COVID 19 restrictions, only 125 fans per team will be allowed to enter. If you do plan to go, please wear a mask and observe social distancing. Can the Jason Foster Era begin for St. Louis Park on a high note?
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