Tartan Gets Defensive in 24-0 Win Over Henry Sibley

Senior Stacy Kalkwarf got the Titans off to an electrifying start with a 95-yard kickoff return to start the game and the Titans blanked the host Henry Sibley Warriors 24-0 Thursday evening.

Tartan recorded its first shutout of the season with the shutout of the Warriors in a Classic Suburban Conference game.

The Titans improved to 3-3 on the season and 2-3 in league games.

Henry Sibley fell to 1-5 overall and 1-5 in conference games.

“I told them this is something to build on,” said Tartan head coach Tim Murtha. “We’re still not playing with the level of consistency I think we can play with, but we took a big step forward from the kind of play that we showed the last two weeks. And that’s all we can do, just keep getting better and keep building as we head to the playoffs.”

Tartan had dropped decisions to No. 2 St. Thomas Academy (48-7) and Hill-Murray (28-7) in its previous two games.

Hilam Bilal added a 5-yard run for Tartan in the second quarter and Joe Tjovold kicked a 16-yard field goal as the Titans took a 17-0 lead into the half.

Tartan’s disruptive defense never let the Warriors get into a rhythm Thursday. They concentrated on stopping Henry Sibley’s running game and the Warriors couldn’t get the passing game going with any consistency.

“Our defense has always been the hallmark of Tartan football,” noted Murtha. “We always are tough-nosed. We’ll stop the run. We have an identity on defense where we’re going to stop the run. We’re going to force you deep into your playbook and we’re going to be physical. Our offense and special teams put us in situation tonight where our defense can take that next step toward domination.”

It was the fourth time in six games this season that the Warriors have failed to score.

“We got hit and we didn’t hit back,” said Henry Sibley coach Tom Orth. “That’s unexcuseable."

“We’ve got to play this game with passion,” Orth added. “You have to fly around. We did not tonight and as a result … mental toughness was not on our side tonight. We’ve got to look inside and figure out what we need to do differently in practice. If we play together and play the right way we can be good.”

Henry Sibley plays at North St. Paul Friday, Oct. 14, starting at 7 p.m.

Tartan hosts Richfield Friday, Oct. 14, kicking off at 7 p.m.

Tartan            14        3          0          7          --          24

Sibley              0          0          0          0          --          0

Tartan -- Kalkwarf 95 kickoff return (Tjosvold kick)

Tartan -- Bilal 5 run (Tjosvold kick)

Tartan – 16 FG Tjosvold

Tartan -- Grohs 3 pass from VonSchmidt-Pauli (Tjosvold kick)