Tough Week of Football for Stillwater, Vikings Fans

If you are a football fan and live in Stillwater, this was not a good weekend.

First, the Ponies took one on the chin from one of the best teams in the state and the weekend concluded with the Vikings giving up a 17-point lead, losing to Tampa Bay 24-20 and are now 0-2 on the season.

If there was any sunshine on the football weekend, it had to be the Gophers taking down Miami (Ohio) on Saturday.

This comes a week after a truly disturbing week for the program.

Not only did the Gophers lose last week, but we all saw a horrifying scene when head coach Jerry Kill had a seizure on the field.

Good for the Gophers for being able to bounce back and play well when their head coach was not on campus for most of the week.

Kill did a great job acknowledging the fact that his assistants deserved a lot of credit for the win.

On Friday, the Ponies were going for a third consecutive win over Cretin-Derham Hall, but were knocked around pretty good, 34-7.

Stillwater was in the game after the half, but the Raiders scored 21 points in the third to take a commanding 34-0 lead heading into the fourth.

On top of that, quarterback Nate Ricci went down with an apparent left leg injury.

Head coach Beau LaBore stressed the amount of hits Ricci has taken last week against White Bear Lake and Cretin coach Mike Scanlan said Friday night that he does not like seeing quarterbacks run on a frequent basis, stating that they open themselves up for injury.

Scanlan also said Ricci is the best player the Raiders have played this season and it’s too bad he got hurt.

If Ricci is lost for a significant amount of time, it would greatly hinder the Ponies offense.

When Ricci has applicable time, he has proven he can throw or if a receiver is not open, can use his legs and vision from his wide receiver days to get big yardage.

On Friday, Cretin’s defense proved it is as good as the stats sheets show.

Ricci was on his back constantly and eventually had to resort to calling his own number, often spreading receivers out wide to open the middle for a handful of quarterback draws.

Time will tell of the significance of Ricci’s injury. Stillwater Patch will have that in a preview of the Ponies-Forest Lake Rangers game later this week.

Remember, Ponies starting running back Nick Anderson has a deep bruise in his leg and will more than likely have that for the whole season.

Rest is the only cure for that and there are no byes in high school football.

On Sunday, another monumental second half collapse for the Vikings.

Minnesota has now been outscored 41-3 in the second half this season, which is right after two solid first halves.

The Vikings are going to have to start closing out games a lot better or else their passionate fan base will become even more impatient and perhaps, more reluctant to be happy about paying more in taxes for a new stadium.

Also, seems like some fans are falling quickly off the Donovan McNabb bandwagon.

He played well in the first half, leading Minnesota to a 17-0 lead at halftime.

Once again, the final 30 minutes were not good for him.

It didn’t help that the Vikings defense was not nearly as competent in the second half and for the second week in a row, had costly penalties on defense on the final drive.

Aforementioned, Stillwater will take to the road against Forest Lake, a team many coaches said would be a surprise in the Suburban East Conference.

The Gophers will host North Dakota State on Saturday, which will have plenty of fans making their way down Highway 94.

To conclude, the Vikings will have their hands full with the Detroit Lions. Yes, the Detroit Lions.

Matt Stafford appears to be on the cusp of having a great season and earning the contract he signed as the top overall pick in the 2009 NFL Draft.