RECAP: Stillwater Beats Hastings 28-7 on Senior Night

Wednesday night was Senior Night for the Stillwater football team.

It marked the end of the regular season and one of the last times seniors will play at Pony Stadium.

For those upperclassmen, they did not disappoint as the Ponies trampled Hastings 28-7 to improve their record to 6-2.

“It was a nice way for our seniors to end the regular season,” Ponies coach Beau LaBore said. “When you play for a big school, a lot of times you don’t see significant action until your senior season, so a lot of these guys have been waiting nine years for this.”

“All of us (seniors) were excited about this game,” Ponies wide receiver and safety Charlie Register said. “This game was important to us and I think we executed. We got a big lead late in the game and got all of our seniors in so that is just a really good feeling.”

Register Shines

Register was one of the reasons why Stillwater was able to get every senior available into the game.

In the second quarter, quarterback Nate Ricci found Register near the back of the end zone for a 19-yard touchdown to give Stillwater a 14-7 lead.

Register caught the ball and was able to hang on as he was drilled immediately after the ball got to him.

Midway through the third, Ricci rolled to his right and hit Register again from 14-yards out to give the Ponies a 21-7 lead.

Again, Register had to make the grab in traffic, this time between two Raiders defenders, both gave him a jolt but the senior hung on for the score.

It was the fourth touchdown reception Register recorded this season and the seventh touchdown pass through the air Ricci has thrown.

“We have had a nice connection all season,” Register said. “We’ve been playing together for a couple of seasons now and I think it is paying off.”

Register also picked off a pass in Hastings territory, raced down the sidelines and dove for the end zone.

It was not signaled a touchdown, but it would have been negated because of a block in the back penalty during the return.

After the play, Register said one referee said it would have been a touchdown if there was no penalty called and another one was unsure.

Regardless, Register really wanted that third touchdown.

“I was going hard for that one,” he said. “I wanted it so bad, especially tonight. It didn’t happen, but we won the game against a pretty good football team.”

A Good Win

Coming in, despite its 2-5 record, Hastings has been a team that has been hard to put away, even by the SEC’s elite squads in Cretin-Derham Hall and Mounds View, both in the state’s top 10 rankings.

Hastings has only been outscored 107-102 in the previous seven games combined.

“They are a very good team, better than their 2-5 record coming in,” senior Zach Krenz said. “You saw how they came out and played, so for us to beat them by the final score it ended up being says a lot more than what people might think.”

“This was not a 2-6 team,” LaBore added. “Much better than that. Hastings is a tough football team and this is a win we are proud of. Teams have not been able to pull away from them like we did tonight.”

After taking a 14-7 lead into halftime, Stillwater had troubles getting going out of the gate and Hastings had three huge opportunities to tie the game.

Aaron Romportl, who started the game at quarterback, as Stillwater flip-flopped between him and Ricci under center, threw an interception and Hastings was in business at the Ponies 39.

Big 'D'

However, the Ponies held on strong and forced Hastings to punt the ball away, which it downed inside Stillwater’s 5.

Stillwater was forced to punt to the Raiders and Tate Sykes brought a nice return all the way down to the Ponies 19.

On third down, a gang of Ponies sacked Hastings quarterback Aaron Stoneberg for a big loss and the Raiders had to try for a fourth-and-15, but Stoneberg’s pass floated out of bounds and Stillwater forced a turnover on downs.

After Ricci made three nice runs while at running back, Romportl went to the air and was picked off for the second time, throwing into to triple coverage.

Eric McCarthy made the most of his return, bringing it down to the Ponies 20, but a penalty brought it all the way back to Stillwater’s 44.

Yet again, Stillwater’s defense came through as Sam Hodnefield read a screen pass perfectly and was able to intercept the pass at the 45-yard line.

“Defense was great tonight,” Krenz said. “We were a little embarrassed how we ended the game against Roseville, so we wanted to come out and play hard. It made a big difference in the game to stop them when they were in our zone.”

“Minus one big play, we played really well on defense,” LaBore said. “It was a great effort on that side of the ball.”

Thursday, Stillwater will know who it will play in the first round of sections. Indication point out it will be the No. 3 seed behind Mounds View and Totino-Grace, meaning more than likely, Tartan will garner the sixth-seed and visit the Ponies next Tuesday.

For Krenz, right now it doesn’t matter who the Ponies play, but there is a target for a familiar foe.

“We want another shot at Mounds View,” he said. “But that is a little further down the road.”