Crusaders march over Irish squad

On a beautiful night for a home football opener, it was anything but that for the Irish as they started 2008 play against a huge Mayer Lutheran squad and were marched over like prairie dogs at a cattle stampede on the prairie.

The first quarter went well, defensively, as the Irish held the Crusaders in check. But they could not get their offenses going, ending the first quarter tied with zeroes on the board. The Irish took advantage of two Crusader fumbles and even though they were outmanned by an average of over 50 pounds per man, they hit aggressively and kept the Crusaders out of scoring territory.

The second quarter was a different story as the Crusaders started hanging onto the football better and put their size to better use, wearing down the Irish defense and put together two scoring drives; the second capitalizing on an Irish fumble in Mayer territory. The Irish, however, did not give up and just before the half, scored on a five-yard pass from Cameron Knudsen to Rob Hannon that was set up by a Brent Puncochar interception return of 42 yards to the Crusaders’ five-yard line. Knudsen converted the extra-point kick and the Irish went into half trailing only 15-7 to one of the Section 4AA favorites.

“We came out revved up and held our own for the first quarter defensively, but our offense could not get anything going as their huge line of linebackers just kept putting the clamps on us,” said Head Coach Tim Knudsen. “With nine guys playing both ways and with 10 guys out for the first game, we didn’t have much depth or bench strength to help out when guys were getting tired, but the kids didn’t give up and kept fighting to keep us in the game.”

More information appears in this week’s issue of the Messenger.

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