“It was a tale of two halves,” football coach Tim Knudsen said of the Irish’s 34-21 road win over Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted. “In the first half, we didn’t play well and, in the second half, we played very well.”
Knudsen’s squad started the game with a mere nine offensive plays in the first quarter, with no points on the board, while also giving up a touchdown.
“The second quarter was not very good either,” Knudsen said of the period in which HLWW added two more touchdowns to the score.
His team did get on the board when Nic Paumen picked off HLWW’s quarterback and returned it for a 70-yard touchdown.
“That interception return run, we needed that,” Knudsen said. “It was a spark late in the second quarter. But, we got the ball back with 43 seconds left and, the very first play, we put it on the ground and they scored a touchdown six plays later. That stung us a little bit.”
After a successful two-point conversion, the Lakers went into the locker room up 21-7 and the Irish knew something would have to change if they were to get back into the game.
“We regrouped; we didn’t panic,” Knudsen said. “I think it was panic city with the young players in the first half. … We had to make adjustments, which we did.”
Those adjustments came on both sides of the ball.
More information appears in this week's Messenger.
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