A couple Central Minnesota Conference football previews

First off, a little information on the Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted Lakers football team, who travels to Belgrade this Friday night for the Central Minnesota Conference opener between the Lakers and Jaguars. The Lakers won their season opener last Thursday night in a thriller against Norwood-Young America, by a 22-16 final score. The game was held at the Lakers' second-year football stadium, at the one-year old HL-W-W senior high school sports complex south of Howard Lake.

After trailing 8-6 at halftime, the Lakers pulled in front 14-8...then trailed 16-14 with a little over 3:00 remaining in the game.

From Aaron Schultz's sports blog, "HL-W-W then got a big pass completion from senior quarterback Jace Whitcomb to Luke Swedberg on their next drive, which set up Adam Klinkner’s two-yard touchdown run with about a minute left to play in the game.

That lead would hold up, giving HL-W-W a 1-0 record on the season."

Aaron Schultz is the reporter for the Herald Journal in Howard Lake, covering Lakers athletics. His sports blog can be found at this link: http://www.hjblogs.com/category/sports

And on to CMC football previews for Rockford and Maple Lake...

Rockford Rockets preview - 2008 record: 2-5 CMC, 2-7 overall. Against the Jaguars in Belgrade last year, the Rockets lost 31-13.

The Class AAA Rockets are led by first-year head coach Dan Houghton, who has eight years experience coaching prep football, five as assistant at Rockford with four of them as Defensive Coordinator.

Graduation hit Rockford hard, as they have three starters back on offense and four on defense.

Offensive returners: Ryan Diederich (QB), Mike Moore (running back), Travis Lehmberg (offensive line). Defensive returners: Bryan Mock (defensive end), Zach Swanson (defensive tackle), Mike Moore (linebacker), and Nick Schaub (linebacker).

On his team's chances in 2009, Houghton stated, "We should have some play makers this year and a defensive hitting mentality. Areas of concern are inexperience and lack of depth on the team, as we played a lot of seniors last fall. Our outlook for the season is to be competitive in all games and looking to improve in every game, and to be playing well going into the playoffs."

In their season opener against Jordan, the Rockets fell 41-7.

Maple Lake Irish preview - 2008 record: 5-5 overall, 4-3 CMC, 4-4 regular season, 1-1 playoff record. Against the Jaguars last year, the Irish lost in Belgrade 28-7.

The Irish are led by sixth-year head coach Tim Knudsen, who also leads the powerful Irish fastpitch team in the spring.

Graduation hit Maple Lake about as hard as it did Rockford, as the Irish will start only two seniors on offense and three on defense. Luke Fobbe and Pete Nordlie are seniors leading the offense, while Pete Nordlie, Mike Mooney, and Jake Serfas are the seniors leading the defense.

The Irish return six offensive starters, including quarterback Cameron Knudsen (junior), who threw 13 touchdowns and rushed for 408 yards and eight touchdowns in 2008. Running back Brian Redemske (sophomore) rushed for 116 yards and one touchdown. Jordan Goelz (junior) rushed for 132 yards.

Defensive returners for Maple Lake include: Senior linebacker Pete Nordlie (63 tackles, 1 INT) - Senior defensive end Mike Mooney (29 tackles, 3.5 sacks) - Junior linebacker Alex Couette (27 tackles).

About his team's chances in 2009, head coach Knudsen stated, "Our team goal for this year is to compete and win the CMC for the first time in school history. It won't be easy." Note: the CMC is loaded with strong teams from Eden Valley-Watkins and Pierz, a theme running throughout this decade - 2003 was the last year that neither the Eagles or Pioneers won the CMC. That year, Holdingford was CMC champions.

In Maple Lake's 2009 season opener, the Irish lost 11-7 to a tough-as-nails Mayer Lutheran squad. In 2008, the Crusaders finished 6-5, losing in the Section 4AA championship game 22-12 to Norwood-Young America. Mayer Lutheran competes in a loaded Minnesota River Conference in which six of the eight teams were ranked in the state polls in Class AA and AAA in 2008.

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