Photo by Sowden
This past weekend was perhaps some of the most spectacular weather in all of 2009 here locally in the state of Minnesota. For those of you who lamented a summer in which temperatures were unpredictable, your reward was 3 consecutive days of autumn bliss and excess.
Minnesotans this weekend selected from traditional and timely activities such as bagging fallen leaves beaten down earlier in the month by wind and rain, northerly treks to family hunting shacks for the stalking of white tail deer and of course high school and college football.
On Friday evening here in the western suburbs the best high school football team in the state, The Eden Prairie HS Eagles, manhandled and dominated their way thumping Minnetonka 38 – 7 in weather conditions that normally only appear on fall Saturdays in Collegeville. A packed crowd with more rug rats milling about than what you’d find in a certain west suburban household added to the bountiful harvest that was in full gear on the green synthetic field.
With rumors of EP head coach Mike Grant heading to Collegeville next fall here’s one Johnnie fan who hopes he packs his trailer and saves room to bring along a few of his football playing graduates.
There are Eagle players so dominating from Friday’s game that with the arrival of the Grant household in Collegeville next fall including ’83 CSB grad Colleen Remitz – Grant, the cross-town and suddenly resurgent UST Tommies would sniff no better than second place the next 4 years. Perhaps coach Gagliardi could also make room for Colleen’s son and seldom used Gopher backup linebacker Ryan Grant.
And with Saturday morning temperatures perhaps too warm for a thoroughly enjoyable deer hunt, the other half of Minnesota moved over to TCF Bank Stadium in Minneapolis to continue bathing and lavishing themselves in stunning southern California like weather.
Stunning too was the Division I University of Minnesota Golden Gopher performance who were equally amazed with the glorious morning as they stood by amidst spectacular surroundings watching The Big Ten’s Fighting Illini rake them for a 28 – 7 halftime lead and early afternoon victory.
Traveling west from the U of M on Washington Avenue on this splendid day the elite of Minnesota’s small college football fraternity found themselves in the most undesirable environment of any indigenous football fan – indoors.
Johnnie fans accustomed to the spiritual surroundings and mystical Collegeville grounds were instead covered in Teflon and seated among blue plastic seats in distances so far from Coach John Gagliardi it was difficult to tell how steamed he was at freshman quarterback John Ries for giving up 7 points on a 93 yard pass interception.
Fortunately for SJU, defense will advance them in the upcoming DIII playoffs and on Saturday linebackers, tackles and corners limited the top rated MIAC passing attack to a mere 100 yards. No yards rushing and no fun for anyone as both the Auggie and Johnnie fans were wishing they were somewhere else on Saturday.
Adding at least some entertainment to Saturday’s victory was Star Tribune columnist Patrick Reusse leaping to the Tommie bandwagon and inaccurately announcing in his Sunday morning column the possibility of a first round match up with the third ranked(regionally) Johnnies.
The Johnnies, actually ranked #1 regionally, will enter the final game of the season this coming Saturday with a perfect record, their 31st conference championship secured and a likely shot at a number one seed in the DIII playoffs.
We’ll see if the UST Tommies can hang on long enough to make their way back to St. John’s for a more likely third round rematch and playing conditions much different than the sun bath most college football fans enjoyed on Saturday.
In predictalbe fashion..... Johnnie Defense
