Football prevails against Jefferson
Home opener win fueled by team effort, fans
Seniors Ezra Hudson and Christain Artega raise their fists during the national anthem Sept. 10. Park beat Jefferson 26-20 in overtime.
September 13, 2021
After a hard fought comeback and an overtime win against Bloomington Jefferson Sept. 10, senior quarterback Will Dvorak said the 26-20 win could be accredited to the team’s ability to play together.
“Overall it was just the team(‘s) effort. Some of the new guys, it was nice to see that they got in and could contribute to the game, but overall it was really just a team win,” Dvorak said.
In its battle against Jefferson, the team was cheered on by an animated student section. Head coach Jason Foster said the energy was vital to the team, which was down by as many as 10 points during the game.
“It was incredible. It was just an electric feeling to have the fans cheering the Orioles on, just feel great. If we can get that turnout every time we have a home game I think we could perform,” Foster said. “I think the kids feed off of that and the energy was absolutely on point. We enjoyed every minute of it.”
After a long week of practice, senior Brady Walsh said the offense was able to play strong and work together.
“Our offense was putting the ball in a good position for our kicker Nicky Kent to put points on the board, like field goals or extra points,” Walsh said. “Then our O-Line was blocking really good for Deontez (Ross) to run the ball, Will (Dvorak) was throwing good to pass to the receivers and we were catching the ball.”
Foster said he was proud of the defense and the improvements he saw from the previous game.
“We practiced all week on tackling, and the guys came out and they performed really well. They held a good Jefferson rushing attack, I think it was probably maybe under 100 yards, and we made some timely tackles in the overtime period when they got the ball first on the five yard line,” Foster said.
While proud of himself and his team for the win, Dvorak said he hopes it will keep working hard so it can keep winning.
“I think the big thing is just staying locked in and continuing to do what we need to do to continue to win games,” Dvorak said. “Knowing that this is a big win but we still have six more games left in our season and we need to continue to play well, so we can get wins in each of those games.”
Park’s next game will be at 7 p.m. Sept. 17 at Henry Sibley High School Stadium against Two Rivers.
