Matthew Plant

Senior Nate Benishek helps bring down an opposing player Oct. 13. Park ended up losing this year’s homecoming game 6-20 to Cretin Derham-Hall.

Park’s football team suited up and took to the field to play this year’s homecoming game. Despite the rain, the student section was full and the team’s spirits were up. However, the night ended with a 6-20 loss for Park.

Senior Nate Benishek said even though it was a disappointing loss, he thought the team gave it their all, and was happy the team was able to get a touchdown in the first half. 

“The defense played pretty well and the offense gave it their best effort, unfortunately we still lost,” Benishek said.

Senior captain Tony Kruse said he thought the team had been working hard during practice on the defense and offense, but could still improve on a few things.

“We played hard, but defensively we need to tackle better to prevent them from getting more yards,” Kruse said. “Defense is working on tackling the most, and once we hit them, we need to be stopping them right where they are.”

Varsity coach Alex Polk said the rain had an impact on the game. He said the spirits were really high and that really helps, but the rain makes things different and the team must adapt to the changing conditions.

“I know there is definitely less throwing than we would normally have, it’s going to come into play on days like this,” Polk said. “We had a couple fumbles go our way and maybe that doesn’t happen without the rain, but you can’t really do anything about the weather. It’s something you can’t control, so we just have to play with it.” 

The season record currently sits at 1-6 and there is a surplus of injuries. Benishek said the team is missing key players and the loss is taking a toll.

“We played really well, it’s just unfortunate that we have a lot of injuries right now so we can’t do as good as we normally can,” Benishek said.

Polk said the dynamic of the team, especially the sidelines, made the team play from a more genuine place. 

“We had better energy in this game,” Polk said. “The energy was better on the sideline, part of that is going to be homecoming and we were playing better.”

According to Kruse, the student section definitely contributed to the energy. He said the large amount of support increases the ambitions of the team.

“The crowd definitely helps us out there, it was a crowded night and all the activities definitely helped us,” Kruse said.

Boys football has one last game of the season against Chanhassen at 7 p.m. Oct. 18 at St. Louis Park High School.