On Sept. 13 at Apple Valley’s home stadium, Park played their third game of the season and won their first game overall. This win puts the Orioles at a 1-2 season pre-homecoming game.
After a hard fought game that led to Park’s first win of the season, head coach Jason Foster said the group of upperclassmen showed up and did their part on the offensive line.
“We relied on our big senior led o-line with a sophomore center who did an excellent job,” Foster said.
Senior Hayden Kasica said the team played well. He said they need to keep it up to contribute to Park winning in the future.
“The game went great on both sides of the ball,” Kasica said. “We need to keep playing like we did today every week to keep the winning streak going.”
According to Foster, the way the team ran the ball was their biggest strength of the game. He said his son, AJ Foster, who recently came off of an injury played a big role.
“One strength was running the ball. My son came back from an injury and had a great game with two touchdowns,” Foster said. “It was good for him to get back and it was good for us overall.”
Junior Ted Mccarren said the team prepared and practiced the whole week in an attempt to contribute to the win.
“For us, it is just staying mentally locked in but also just pursuing and running hard,” Mccaren said. “Practicing hard enough and making practice harder than the games makes the game feel easy.”
Foster said there were few mistakes in the game and that the team will grow from the mistakes.
“One weakness is just the mistakes that we made,” Foster said. “Some of the fumbles or non-slot plays, from the quarterback. But that’s to be expected of the sophomore quarterback, so we’ll grow with them. We’re not holding him accountable to anything.”
To stay successful, Kasica said the team needs to push each other during practice for the rest of the season.
“We need to stay focused and practice with high intensity and practice like it was a game,” Kasica said.
Mccarren said his personal goal for the season is to make more plays on defense.
“An interception would be huge for me, and maybe rock a couple more sacks,” Mccarren said.
Park’s next game is the homecoming match-up against Robbinsdale Cooper at 7 p.m. Sept. 20 at Park.
