The Orioles went head-to-head with Cretin-Derham Hall at the University of St. Thomas stadium on Oct. 10. Park boys’ football kept the score close during the first half being down 15-7, but they ended up getting blown out during the second half of the game by 23 points losing 38-7.
Defensive coordinator Rob Griffin said he blamed himself for not putting his team in a spot to achieve the win on the defensive end.
“I didn’t get a chance to see a whole lot from the offense, but myself, as the guy that runs the defense, I didn’t do a great job putting my guys in a position to be successful,” Griffin said. “They did the best they could with my bad play-calling tonight. They didn’t get beat up, and they didn’t miss a whole lot of tackles. They just weren’t in great spots, and that starts with me and my game plan.”
Junior Logan O’dea said prior to the game, Park tried to focus on physicality at practice, despite it not being shown during the game.
“One part that we’ve been focused on is physicality, and we didn’t bring that up tonight, but it’s something we look forward to in the future,” O’dea said.
Sophomore Finn Brooberg said the season has been good despite some tough losses. He said he is excited for sections.
“(The season has) gone pretty good. Outside of a couple of really tough losses, we’ve had a pretty good season,” Brooberg said “We beat a couple of close opponents. I am just excited to hopefully make a run in sections.”
Griffin said the reason Park went into this game with an equal amount of wins and losses is because of the team’s culture and leadership.
“It’s culture. Our leadership is great. Our guys who aren’t in leadership roles do a great job following and just getting on board and doing what’s asked of them,” Griffin said. “As long as we keep that formula together, we’re going to be alright.”
Brooberg said Park could have done much better in the game. He said the defense worked hard all of the game but mostly the group of Park football needed to be more confident.
“We have a lot to improve on from this game. The defense made plays when we needed to. We just need to get more confidence within our team,” Brooberg said.
O’dea said a big reason for going into the game with an even record uplifts the team in knowing they have what it takes to compete. He said they kept it close in the first half but ended up falling short at the end against Cretin-Derham Hall.
“This year, we’ve had a lot of success when we have confidence, and when we know we can compete with a team,” O’dea said. “That’s something we tried to come into the game with but we came in a little low. We were on in the first half, and then we fell off towards the end of the game.”
Griffin said football is a hard sport because you only get one chance a week to win and after losing this game, the team has to wait a while for another shot at a win. He said after coming off of two wins in a row, the team had high hopes, and after this loss, they are hoping to play well in their first round of sections.
“The tough part with football is you only get one game a week, and when you lose, it feels terrible because you have to wait so long to get another crack at it, We were feeling good because we won two in a row. This is a tough one, but we turn around and play on Wednesday. We have to bounce back.” Griffen said.
Park’s next game is against the Chanhassen Storm at 7:00 p.m. Oct. 16 at Chanhassen High School.
