What to watch out for Vikings vs. Warriors

5. After last weekend blowout here in Winona where the Warriors won 70-7.  Warriors play on the road for the last time this season in the regular season.  There isn’t much history between these two teams, 3 games in the last 40 years.   But the Warriors are well rested with playing only about the first half of last weekend’s game playing a team that played a tough game vs. Wayne State.

4. The passing game for the Vikings will need to have a huge day.  With Sam Holsen coming off of a record breaking week in receiving yards and Luke Butler being 3^rd in the NSIC in passing efficiency it will be interesting to see how the Warrior secondary counters with a defensive package for them

3. What ever you can do we can do to, Greg Preston having a great season as well and has the Warriors with the 4^th best passing offence in the NSIC, which isn’t what the Warriors are known for.  But the Warriors have more depth in the running game with Simmons and Dewberry holding their own this season.

2. The kicking game, who is going to kicking for the Warriors today?

1. It seems like I say this every week but the Warriors need a 100 yard rushing game from Rayon Simmons.  Having a successful passing game is great but the Warriors do have an outstanding running game, which they have moved away from time to time during games.

The Starting 5 Things to Watch Out For Today Warriors (5-3) vs. Golden Eagles (0-7)

5.  Warriors secondary struggled mightily last week to rebound today Crookston doesn’t have a strong offense. So if there are any bombs down the field, look for the secondary to be able to pick the ball

4. Great field position for the Warriors from kickoffs and punts.  The Golden Eagles let teams on average have 26 yards on a return.

3. Monster days for the Warriors offence the Golden Eagles aren’t great at stopping the run or passing.  Warriors are good on both aspects of the offence.  Guys like Rayon Simmons could have over 100 yards rushing and Greg Preston has similar numbers as he has the rest of the season

2. D-Line not giving up any yards on the ground, on average the Golden Eagles have 86 yards per game compared to giving up 2 times that.  Although the Golden Eagles do have Keith McBride who does have 80 yards a game, shut him down the running game for the Golden Eagles is shut down.

1. Winning all aspects of the game, turnover, time of with the ball, defense, offence.  Leave here today playing with a major chip off of your shoulder heading into Auggie next week and back at home two weeks from now.  If the Warriors don’t dominate today there might be some doubt playing in the next two weeks of the season with upper tier teams in the NSIC.

Key 5 Things to Watch Out For – Warriors vs. Wayne State Wildcats

5.  The Warriors have led the all-time series with the Wildcats 11-2 prior to last year the Warriors beat the Wildcats 11 times in the a row.

4. Stopping Silas Fluellen who is the best quarter back in the history of the Wayne State Football program.  Fluellen also leads the NSIC and is 5^th in D2 in total offense at 326.6 yards per game.

3. Run. Run. Run. The Clock.  Warriors must and I mean must eat up as much game clock as possible.  Keep the Wildcat offence off the field.

2.  Covering Logan Masters for the Wildcats be leads nearly receiving category for Wayne State as well and leads the NSIC in receptions per game.  Warriors should know he is going to be a target.  Cover him.

1. Winning the turnover battle, Wayne State has given the ball up more than they have taken it away.  Take advantage of those turnovers and get extra points up on the board.

Five things to watch for – Warriors vs. Peacocks

5. Not turning the ball over.  Wayne State had 8 turnovers last week and Upper Iowa took advantage of them by staying in the game until the very end.

4. The weather, it is coolest game both teams have played all year and with the wind it might be a factor where if either team is on the 25 yard line don’t be surprised to see them go for it on 4^th down.

3. The defense for the Warriors has to make major stops and not let Upper Iowa have life late in the game like what you saw with Southwest Minnesota State.

2.  Warriors getting that running game going with a full head of steam today with stronger winds look for the Warriors to maybe keep things on the ground.

1. Not to look past Upper Iowa stay focused and play today’s and let it all ride out offensively and defensively.

Warriors Postgame Report

Homecoming 2009

Mark this as another year where the weather was cool and rainy on homecoming.  This was my second homecoming game in the booth for the Warriors this year was a bit different, last year I was doing the play by play for the game for the student radio station KQAL.  For this year still the same station but our station is now the official voice for all athletics and I am filling in the roll as the Warrior Game Day host and producer for the football season.  I am not going to lie there was better turnout to the game than I expected with the student section filled up.  The temp at kickoff was 48 degrees and we were competing with the Badgers-Gophers game.

As expected this was a high scoring game and the Warriors were able to put up a quick touchdown in the first minutes of the game.  Moving ahead in the game the Warriors had chances to close the door on this game but to the Mustangs credit they kept on moving the ball and scoring when it mattered the most.  But two missed extra points by Lance Schuveiller hindered the Mustangs on their last drive where they were down by 8.  Had they made those points that last drive would have been different where at touchdown could win the game rather than score a touchdown and hope for the two point conversion and go to overtime.  Warriors would win on homecoming 41-33.  Greg Preston had 198 yards in the air with 3 touchdowns, no interceptions which was key for the Warriors.  The rushing game was a bit different where was more plays having the QB option for Preston who prior to this game had only 75 yards in 25 attempts.  In this game Preston had 9 attempts and 54 yards.  This took away for some yardage from Rayon Simmons and Curtis Dewberry but Simmons got a touchdown from a 60 yard pass from Preston and Dewberry nearly ran back a kickoff but game the coaches a scare after the tackle were he was on the ground holding his knee delaying the game for a few minutes forcing Coach Tom Sawyer to walk over to see how he was doing.  By the time Coach Sawyer made his way over Dewberry was up and ran off to the sideline leaving the question on how the knee was really doing.  It will be interesting to see what happens later in the week if Dewberry will get much practice time he did return to the game though.  Overall this was a good game and the Warriors will move onto Upper Iowa a team that game Wayne State a scare so Warriors can not look past this upcoming game.

For more here are this Sounds of the Game (Warriors vs. Mustangs)

Five things to Watch today Warriors vs. Mustangs

These are my 5 things to look out for today.  I’ll be discussing it during Warrior Game Day at 12:00 on 89.5 KQAL

5. Can the Mustangs win at Winona? They will be looking to snap an eight-game losing streak at Winona State and earn the program’s first win in Winona since Nov. 7, 1992.

4.  The special teams for both teams, Warriors will roll up with the red-shirt freshman Billy Emanuel.  While the Mustangs a have one of top punt returners in the NSIC in Blake Wilson averaging 17 yards a return.

3.  The Mustang offense enters the game fifth ranked in the nation in scoring at 44.2 points for game.  Along with that they are sixth in passing offense with 332.8 yards per game.

2. The Mustangs have a good offense but a defense the Warriors can score off of.  The Mustangs are 10^th in the NSIC in Rushing defense, 12^th and the pass defense, and total defense is 11^th were they have given up 429 yards per game.  Look for Greg Preston to able to put up some yards along with the rushing game for the Warriors, which was quiet last week to wake up today with Rayon Simmons and Curtis Dewberry.

1.  It is the 2009 homecoming game for the Warriors plenty of fans will be in the stands, players and coaches have extra motivation to bring home a win.  This is a must win game for both teams neither can afford to lose a third game in the season.  Can the Warriors also being a new winning streak here at Maxwell Field.

Warrior Pre-Game is at 12:30 with Lukas and Steve, and kickoff is at 1 PM listen on 89.5 in the Winona Area or kqal.org if your out of the area.

How about that one Joe?

Twins on the verge of missing the playoffs

There is news that came out today of Minnesota Twins catcher Joe Mauer tipping signs to Jason Kubel during Tuesdays night game.  This was game number two in the Tigers – Twins doubleheader, Twins won game number one and was one game back at the time.  The Twins obviously did not want to admit to stealing signs and this isn’t the only time in baseball teams have bickered about the other cheating.  To myself there were larger cheaters in the sport of baseball but I’m not going to go down that path.  Pitchers have been known to tip their pitches so what is the big deal that Joe Mauer did or did not tip pitches to Kubel.

“I’ve hit behind Joe for five years and I’ve never gotten a sign from him yet. I’m still waiting.” Justin Morneau

Cheating happens in sports all the time.  I know for a fact it has happened during my time with the Southern Illinois Miners where they stole the signs from the other team.  Yes, it is a competitive advantage to know what is going next.  But it is something that can go either way in a sport, the Twins needed to win the game and although they lost they tried everything to get some runs.  Along with that it is way too easy for a player at second base to see what the next pitch could be.  What the Tigers should have done was change the signs or find a different way to relay signs over.  It is all part of the game of baseball…Get over it and play the next game, there are only 162 in a season.