HS Game Preview (MB): Grant Park Pirates welcome the Sturgeon Heights Huskies

This Friday night the Grant Park Pirates will welcome the Sturgeon Heights Huskies in a battle of two unbeaten teams. The Pirates are coming off of a 16-12 victory over Sisler, while the Huskies defeated the Dakota Lancers 39-16.

In the 16-12 win over the Sisler Spartans, Grant Park’s Doug Kovacs thought his team did a lot of good things. “It was the physicality and discipline that allowed us to stay in the game and win late,” mentioned Kovacs.

Adam Fishkin, Ben Arnovitch and Valentine Lazo were able to control the line of scrimmage and Tyson Spence had 5 tackles and a sack. Will Hunh was the Pirates leading tackler with 7 tackles and continually disrupted Sisler’s offence. Geno Bruning-Haid had another interception to put him in the tops of the league, and Ronan Sheikh had 3 tackles and a rarity with an interception and a sack.

 

On offense, Grant Park’s junior quarterback Jared Boone, kept the Pirates in the game and overcame some early miscues to throw the game winning 53 yard touchdown to senior tail back Marcel Dufault with 62 seconds left. Coach Kovacs added, “Jared continues to grow in confidence and ability. He is only going to get better.”

“I would say we moved the ball rather efficiently between the 20’s and out gained Sisler but our Red zone offense needs to improve.”

This week of practice continues to progress as the team prepares for Sturgeon. “The weather has been extremely nice and the attitudes of the players continues to be tremendous,” said Kovacs.

A group of players that hasn’t received enough recognition on the Pirates is the entire linebacking corps. Nick Roosewinkel, Blade Thickfoot, Roey Efron, Will Hunh, Brent Broughton and Brandon O’Connor have been relentless in their pursuit of ball carriers and tenacious blitzers. This group also continues to be a disruptive force creating turnovers and dropping ball carriers for losses. Position coach, Steve Silver, has turned his squad into a “wrecking crew”.

In order for Grant Park to open up the season 3-0, they are going to have to contain the WHSFL’s leading rusher in Kaeden Corrie. Kovacs said of Corrie, “He has run through his last two opponents like　water through a Tin Horn.” Sturgeon also has offensive weapons in Riley Pierce and Kyle Janzen. The Pirates will have to contain Riley and limit Kyles effectiveness as well. “Sturgeon likes the spread power run game and we will have to be gap disciplined in order to disrupt their attack and limit Corrie’s rushing yards,” concluded Kovacs.

During last week’s win over the Dakota Lancers, Kaeden Corrie had a huge game for the Huskies rushing for 207 yards. Coach Eric Vincent said, “Simons Winsnes is getting better every game at QB and Stephen Hart was the heart of the team this game playing LB, DL, OL, and filling it at tailback and rushing for 40 yards on 4 carries.”

“Kaeden is obviously a very talented running back and gives us a spark on defense when he is,” mentioned coach. “He is an emotional leader who leads by example.” However, the true strength of the Sturgeon Heights Huskies is that the team buys in to their next man up attitude. Vincent repeated, “Kaeden knows he has capable players around him and everyone contributes.” Simon Winsnes, Stephen Hart and Tre Hubbard added 110 rushing yards to last week’s total. On defense, the Huskies had to move some guys around and they stepped up big in the second half.

Vincent’s team was slow out of the gate last week to start the game and will be definitely working on coming out with more speed and intensity in the first half. Sturgeon has many players that play two ways and the concern is always there about how much gas the guys will have left in the fourth. Coach added, “Penalties set us back once again last game and we will be focusing on discipline and fundamentals all week in practice.”

Sturgeon’s plan to start the season 3-0 will be to cut down on penalties and to play a full four quarters of football. “Grant Park has proved they can run the ball effectively and their defense plays very tough against the run,” said Vincent.

 

 

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