NYM Football: Eagles fall at No. 1 K-M-S

By John George

sports@eot.com

A balanced attack kept K-M-S, the No. 1 team in Class A, undefeated with a 41-6 win over New York Mills last Friday in Murdock.

The Fighting Saints (3-0) gained 212 yards on the ground and another 197 through the air. Joel Bauman scored three consecutive touchdowns of two-or-fewer yards (all in the second quarter) and churned out 112 yards overall on 20 carries.

Kevin Steinhaus completed 8-of-9 passes for 169 yards and a nine-yard touchdown pass to Taylor Freetly, who finished with six grabs for 121 yards.

"KMS was everything that you would expect in number one ranked opponent," Mills head coach Jon Kotaska said. "When we started to have some success against the run, they started to throw the ball and were very effective."

The Eagles did get on the board for the first time this season on a 28-yard run by quarterback Mike Baune in the fourth quarter. Baune finished with 35 yards rushing on 12 attempts to lead NY?Mills. He was 6-for-16 passing for 65 yards. Jarrod Norton caught three of those passes for 28 yards.

"We did improve on many aspects that we had worked on in the week and we are starting to eliminate some of the errors that a young team makes," Kotaska said. "But we still have a long ways to go before the end of the season."

OTC?in Henning

The road doesn't get any easier for the Eagles. This week, they hit the road again, this time to Henning to face Otter Tail Central.

OTC returns Erik Smith, the conferences most valuable defensive back in 2007, and a two-time All-Conference player on both sides of the ball?(1,076 yards rushing, 66 tackles in 2007).

The Bulldogs won the Prairie North last year with a 4-0 record (9-2 overall). This year, OTC is 2-1 and coming off a 19-0 shutout loss to Browerville last week.

OTC had 148 rushing yards on 38 attempts and passed for 64 yards against Browerville, but allowed 223 yards on the ground to the Tigers.

Thursday, August 28

No. 1-A?K-M-S 41, NYM 6

K-M-S 7-28-6-0--41

NY Mills 0- 0- 0-6-- 6

First Quarter

KMS--Hagen 4 run (Rojas kick)

Second Quarter

KMS--Freetly 9 pass from Steinhaus (Rojas kick)

KMS--Bauman 2 run (Rojas kick)

KMS--Bauman 1 run (Rojas kick)

Bauman 2 run (Rojas kick)

Third Quarter

KMS--Zimmer 3 run (kick failed)

Fourth Quarter

NYM--Mike Baune 28 run (kick failed)

NYM KMS

1st Downs 5 18

Rush--yds 24-68 41-212

Pass yds 65 197

Return yds 123 30

Comp--Att-In 6-16-2 9-12-1

Fbles-lost 1-1 3-2

Pen-yds 7-31 4-20

Possession 24:29 23:31

Individual Statistics

Rushing--Baune 12-35-1; Erik Tumberg 7-11

Passing--Baune 6-16-2, 65 yds.

Receiving--Jarrod Norton 3-28; Dylan Curtis 1-16; Jordan Novak 1-16; David Ayers 1-5.

Defense--Novak 13 Tkl, 2 Fum Rec; Baune 8 Tkl; Tanner Wegscheid 4 Tkl, Int.

Prairie Conference

North Conf. All

OTC 1-0 2-1

Pillager 1-0 1-2

United North Central 0-0 0-3

Parkers Prairie 0-1 0-3

New York Mills 0-1 0-3

South Conf. All

#1-A K-M-S 1-0 3-0

#5-A Upsala/Swanville 1-0 3-0

#2-A Royalton 0-0 3-0

Browerville 0-1 2-1

Osakis 0-1 1-2

Browerville 19 Otter Tail Central 0

Royalton 47, Pillager 6

Upsala/Swanville 24, UNC 6

Osakis 33, Parkers Prairie 0