Football: Ponies pull away from Mounds View

OAK PARK HEIGHTS — Following a wild sequence with some uncharacteristic scoring plays it allowed in the opening quarter, Stillwater went back to what has been working all season.

The Ponies relied on a productive running game and stingy defense to pull away for a 33-14 East Metro Sub-District football victory over Mounds View on Friday, Sept. 20 at Stillwater Area High School.

Playing in front of a large homecoming crowd, the seventh-ranked Ponies (3-0 ME, 3-1) recorded their third straight victory. It also marked the team’s ninth victory over Mounds View (2-1, 2-2) in their last 10 meetings.

“Our coaches were harping on it all week,” said senior defensive back Ryan Silbernagel, who intercepted two passes against the Mustangs. “We knew that both of us were undefeated and this is a game that really mattered for us.”

Stillwater can secure at least a share of its fifth straight sub-district championship with a win at Forest Lake on Friday, Sept. 27. The Rangers (2-1, 2-2) lost to Mounds View 31-7 in Week 3.

The Ponies, whose only loss came against No. 1-ranked Lakeville North in the season opener, close out their league schedule by hosting White Bear Lake on Oct. 4.

“I think the start of the season was definitely a rough one for us, so I think we were able to turn it around pretty well and we’re only going up from here,” Silbernagel said.

After stopping Mounds View on its opening drive, the Ponies started quickly when Rosario-Matias raced 70 yards for a touchdown on their first offensive play to grab a 7-0 lead.

Mounds View answered immediately on the ensuing possession when receiver Godson Rufus-Okomhanru broke loose on an inside-reverse for an 80-yard touchdown run to even the score at 7-all.

“There was a lot of excitement,” Ponies coach Beau LaBore said. “And there was a lot of expectation to go up and get a stop and let this massive crowd and energy kind of maybe scare em out of the place, so to give it all right back on an 80 yard touchdown was frustrating.”

It was the only rushing attempt of the game for Rufus-Okomhanru.

“It was a little tricky, but we missed three tackles,” said LaBore said, who added limiting big plays was a primary focus coming into the game.

The big plays continued after Stillwater was stopped on its next possession when Mitchell Olson recovered a blocked punt in the end zone for a touchdown to put the Mustangs in front 14-7.

“They blocked one last week,” LaBore said. “They have the speed to put some pressure on the punt, but it was a blown assignment up front and that just can’t happen.

“The whole thing tonight was they have to go the whole field, no big plays and take care of the football. They’ve won both of their games on a pile of turnovers, and lean on them on the line of scrimmage and with their special teams. So to give up a long touchdown and to give up a punt block kind of threw our plan upside down, but it was halfway through the first quarter so the plan just needed to work for four quarters, instead of getting frustrated about half a quarter.”

The Ponies closed out the adventurous quarter with Rosario-Matias powering into the end zone from 19 yards out with just 1:39 remaining in the first. The junior racked up 120 of his 189 rushing yards in the opening quarter, but the Ponies still trailed after the extra-point attempt clanged off the upright. It was a hurried attempt after a poor snap and ended a school record run of 68 consecutive extra-point kicks for Huber since midway through the 2022 season.

Stillwater has still made 185 of 187 extra-point kicks overall dating back to 2019.

“We work really hard at plays for points, so as much as it’s been really satisfying to produce so consistently and over so many years, it is a somber moment that we have to start on our own new streak,” LaBore said.

It left the Ponies trailing 14-13, but was also part of 26 unanswered points as Stillwater took over the rest of the way.

Huber drilled a 41-yard field goal early in the second quarter and the Ponies struck again with Rosario-Matias scoring an 11-yard touchdown to build a 23-14 lead with five minutes remaining in the half.

Mounds View did not seriously threaten again, failing to cross the Stillwater 40-yard line throughout the remainder of the game.

Huber also kicked a 28-yard field goal midway through the third quarter and Joe Fredkove took a short pass from Nick Kinsey and turned it into a 13-yard touchdown reception in the fourth to provide the final margin.

With his final extra-point kick, Huber climbed within three points of 2007 graduate Joe Stormont’s school record of 122 kicking points. Huber has kicked five field goals and 11 extra points this season to increase his total to 119 career points.

Five of his seven kick-offs also went for touchbacks.

“Our guys have embraced that special teams is one-third of the game,” Labore said.

Stillwater finished with 309 total yards and held a more than 11-minute advantage in time of possession (29:43 to 18:17).

Rosario-Matias carried 30 times and finished with three touchdowns, raising his season totals to 721 rushing yards (7.1 per carry avg.) and eight touchdowns. He has already exceeded last season’s total of 707 rushing yards in 11 games.

Quarterback Nick Kinsey completed 15 of 28 passes for 140 yards.

“That’s a very fast and physical defense,” LaBore said. “They’re sturdy, they’re quick, they’re fast, and you don’t see a lot of weaknesses when you’re prepping. But we also felt like a lot of our stuff was on the table. In the second half we were trying to be smart and not taking a lot of chances so we’re handing the ball off a lot.

“In the first half we did a really good job under center and then we had the ability to get into the shotgun as well and made some nice, timely plays.”

Mounds View’s dual-threat quarterback Jacob Sampson was knocked out of the game in the first quarter and that was a significant loss for the Mustangs. He rushed three times for seven yards and completed one pass for 12 yards. Mounds View completed just one of nine passes for eight yards with two interceptions after Sampson’s departure due to an apparent injury.

“He’s fast, so it goes from being a guy that can take it the distance every time he touches the ball to a guy that is willing to run and is capable of running, but even if he gets to the second level he was probably not going to run away from you,” LaBore said. “So it’s a little bit more of just make sure that in the secondary and at the linebacker level, let’s make sure that if they get a crease, we tackle them, and make them sustain a long drive.”

Outside of the 80-yard touchdown run, Mounds View averaged just 3.1 yards per carry on its other 26 attempts in the game.

“We were kind of just focused on us and what we needed to do,” Silbernagel said. “We knew that run game was pretty strong with their quarterback and their running back, so that was kind of our main focus for them.

“We didn’t really switch much (after Sampson went out). We knew what our plan was from the start and we kind of stuck with it, no matter who was in the game.”

Stillwater also won the turnover battle with two interceptions and a fumble recovery. The Ponies were minus-5 in the turnover department after two games, but have reversed that the past two weeks.

“That’s huge,” Silbernagel said. “Coach LaBore talked a lot about turnover differential and what kind of happens from it so we knew that we had to turn it around, and we kind of stepped that up the past two games.”

The Ponies also limited Mounds View to just 180 total yards and six first downs.

Linebacker Cal Nitti led the Ponies with eight solo tackles, including one for a loss, while Khalid Afuye made five solo tackles to go along with two assisted tackles and a fumble recovery.

“We’ve played well where we have experience and we’ve leaned on that experience, so that’s comforting,” LaBore said. “We have shown improvement in a lot of places, but if we’re going to continue this in the right direction and if we’re going to do something special, we’ve got to really grow in a few spots and show some incremental improvement. We’re going to fight like crazy tomorrow morning to get started on that.”

• Stillwater is 9-1 in its last 10 games against Mounds View, though the Mustangs prevailed in 11 of 13 contests from 2006 to 2014 and still leads the all-time series 26-22.

Mounds View is the only current Metro East team with a winning record against the Ponies, who are a combined 132-62-3 against East Ridge (8-5), Forest Lake (26-7), White Bear Lake (62-41-3) and Woodbury (36-9).

• After feeling the support from a large homecoming crowd against the Mustangs, Stillwater finds itself on the other side of that when it travels to Forest Lake for its homecoming in Week 5. The Rangers outlasted White Bear Lake 28-21 in a sub-district game on Sept. 20. The Ponies defeated Forest Lake 21-17 a year ago and has prevailed in 11 of their last 12 meetings.

• Recently retired Stillwater Activities Director Ricky Michel and Activities Secretary Jacki Delahunt were honored with their families at midfield during halftime. The duo, both Stillwater graduates, contributed more than 30 combined years to the department.

Mounds View 14 0 0 0 — 14

Stillwater 13 10 3 7 — 33

St — Emilio Rosario-Matias 70 run (Landon Huber kick) 7:40.

MV — Godson Rufus-Okomhanru 80 run (kick failed) 7:20.

MV — Mitchell Olson recovers blocked punt (Cooper Fellman kick) 5:22.

St — Rosario-Matias 19 run (kick failed) 1:39.

St — FG Huber 41, 10:31.

St — Rosario-Matias 11 run (Huber kick) 5:10.

St — FG Huber 31, 6:01.

St — Joe Fredkove 13 pass from Nick Kinsey (Huber kick) 6:10.

Team stats

MV St

First downs 6 17

Rushes-yards 27-160 38-169

Passing yards 20 140

Total yards 180 309

Comp-Att-Int. 2-11-2 15-28-0

Fumbles/lost 1/1 2/0

Penalties/yards 3/20 8/73

Punts/avg. 5/31.0 5/24.8

Individual statistics

Rushing — MV: Godson Rufus-Okomhanru 1-80, Mitchell Olson 18-56, Jonny Gale 4-14, Jacob Sampson 3-13 and team 1-(-3); St: Emilio Rosario-Matias 30-189, Chase Edstrom 3-6 and Nick Kinsey 5-(-26).

Passing (com-att-yds-td-int) — MV: Jacob Sampson 1-2-12-0-0 and Jonny Gale 1-9-8-0-0; St: Nick Kinsey 15-28-140-1-0.

Receiving — MV: Mitchell Olson 1-12 and Weston Kuchar 1-8; St: Owen Egge 3-38, Emilio Rosario-Matias 3-36, Carter Zollar 2-19, Chase Edstrom 2-17, Conor McGlynn 2-14, Joe Fredkove 1-13 and Jack Runk 1-3.

Kickoff returns — MV: Ben Mugisa 2-32; St: Riley Runk 3-51.

Punt returns — MV: Ben Migisa 1-13; St: Owen Egge 2-38 and Riley Runk 1-17.

Interceptions — MV: none; St: Ryan Silbernagel 2-13.

Fumble recoveries — MV: none; St: Khalid Afuye 1-0.