Minnetonka Impressive in Winning Minnesota Final
Minnetonka Impressive in Winning Minnesota Final
Minnetonka capped off their Minnesota state HS season with an impressive win over Hopkins 60-7.
It was all clicking for a Minnetonka team that moved the ball smoothly through the hands and, as a result, forced the Hopkins defense to backpedal.
"Our 'average' player has better overall skills than the 'average' player on most other teams," said Head Coach Josh Johnson. "It's really not a battle of your best players; it’s a battle of how good you are as team. We played a 15-man game from whistle to whistle, regardless of who was on the field."
This was certainly evident on both sides of the ball as Minnetonka players trusted their teammates to catch and pass, and also to make tackles. As a result, the the rest were able to stay in the right position to be effective. Meanwhile, a couple of key skill breakdowns hurt Hopkins.
The interior back trio of Antonio Castillo, Bora Kalayci, and Thomas Poston worked very nicely together and John Meuller got plenty of go-forward at No. 8.
"We start early in the year, mid-February, practicing indoors," said Johnson. "We as coaches have a minimal set of skills that every player needs to possess before we move on from skill development to practicing and playing position-specific rugby. Every player regardless of position or natural skillset learns to pass/catch, tackle, ruck, attack space, and support with an even level of attention to abilities in each. Then we start to work on rugby strategy and building a cohesive team.
"The players bought in to what we were doing completely."
Fargos took third 22-17 over Edina in overtime, scoring on a quick-tap in sudden death. East Metro took 5th over Eagan. Albert Lea took the boys D2 round-robin championship. Eagan Girls won the girls final over Albert Lea to cap a three-peat.
