“It was a nice team win under very sloppy conditions and in weather like this a lot bad things can happen, but we were able to limit our mistakes and scored when we needed to,” said Underwood Head Coach Chuck Ross. “The boys have a lot to be proud of as they clinched the sub-district championship against a good New York Mills team and hopefully we can continue to get better as the section tournament nears.”
Underwood scored midway through the first quarter on a 37-yard run by Nik Gardin and a two-point conversion run by Zane Swanson, taking an 8-0 lead.
Swanson scored a second Underwood TD at 9:30 of the second quarter when he broke free for a 34-yard run. He also added the two-point conversion run to give the Rockets a 16-0 lead. With 7:45 left in the half Bren Salo got New York Mills on the board with a one yard run. A Daunte Leiran two-point conversion run cut the Rockets lead to 16-8.
Underwood had the only second half TD, scoring at 7:59 of the third on a 13-yard run by Swanson to put the final score at 22-8.
Underwood had 256 yards of offense, all on the ground. They were led by Gardin (16 carries, 112 yards) and Swanson (10 carries, 56 yards). Chase Janu (7-45) and Timothy DeVaney (5-43) rounded out the ground attack for Underwood.
The Eagles were led by Salo (3 completions, 8 attempts, 35 yards) and Leiran (19 carries, 73 yards). Defensively, Derrick Wegscheid and Elliot Mann each had 7 tackles for New York Mills.
Defensive leaders for the Rockets were Swanson (8 solo tackles), Wyatt Thorson (7 solo tackles, 1 sack), Logan Aune (5 solo tackles) and Slade Moore (4 tackles, 1 sack).