Friday Night Lights: Rogers at Elk River Recap

ELK RIVER-- The great news was football was back last night in Minnesota, and Rogers hit their number from my pregame preview (28). The bad news? Elk River couldn’t hold up to their end of the prediction as the Royals were victorious in Elk River 28-12. All in all, it was great to sit back and watch high school football again. Within the first three minutes of the first quarter, we witnessed how huge an asset Ryan Wilson Ryan Wilson 6'0" | LB Elk River | 2021 State MN is to the Elks. As I said, he just clinged to the football. After that burst of energy, the Royals got this game started. After hammering the rushing attack down the field, QB Zach Evenson (2021) found WR Owen Kanzler (2022) for a 39-yard touchdown giving Rogers the lead 7-0, which would hold for the rest of the first quarter. Do you remember my sleeper for the Elks? Just under the 9-minute mark in the second quarter Elk River RB Rahim Avery (2021) took the ball 80 yards for the Elks first score. The XP ended up being no good, so the Royals kept the lead on a score of 7-6. Three minutes later, Rogers executed again on a big night on both sides of the ball from Ben Dahl, who punched it in from 18 yards out, and Royals got their lead a little deeper 14-6. On that next drive, Elk River drove the ball downfield with their three RB set in Carter Otto Carter Otto 6'0" | RB Elk River | 2021 State MN , Rahim Avery, and Ryan Wilson Ryan Wilson 6'0" | LB Elk River | 2021 State MN . Avery touched on the 100 yards rushing mark on this drive as well. After driving down the field, QB Cade Osterman (2023) threw the ball to an open Ryan Wilson Ryan Wilson 6'0" | LB Elk River | 2021 State MN , who scored an easy touchdown. Being the missed XP on the last score, Elk River had to go for two, and the run with Rahim Avery was unsuccessful, giving the Royals a 14-12 lead, which would be your halftime score. After halftime, this game the Rogers Royals took over. After an Elk River fumble, we saw a second 20+ yard pass from Zach Evenson to Owen Lefebvre on the night for the Royals passing attack. Ben Dahl got in for his second touchdown of the night, giving the Royals a 21-12 lead to close out the 3rd quarter. In the fourth quarter, you could tell how much momentum the Royals had going for them. Ben Dahl got his 3rd touchdown of the night and laid a massive hit on 4th down to put the icing on the Royals’ cake to win 28-12. We will have more lists coming from this game as my Friday edition of Nate’s Big Dogs of the Week on offense and defense will be out Thursday!