The Dragon football team played at St. John's University on Tuesday night against St. Cloud Cathedral.
Pine City made their way out past St. Cloud to Collegeville on Tuesday night for a playoff football game.
The game got off to a tough start for Pine City. They were forced into punts on their first four drives of offense. For Cathedral they scored on two of the first three drives. The Dragons were down early 14-0, but the game was certainly not out of hand. The Dragons defense made some big stops late in the first half forcing a turnover and a few punts from the Crusaders. Though their offense struggled to get into rhythm, they found a bright spot on special teams. Whether it was returning a kick or kicking the ball away, the special teams unit stepped up big for the offense. Kicker Til Schanze switched field position with nearly all of his punts. One of his points actually lead to points for Pine City. He was able to pin the Cathedral at their own two yard line with a punt that checked up at the 5 and slowly rolled to the 2 before being touched down. Two short plays later a low snap for Cathedral was recovered in the endzone for a safety, putting the Dragons on the board 14-2 at half.
Things seemed to be getting better for Pine City at the end of the 1st half, and were certainly hopeful they could get off to a good start in the 2nd. But the Crusaders offense was steal their thunder and score on three of the four first drives, pulling ahead 35-2 as the game rolled into the 4th quarter. The Dragons could've easily hung their heads and shut down, but that's not how their wired. They battled hard throughout the entirety of the game. That heart they showed paid off late in the game. Evan Doenz would find AJ Ostensen for a 59 yard touchdown pass to give their 5th straight game scoring a touchdown. Unfortunately there was not enough time left in the game for them to mount a comeback and the Crusaders came out on top 35-8.
For Pine City the season ends way too soon finishing the season at 1-8. But there are alot of positives to take away from this season: Scoring in 5 straight games, winning their first game in some time, being the more physical team in many of their games and plenty more that they'll keep as memories going forward.
