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 O'Neill Defense takes down St. Paul Thomas Schipporeit (51) Tate Laursen (4) Angel Rodriquez (45) and Spencer Knopp (53) put a stop to St. Paul's offense in football action Friday night. St. Paul defeated O'Neill 26-20. Photo courtesy Studio B Photography.
The O'Neill Eagles have wrapped up another season with the loss of a heart wrenching 26-20 loss to the St. Paul Wildcats last Thursday. Leading the rushers for the Eagles were Tate Laursen with 15 carries for 85 yards and one touchdown, Angel Rodriguez with seven carries for 31 yards and one touchdown and Tyler Knopp with 10 carries for 22 yards. Leading receivers for the Eagles were Derrick Hostert with five receptions for 81 yards and one touchdown, Connor Iverson with one reception for 20 yards and Tyler Knopp with one reception for 19 yards. Leading defenders on the night were Tate Laursen with 12 tackles, Riley Chohon with 12 tackles, Angel Rodriguez with nine tackles, Spencer Knopp with six tackles and Tyler Knopp with six tackles. "The final week of O'Neill’s football season against St. Paul was very similar to the two games prior against Ord and Boone Central. We lost a very close, hard-fought battle 26-20. I feel for our players right now because of the time and effort put into this season and coming up short the past few weeks is hard to deal with. I am very proud of the way we've fought towards the end of the season and they never gave up regardless of what the score was. It comes down to a couple of plays and we would still be playing this week, but that's the way the ball bounces sometimes. In all reality if we take away five big plays we could be 6-2 on the season. That's how close some of our games were. The record definitely does not indicate how our season went. This season our kids had a goal in mind to make it to the playoffs and improve on last year's accomplishments. We did not make the playoffs, but we did improve on our overall effort and competitive drive throughout games. Battle Creek was our wake-up call for the season and the final four games were all for the taking. We need to learn and build off our successes from 2011 and figure out a way to push through those tough games and come away with close wins rather than close losses,” commented Coach Eichelberger.
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