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Maple Grove To Play Fo­r Eight-Man Title Today

Not long before the start of this year’s football regular season, Maple Grove found out it would have to make some changes.

Head coach Justin Hanft did not have as much time as he would have liked to make the kind of adjustments that the program would need to prepare for a competitive campaign of eight-man football, rather than the usual 11.

Despite the late start, the Red Dragons have grown by leaps and bounds on their way to a 5-2 record, and will now square off against Section V Oakfield/Alabama/Elba at 6 p.m. today on the campus of St. John Fisher College for the eight-man championship.

That matchup comes after Maple Grove rebounded from a loss to Holley in their final regular season game with a 44-30 win over Pembroke on the road last weekend in semifinal play.

“I would just say that this whole year has been a learning process for us,” Hanft said before practice Friday at Falconer’s Bill Race Field. “At this point in the season we feel much more confident in the style of play. We have just leaned on our athletes, putting them in better positions to make some plays … trying to keep the offensive and defensive game plans simple.”

Today’s game was moved from a 1 p.m. start at Van Detta Stadium in Batavia to Growney Stadium in Rochester due to accumulated snow. Now Maple Grove will have the task of unseating the defending eight-man champions, and undoing a 60-12 loss to Oakfield/Alabama/Elba in the season opener.

“They are a great team across the board, well-coached,” Hanft said. “They have a lot of experience coming back this year. Colton Dillon their quarterback is one heck of a player, probably the league MVP. He is 6-2, a big kid who can run like the wind.”

Maple Grove was finally able to get onto the practice field Friday after being stuck inside due to weather for much of the week.

Reviewing his team’s performance from its opening game of the season, Hanft has stressed finishing tackles as well as trying to force runners into the middle of the field for his defense.

“It really starts and stops with strength up the middle of the field at all levels,” Hanft said. “There is not a ton of passing from some of the teams we have been playing, a lot of quarterback run game. You have to be able to keep the contain on the edge and not allow the runs to get to the outside.”

Leading the charge in that department will be Maple Grove’s Kyle Trim. The 6-foot-2 defensive lineman has adapted well to the eight-man style of play, using his size and athleticism to his advantage with more space on the field.

“He has been an animal for us,” Hanft said. “We have put him in a variety of rolls and he has had success everywhere. He is one of the best kids at the Class D level who is able to shed blocks and get side-to-side as a defensive lineman.”

Jake Tomlinson and Brendan Russo have joined Trim as primary contributors for the Red Dragons on defense.

Quarterback Jackson Gowan has also shown significant improvement despite a steep learning curve to start the year. The sophomore has developed into exactly the type of dual-threat signal caller that is demanded for eight-man play, and showed poise beyond his years during Maple Grove’s road win over Pembroke.

Gowan completed seven passes for 142 yards and a score and ran for 92 more with a pair of touchdowns on the ground.

“You don’t have to look any further back than our last game,” Hanft said when asked about Gowan’s improvement. “We didn’t throw the ball a ton, but he executed to perfection.”

As the season has gone on, Ayden Reagle has seen more and more attention from opposing defenses due to his versatility as a runner and pass-catcher.

That has opened up more opportunities for the likes of Cade Egan and running back Carter Martin.

“We needed to use Ayden as a bit of a decoy (last week) and it required good executing on Jackson’s part,” Hanft said. “Each week we try to keep some things and try to tweak some things to our advantage. Hats off to our seniors who have embraced that.”

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