Tigers talk: Sept. 8

All-in-all, last week was a solid stretch for the Tigers sports teams. It is a trend that should continue for all six varsity teams (and hopefully the two new junior varsity teams).

The week one loss for the football team to rival Glencoe-Silver Lake was tough. However, I think we all learned a little about these kids Friday night. Instead of dwelling on the loss, the team had a good week of practice and it really showed Friday night.

The improvement started on offense, and it all starts up front. The team really only has one lineman with varsity experience, but I thought the unit really grew up last week. Sophomore Riley McGraw was on the sideline pumping up the troops. Wes Corrigan and Brad Hauer have been animals on both sides of the ball. I heard line coach Dave Kucera cheering on senior Jake Ballard for his play as well.

Still, you need the backs to rush for 440 yards. Jaedon Scott, who only carried the ball 11 times in week one (five on the final drive, in which they scored) saw the ball 23 times. He had 12 carries of 10-yards or plus Friday. Add in another half-dozen runs of 6-8.

Jacob Brusehaver led the team with 26 carries, but the thing with Bruse is he took 49 hits because of the misdirection of Hutch's offense (every time Jaedon ran, they hit Bruse because they thought he had the ball). He still was able to play effectively on both sides of the ball.

A week after Coach Rostberg said we can't throw the ball right now, QB Seth Hintze completed all four of his passes (he had an incompletion, but a holding penalty negated the play), including three to the lanky Brad Muckenhirn. Being able to throw the ball a bit (see 2007) will only help the rushing attack.

Stat of the day: Hutch won the first down battle, 25-11.

Good to see the Tiger defense play better. Northfield star running back Cody Schmidt only had 60 or so yards before breaking the 79-yarder. They only gave up 8 points the final 30 minutes.

Swimming and diving
The team that should be really fun to watch this season is the girls' swimming and diving team. They have some tough home duals with Prior Lake (Sept. 25) and Monticello (Sept. 30) coming up. Add in an away one at Red Wing in October.

Hutchinson really has a good chance to finish in the top three at state this year if they keep up with the improvement (which I'm seeing every meet).

The thing that is so enjoying to watch is the depth of the team. I love watching the team's second and third swimmers race other team's top swimmer.

Tennis
You have two chances to check out the 9-2 Tigers this week Tuesday against Farmington and Friday in a home invite with St. Michael-Albertville, Glencoe-Silver Lake and Monticello.

I'd expect them to be 11-2 overall and 3-0 in the conference heading into next week's matches with Holy Angels and Prior Lake (which should be the top teams outside of Red Wing) and Mankato West Monday, which should be for the south sub-section No. 1 seed.

Volleyball
I have a feeling the crowd could be sparse tonight for a match with Dassel-Cokato. The Chargers are 2-1, including a nice win over Albany.

If you're not a Vikings/Packers fan, the match starts at 7 p.m.

The big one is Thursday at Farmington.