Football: Sabers ground game too much for Tigers

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Farmington’s Andrew Peterson runs with the ball during Friday night’s 42-10 loss to Shakopee.

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Shakopee’s power running game wore down Farmington Friday night.

After a scoreless first quarter, the defending Missota Conference champions piled up 170 rushing yards on two long drives before the halftime break to take a 14-7 lead into the locker room. The second half was more of the same as the undefeated Sabers ran up their total to 377 ground yards in a 42-10 victory at Tiger Stadium.

“I thought we did a pretty good job of slowing down their running game in the first half. Then they kind of overpowered us in the second half,” Farmington coach Mark Froehling said. “We couldn’t get a lot of pressure on the line of scrimmage. It was tough to stop them from getting first downs and they put a lot of long drives together. We couldn’t get them off the field.”

The Tigers (1-3) managed to put up 305 yards of offense of their own, but four drives ended short after interceptions by quarterback Darren Beenken. The junior finished 14 of 27 for 202 yards, including his eighth touchdown toss to Nathan Graham from seven yards out, which gave the Tigers a brief 7-0 lead in the second quarter.

Dillon Jones led the Tigers with five receptions for 52 yards.

On the ground, running back Athen Ashton fought for 64 yards on 19 carries. Beenken added 33 yards on six carries.

“We were able to get some first downs and move the ball a little bit, but you can’t have four interceptions against a good football team. It stops your drives and gives them another opportunity,” Froehling said. “We need to work on making better reads at quarterback, getting separation for the receivers and getting the ball thrown to the right spot.”

Linebacker Drew Hegseth led a busy Tiger defense with 12 tackles. Godfrey Mpetey and Andrew Peterson added eight tackles and Bret Hoffman had seven.

Reid Taubenheim capped the scoring with his second field goal of the season, a 28-yarder in the fourth quarter.

The Tigers face another undefeated team with a high-octane offense tomorrow night when they travel to Richfield to face 10th-ranked (Class 4A) Holy Angels. The Stars are averaging 37 points per game.

“It’ll be a more spread offense and a little option, as well,” Froehling said. “They have a lot of good athletes that run well to the football and bring lots of blitzes on the defensive side of the ball. We’ll have to work hard to not get overwhelmed by their pressure and take advantage of when they get out of position.”

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