MW FOOTBALL: Bluejays fall in season finale to Yellowjackets

ROCHESTER — The Bluejays football team was held to 148 total yards of offense in a 52-0 loss to the Rochester Yellowjackets in their final game of the regular season Saturday.

“We just didn’t play well,” MW coach Jeff Linder said. “We turned the ball over too many time and had too many penalties. It all snowballed from there.”

The Bluejays committed 10 penalties for 75 yards in the game and had four interceptions and two fumbles.

“Lack of execution was part of it,” Linder said. “It was everything throughout the game. We didn’t play well at all. I haven’t seen us play like that all year.”

The Yellowjackets went up 7-0 with just under 10 minutes left in the first quarter on a 27-yard touchdown pass by Kevin Monkam to Josh Zitzmann (PAT good). Rochester scored again three minutes later on a one-yard run by Jordan Shirrell to extend the Yellowjackets lead to 14.

“In coaching terms, we played sloppy,” Linder said. “You won’t get it done in this league if you play like we did. We have to be able to execute better than that.”

Monkam and Zitzmann connected again in the first, this time for a 15-yard strike. Then Monkam hit Zach Hoppenworth-Pedersen for a 29-yard TD to put Rochester up 28-0 after one.

The Yellowjacket were not done there. They scored two more times in the second quarter to extend their led to 42 going into halftime.

“There is no magic cure for fixing a lack of execution,” Linder said. “We need a sense of urgency and we need to play hard the whole game.”

The second half went only marginally better for the Bluejays, with their defense only allowing 10 points to the Yellowjackets on a field goal and an interception returned for a touchdown. All 10 points were scored in the third quarter.

Julian Robinson led the Bluejays ground attack with 53 yards on eight carries. Quarterback Greg Gainey was 7 for 24 for 40 yards and three interceptions on the night.

One bright spot for MW was the two interceptions the defense was able to come up with, one by Kevin LaFlore and another by Michael Knight.

The Bluejays will face Central Lakes next Saturday in Brainerd at a yet to be determined time.

Bluejays 0 0 0 0 — 0

Rochester 28 14 10 0 — 0

Tags: minnesota west sports, sports, football