The Two Harbors Agates captured the attention of the Northland after opening the season with a pair of impressive 28-20 victories over two Class 4A teams–North Branch and Denfeld. Mora’s Mason Koverman must have missed those reports or wasn’t impressed as he cruised to four rushing touchdowns to lead the Mustangs to a convincing 35-12 victory over Two Harbors on Friday night at Halsted Field.
Trailing 16-6 midway through the second quarter, the Agates advanced deep inside Mora territory following runs of 13 yards by Junior Lucero and 22 yards by Axel Morsette. On 4th down and 9 from the Mora 18-yard line, Isaac Imholte and Ziggy Hietala narrowly missed connecting on a touchdown for the second consecutive game when Hietala’s foot was inches out of bounds. Instead of possibly closing the margin to two points, the Agates fell behind by 16 when Koverman raced 82 yards on the next play.
Lucero scored from one yard out in the final minute of the first half to pull the Agates to within ten points at 22-12, but that was as close as Two Harbors would get.
After the teams were both scoreless in the third quarter, Koverman scored a pair of touchdowns from 11 and 9 yards in the final quarter to put the game out of reach.
Lucero scored both Agates touchdowns while averaging 7.4 yards per carry and totaling 119 rushing yards. As a team, the Agates totaled a respectable 240 rushing yards, averaging 5.3 per attempt. Morsette added 61 yards on 10 carries.
Coach Tom Nelson offered his thoughts:
“We were disappointed with our performance last week. Defensively, we really struggled as we tackled very poorly. Give Mora credit; their kids were firing at a much higher level of intensity than we were. They deserved that win. With that said, we are excited to bounce back with a better performance in many areas this week!”
The Agates have a young squad this year with only three Seniors. But heading into Week 4, they have something that 181 high school football teams in Minnesota don’t have.
What could that be?
Two wins.
Among those 181 teams is this week’s opponent as Pine City will be competing for their first win of the year when Two Harbors (2-1) travels past Tobie’s on Friday to face the Dragons (0-3).
1st Quarter
(8:16) M-Mason Koverman 10-yard run (Graham Balmer pass from Jude Houglum)
(1:43) TH-Junior Lucero 3-yard run (run failed)
2nd Quarter
(10:36) M-Houglum 13-yard run (Koverman pass from Houglum)
(5:40) M-Koverman 82-yard run (pass failed)
(0:38) TH-Lucero 1-yard run (run failed)
3rd Quarter
No Scoring
4th Quarter
(11:03) M-Koverman 11-yard run (run failed)
(3:19) M-Koverman 9-yard run (Michele Iagulli kick)
Game stats compiled by Agates coach Ryan McIntyre
Beyond the Scoreboard: Halsted Field - One of America's Best
Last year, I wrote and published this story to my website. Many of you saw it–many others didn’t. Obviously, I’m a bit biased but among the more than 200 high school football fields I’ve visited, Halsted Field is near the top of my list of favorites.
