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In the season opener for both teams, the Wildcat football team was crushed by the Hill-Murray Pioneers 52-15 Friday, August 29 at Chisago Lakes High School.

The Pioneers took command of the game in the first quarter with three big plays – touchdown runs of 55 yards and 35 yards by Grady Buettner and a 72-yard touchdown strike from Brayden Hartmann to Cayden Harrington  – to take a 21-0 lead.  Wildcat quarterback Kellen Meissner scored a touchdown on a five-yard run early in the second quarter, with Owen Morley kicking the extra point.  But the Pioneers answered with a 27-yard touchdown run by Tristan Will.  And Will returned a fumble 60 yards for a touchdown to give Hill-Murray a 35-7 lead going into halftime.  The Pioneers opened the scoring in the third quarter as Jacob Dornan returned an interception 21 yards for a touchdown to make the score 42-7.  The Wildcats responded with a 10-yard touchdown run by Diesel Lundeen, who also ran for the two-point conversion, to cut the Hill-Murray lead to 42-15.  But Will scored his third touchdown of the game on a 37-yard run, and the Pioneers led 49-15 after three quarters.  They added a field goal in the fourth quarter to make the final score 52-15.

Football Notes

The Wildcats (0-1-0) will head to Cambridge-Isanti High School to take on the Bluejackets (1-0-0) at 7 p.m. tomorrow night.  The Bluejackets beat Sartell 21-14 in their opening game.  The Bluejackets were 0-9 last season, including a 47-33 loss to the Wildcats, but are expected to show quite a bit of improvement this season. 

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