Time To Go Work

Wow. I never thought I'd see the day when the Pioneers would drop a game to rival Missouri Valley College. But here I sit, and it's happened. The Pioneers were 3-0 over the last three years against Valley going into Saturday's game, but the Vikings played inspired football, and that seemed to be the difference in the ballgame.

 

The Pioneers looked decent early on. After a fluky punt return touchdown for Valley (probably should've been called a fair catch...but, oh well, still have to tackle the guy). The Pioneers answered right back on a beautiful, no, incredible, nay, stupendous 80-yard touchdown run by sophomore Greg Gates. Gates may be the best running back in the conference this year folks, don't sleep on this guy he can take the ball to the house literally every time he touches the football. He is an electric runner who will be a big part of this offense going forward.

Right after a Pioneer interception, Coach Quinn drew up a fantastic play by going with a play action bomb to Austin Conyers for a 40-yard touchdown pass, and the Pioneers were in control.

 
BUT, that's when things started to go wrong. Penalties and turnovers really slowed the Pioneer attack, and Missouri Valley started to run the ball and control the game clock. This severely disrupted the Pioneers' rhythm on offense and it seemed like they couldn't get it back the entire game.
The Pioneers turned the ball over 5 times and had 124 yards of penalties...but they still were in the game the entire time. Losing by 5 points after all of those negatives...I guess, can be a positive. That goes to show you that this MNU team will never be out of a football game and with games against the #13, #14, and two teams receiving votes in the NAIA remaining on the schedule, this team is really going to need to fight their way through the rest of the schedule.

The 'Neers head into their bye week and they'll get the wrinkles ironed out, tighten the screws a bit, and whatever other cliche you want to throw in there to get this team rolling in the right direction. This coaching staff is one of the better staffs in the country, and they'll get these guys going. THERE IS STILL HOPE PEOPLE!
Thanks for reading, and I'll see you next time.