Stephen-Argyle back in section title game after two down years
Nov. 1—GRAND FORKS — Stephen-Argyle football found itself trailing Kittson County Central by 14 in the third quarter of Saturday's Minnesota Section 8 9-man semifinal game.
The young team responded, scoring the final three touchdowns of the game.
"It was great to see them fight back, and not give up," said Stephen-Argyle coach Ethan Marquis. "Kittson made some big plays, so it was great to see our guys slowly scratch back and not give up."
The semifinal game represented the turnaround of a team that won just four games the last two seasons.
"We had challenging years recently," Marquis said. "It was hard times, but we really admired the players playing during that."
The Storm, after Saturday's win over Kittson County Central, advanced to the section championship game against Goodridge/Grygla-Gatzke at 2 p.m. Thursday in the Fargodome.
Stephen-Argyle is 7-3 heading into the section championship game after going 3-6 last season and 1-7 in 2021. The down seasons came after the Storm advanced to state four years in a row, from 2015-2018.
The Storm will face an 8-1 Chargers team they lost to 37-12 on Oct. 12.
"We know that Goodridge is a good team. They're talented. They have a lot of players," Marquis said. "We can learn a lot from the regular season game. We have to perform our absolute best.
"We learned a lot playing these guys one time. Sometimes it can be a bit of an equalizer. You have a preview of what they're going to do, and vice versa. We feel better going in this time because we feel better prepared."
Junior Blaine Smith will be taking the snaps for the Storm Thursday in just his third game as quarterback. He's one of the Storm's two juniors.
Stephen-Argyle has five seniors, but the seven freshmen and eight sophomores make up the majority of the team.
Marquis said the team is gaining a lot of experience and having success, but the Storm haven't hit their full potential.
"I don't know if we've found our exact stride yet," he said. "We're a relatively young team still. I don't think we've found our complete stride yet."
