The Wadena-Deer Creek Wolverines capped off their season after being shut out by the Staples-Motley Cardinals on Tuesday night in the Section 6AA quarter final matchup.
“Initially the kids were down,” Head coach Kyle Petermeier said. "But then you reflect on what this year was. I feel like we took a step in the right direction from where we were at previously.”
WDC fell by a score of 20-0. But, the blustery cold proved to be no match for passionate WDC fans who came out to rally around their boys in blue. The Wolverines struggled to find consistency in their blocking. But Petermeier said that the WDC program is excited to see this much improvement from last season even if that improvement didn't come with a sectional title.
Petermeier said that his team had issues overcoming the size of the Cardinal’s front line. As he predicted the front four players were going to disrupt the power of WDC’s offense.
“Those guys upfront were a lot bigger than we were. They disrupted everything we tried to do,” Petermeier said. “ They were able to drop six sometimes seven people in coverage and they had an awesome game plan.”
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Despite all of the uncertainty surrounding athletics this season Petermeier said the Wolverines focused from the start. He said that his team worked hard to play every game as it would be their last especially not knowing when their season could end due to COVID-19.
“We’ve been talking all year about how any game could be your last game,” Petermeier said last week prior to the matchup against the Cardinals. “ We've been taking that last game last opportunity to approach.”
After the game Petermeier said that he felt like everything he had been reminding his team of came into place on Tuesday. He said he was proud to see his team go into the game with the right attitude. He added that his team is grateful to make it to the playoffs.
“For the most part we made it through this year pretty healthy,” Petermeier said.
WDC will lose five seniors next season all who Petermeier said have been influential in his team’s attitude and success.
“They set some of the groundwork of what success could look like,” Petermeier said. “ They worked and we saw improvement this year and I think that is a big thing from them.”
WDC will post a season record of 3-4 after Tuesday's game. According to the section 6AA bracket Staples-Motley is set to take on West Central on Nov. 21 at 2 p.m.
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