K-HEART SPORTS – TUESDAY – 10/10/23
MINOT, ND – Fargo Shanley and Fargo North are unanimous #1 choices. The polls are voted on by the North Dakota AP Sportscasters & Sportswriters Association.
Class AAA Football Poll
Team (First Place Votes) Record Points Last Week
1. Fargo Shanley (22) 7-0 110 1
2. West Fargo Sheyenne 6-1 88 2
3. Minot High 6-1 66 3
4. Bismarck High 5-2 42 4
T5. Fargo Davies 3-4 11 5
T5. Mandan 4-3 11 RV
Other teams receiving votes: Bismarck Century
Class AA Football Poll
Team (First Place Votes) Record Points Last Week
1. Fargo North (20) 7-0 100 1
2. Fargo South 4-3 75 2
3. Dickinson 5-2 53 3
4. Jamestown 5-2 45 4
5. Grand Forks Red River 5-3 27 5
Other teams receiving votes: none
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MINOT, ND – Several Class B volleyball teams hit the court on Monday.
High School Volleyball
Class B
#4 South Prairie-Max def. Parshall (3-0) 25-14, 25-12, 25-15
#8 Central McLean def. Drake-Anamoose (3-0) 25-19, 25-21, 25-14
Minot North def. Divide County (3-0) 25-15, 25-19, 25-14
Garrison def. North Shore-Plaza (3-0) 25-19, 25-21, 25-14
Trinity Christian Williston def. Mandaree (3-0) 25-11, 25-2, 25-10
Tioga def. Alexander (3-0)
Richardton-Taylor def. Hazen (3-2) 19-25, 29-27, 16-25, 25-16, 15-8
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FCS POLLS
GRAND FORKS, ND – Following a 49-10 victory over Western Illinois on Homecoming last weekend, North Dakota sits No. 15 in both the latest Stats Perform Poll and AFCA FCS Coaches’ Top 25. North Dakota State racked up 534 yards of total offense and forced four turnovers to beat Missouri State 38-10 on Saturday. The Bison move up one spot in the polls this week. UND and NDSU will meet each other this Saturday in Grand Forks at the Alerus Center.
STATS PERFORM FCS TOP 25 (Oct. 9)
1. South Dakota State (5-0, 2-0 MVFC), 1,400 points (56 of 56 first-place votes)
2. Montana State (4-1, 2-0 Big Sky), 1,333
3. Idaho (5-1, 3-0 Big Sky), 1,296
4. Sacramento State (4-1, 1-1 Big Sky), 1,181
5. Furman (4-1, 2-0 SoCon), 1,138
6. North Dakota State (4-1, 1-1 MVFC), 1,110 (last week #7)
7. Incarnate Word (4-1, 1-0 Southland), 1,010
8. Delaware (4-1, 2-0 CAA), 947
9. Western Carolina (5-1, 3-0 SoCon), 906
10. South Dakota (4-1, 2-0 MVFC), 771
11. William & Mary (4-2, 2-1 CAA), 759
12. Holy Cross (4-2, 2-0 Patriot), 744
13. Southern Illinois (4-1, 1-1 MVFC), 721
14. North Carolina Central (5-1, 0-0 MEAC), 681
15. North Dakota (3-2, 1-1 MVFC), 567 (last week #16)
16. Montana (5-1, 2-1 Big Sky), 564
17. UT Martin (5-1, 2-0 Big South-OVC), 492
18. Florida A&M (5-1, 4-0 SWAC), 410
19. Harvard (4-0, 2-0 Ivy), 367
20. Central Arkansas (4-2, 2-0 UAC), 318
21. Eastern Washington (2-3, 1-1 Big Sky), 205
22. Weber State (3-3, 1-2 Big Sky), 201
23. Youngstown State (3-2, 1-1 MVFC), 197
24. UAlbany (4-2, 2-0 CAA), 182
25. Chattanooga (4-2, 3-1 Southern), 107
Others Receiving Votes: Northern Iowa, 95; Villanova, 94; UC Davis, 75; Rhode Island, 73; Austin Peay, 56; Mercer, 52; New Hampshire, 49; Eastern Illinois, 32; Elon, 19; Samford, 18; Fordham, 16; Tarleton, 5; Lafayette, 4; Northern Arizona, 3.
AFCA FCS Coaches TOP 25 (Oct. 9)
1. South Dakota State (26)
2. Montana State
3. Idaho
4. Furman
5. Sacramento State
6. Incarnate Word
7. North Dakota State (last week #8)
8. Delaware
9. North Carolina Central
10. Montana
11. Holy Cross
12. William & Mary
13. Southern Illinois
14. Western Carolina
15. North Dakota (last week #15)
16. Florida A&M
17. South Dakota
18. Harvard
19. UT Martin
20t. Chattanooga
20t. Youngstown State
22. Rhode Island
23. Weber State
24. New Hampshire
25. Central Arkansas
Others Receiving Votes: Northern Iowa, 51; UC Davis, 49; Illinois St., 43; Fordham, 37; Austin Peay, 34; Mercer, 31; Albany, 25; Eastern Washington, 19; Lafayette, 19; Villanova, 12; Eastern Illinois, 10; Northern Arizona, 8; Eastern Kentucky, 6; Hampton, 4; Jackson St., 1.
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TWINS-PLAYOFFS
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Sonny Gray was a high school quarterback who helped his team win consecutive Tennessee state football championships, before narrowing his focus and joining Vanderbilt’s prestigious baseball program. He’s pitched 11 years in the major leagues, including 1½ pressure-packed seasons for the New York Yankees, and made the All-Star Game three times along the way. Last week, Gray got his first career win in the playoffs for the Minnesota Twins in a two-game AL Wild Card Series sweep of the Toronto Blue Jays. With the exception of the equally excellent Pablo López, there’s no one the Twins would rather turn to for a pivotal Game 3 against the Houston Astros in the AL Division Series this afternoon. “He’s made for the big moments,” teammate Kyle Farmer said. “He’s just a different breed of a pitcher.”
Though Gray had a decent debut season for Minnesota, he was hardly satisfied with just 24 starts and 119 2/3 innings while navigating some minor injuries and trying to find his footing after being acquired in spring training from the Cincinnati Reds for 2021 first-round draft pick Chase Petty. Gray was as determined as ever this year to be more durable, reliable and pitch deeper into games, even calling out some of the others in the 2022 rotation for the way they seemed to him to be content with simply lasting five innings. This season, the right-hander logged 184 innings for his highest total since 2015 with the Oakland Athletics. His ERA (2.79) was the third-best in baseball. “It was the idea of attacking, knowing that your stuff is great, your stuff is some of the best stuff in the league,” Gray said. “It has been for a long time, and it still is.” That’s the kind of bulldog mentality he used to bring to football, which he said Monday “might be my favorite sport.” Gray, who flew home from Houston early with his wife and two sons to get a good night’s rest and watched Minnesota’s 6-2 win in Game 2 with his family on TV, approaches opposing hitters much the same way he used to attack defenses as a quarterback. “Here it is. I’m coming at you. Let’s see how far you can hit it,” Gray said.
Cristian Javier will start for the Astros in Game 3. After seven shutout innings from López, the Twins get to throw another ace. “He was one of the first people to text me after I got traded. I don’t know who he got my number from, but he texted me really, really soon. He was like, ‘Looking forward to work with you,”’ López said. They’ve made quite the pair. “Sonny knows how to pitch,” Astros manager Dusty Baker said, “and Sonny’s not scared.” Not even by Yordan Alvarez, who has three home runs in the first two games of the series. “He seems to be hot right now, but they have good hitters throughout their lineup,” Gray said. He’ll have the crowd on his side, too, with Target Field already selling out for both Games 3 and 4. “These fans are excited for good baseball,” Farmer said, “and I think we’ll give it to them.”
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VIKINGS-OUT OF SINK
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Facing a third-and-7 and with a chance to even the score early Sunday against the Kansas City Chiefs, Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins looked to one of his favorite targets, tight end T.J. Hockenson. Cousins’ throw was high, going off Hockenson’s hands, and Minnesota had to settle for a field goal in the 27-20 loss. The throw was off and Hockenson wasn’t at the correct depth in his route, coach Kevin O’Connell explained later. “Can we just be a little tighter with that throw?” O’Connell said. “Could T.J. be a little tighter on the route? Third-and-7 right there, it’s an 8-yard route. I think it ended up being right around 10 or 11 yards on the target right there. “So, can we just tighten everything up just a little bit more? That kind of goes in line with can we just do a little more? Do it a little bit cleaner. Do it a little bit better. A little bit more detail? A little bit more urgency on everything we do, and it starts with me and I’m going to be driving that minute to minute here.”
Not much went wrong for O’Connell and the Vikings last year when they finished 13-4 in his first season and went a record 11-0 in games decided by one score. Minnesota (1-4) has already equaled the number of losses it had in 2022 — all of them one-score defeats. A big reason has been miscues from an offense that returned nearly every starter. Last season, Minnesota’s offense was seventh in the league in yards per game (361.5) and eighth in scoring (24.9 points). While the yardage this season is similar (ninth at 362.4 per game), the Vikings are scoring 22 points per game, which is 16th in the league. Minnesota has a league-high 12 giveaways. “Minus-9 on the turnover differential, which is saying something, knowing we lost to four teams that were in the playoffs last year,” O’Connell said. “We have to stop giving away the football.” On Sunday against Kansas City, there were also dropped passes and Cousins said he was sailing the ball on many throws. “I felt like it was consistently high and I don’t have a great answer for that,” Cousins said. “But I felt that it was showing up and yeah, maybe catchable, but it shouldn’t be that hard on (Hockenson). The ball needs to be right in their chest. I was frustrated by that. It was early and I thought, ‘We’ll settle in,’ and I felt as the game went on it was still that way.”
Minnesota was 4 of 5 on fourth-down plays on Sunday and has converted 72.7% of fourth downs this season, which is the fifth-best mark in the NFL. Included in Sunday’s success was a fake punt in which safety Josh Metellus took a direct snap and handed off to running back Ty Chandler on a reverse. “That was a sweet play by them,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said. “So, we had a pretty good idea they were going to fake it but did a little reverse, double-double there and they got us.”
Turnovers have contributed to slow starts all season. Minnesota has been outscored 27-3 in the first quarter. Six of the team’s turnovers have come in the opening quarter, including three times on the Vikings’ first drive. Tight end Josh Oliver had a 15-yard catch-and-run on the first play Sunday but lost a fumble at the end of the play.
The defending NFC North champions face their first divisional opponent of the season when they play at Chicago on Sunday.
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WILD-SIGNINGS
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — The Minnesota Wild signed forward Ryan Hartman to a three-year, $12 million contract extension on Saturday, the third veteran they’ve secured with a long-term deal during training camp to take them off the market next summer. Eight days earlier, the Wild signed right wings Mats Zuccarello (two years, $8.25 million) and Marcus Foligno (four years, $16 million) to extensions. They now have their top nine forwards signed through at least 2024-25 — and seven of them through at least 2025-26. The 29-year-old Hartman had 15 goals, 22 assists, 90 penalty minutes and a plus-seven rating in 59 games last season. He tied for the team lead with six game-winning goals, mostly centering the top line between leading scorer Kirill Kaprizov and Zuccarello. In the 2021-22 season, Hartman set career highs in games (82), goals (34) and assists (31). Hartman was drafted in the first round in 2013 by the Chicago Blackhawks. He’s the first player in NHL history born in South Carolina.