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There were new faces along the sidelines as the The Hill City/Northland Storm took to the field behind first-year veteran Head Coach Gary Graham. With the consolidation of the Eagles and Hornets, Coach Graham has molded a formidable team that opened their season against the Mcgregor Mercs on Sept. 2.

The Mercs received the opening kickoff and subsequently broke a 52 yarder for six and added the two point conversion to take an early 8-0 lead. The Storm answered quickly with a Zain Meyer 37-yard touchdown run followed by a 2-point PAT by Brendan Gould to knot the game at eight.

On the Storm's next possession, Cooper Kovall broke contain and scampered 75 yards to put the Storm out front for good. Meyer would add another TD on a 20-yard dash and two point conversion. Mcgregor would put up another touchdown to end the first quarter at 22-14.

The HC/N defense shut down the Merc offence in the the second quarter while the offense posted a pair of TDs from Meyer to end the half at 36-14.

The Storm would score first in the second half on a 57-yard Meyer run and before the quarter was over the Mercs would score their last points.

The Storm defense tightened in the fourth quarter and the offense continued to click. Meyer added another 19 yard TD rush and the defense threw in a safety with six minutes on the clock.

The offense spread the ball around with 487 yards of rushing led by Meyer with 15 carries and 264 yards followed by Kovall with 14 carries for 171 yards. Gould posted 15 carries for 55 yards. Kovall also went 3 for 4 throwing for 43 yards.

"We had some early first game mistakes, but the team took control as the offensive and defensive lines improved." Commented Coach Graham.[[In-content Ad]]

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