Two pieces came together to form this at-home feel:
First, the Moorhead High band, after the Spuds' scores, played the school song, which is done to the tune of "On Wisconsin." The song is the same as that of my alma mater, Midwest (Wyo.) High School. Really, I didn't even listen to the words the Moorhead folks used; my mind was locked into the Oilers' version.
(By the way, I never noticed this until well into my 20s, but did you ever notice that in the animated version of "Robin Hood," Disney used a version of "On Wisconsin" during a football-esque Lady Kluck scene?)
Second, the field is oriented exactly on an east-west format -- just like Midwest, and unlike any other large metro school in the region. Moorhead Park Christian also has an east-west field, but the Falcons don't have lights, so the sun rarely comes in to play, at least in the way it does when one team goes into it and one team doesn't.
And the second one is much more important, because it actually affects how the game is played, especially in these early season games where the sun doesn't go down until long after kickoff.
Shinin' down on me, shinin' down on me...
Going into the sun is usually a disadvantage. When Midwest played at home early in the season, we tried to swing the flip so we could pick direction rather than possession and go with the sun at our backs in the first quarter.
Moorhead had no such problems, though. Before the sun went down, the Spuds -- going into the sun -- scored twice, effectively ending the competitive phase of the game against Duluth Denfeld. The sun finally sunk below the trees to the west at about 7:25 p.m. About a minute later, Moorhead's Chase Morlock ran about 50 yards for a score to put Moorhead up 21-0 with 1:25 to go in the first quarter.
Clearly, going into the sun isn't always a disadvantage.
Actually, once the sun went down, the game got downright boring. Moorhead scored twice more to make the final 35-0.
The Spuds are 3-0, off to one of their best starts in recent memory.
Maybe the home field has something to do with it.
Random observations: Two things made me not feel quite at home in Moorhead. First was what I'm unofficially dubbing "The World's Largest Outdoor Daycare," the patch of track and grass on the west end near the scoreboard. It seemed like the field tilted and everyone who didn't have the weight to hold on slipped down to that end of the stadium. The only way I can describe walking through that pack of children on my way out of the stadium is awkward. ... Second is the music, piped through the stadium speakers between pretty much every play. I've never hated the bass line to "Seven Nation Army" as much as I did on Friday. ... Props to the Spuds for the best team socks I've seen all year: black, with an orange stripe near the knee with a black block "M." They looked great in conjunction with Moorhead's black pants. Too often, teams put no thought into their team socks and it's always cool to see a school actually put some thought into it. ... I finally found a large-school stadium with visiting-side bleachers. About 10 Denfeld supporters made the trip across Minnesota to sit in those stands. ... Denfeld has an awesome nickname -- the Hunters. Fantastic.
Next week: Northern Cass at Fargo Oak Grove.
--patrick
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