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High school football: East Ridge looks to pick up where it left off last season

jace frederick, pioneer press
·4 min read

It did not look as though the East Ridge football team was on the road to success last season.

Through two games, the Raptors were 0-2 after two double-digit losses, albeit to top-tier opponents in Eden Prairie and Stillwater.

Still, it wasn’t the start the Raptors envisioned. It was gut-check time. That was when now-senior lineman Bryce Sharp said players took a long, hard look at one another, and in the mirror.

“We just had all agreed to do all the little things right,” he said, “and I feel like that goes a long way.”

The Raptors turned a corner at that point, winning six of their final eight games of the season. That stretch included victories over Prior Lake, St. Michael-Albertville and Woodbury.

With a host of contributors returning from last season’s strong finish, East Ridge — which opens its season Thursday by hosting Eden Prairie — plans on picking up where it left off last fall.

“I think we’re all super excited,” junior quarterback Tanner Zolnosky said. “We’ve worked, I think, the hardest East Ridge has ever worked in the offseason, so we just are very excited for the season and can’t wait, honestly.”

That work has included a number of meetings this summer, scouring the playbook and attending every possible training opportunity. If a chance to get better was proposed in the team’s group chat, the players were all in.

“The whole team has an expectation that everyone is going to keep going hard in practice and working, and everyone is going to give 100 percent whenever they can, every day,” East Ridge wide receiver Caden Kahrer said.

Exactly where that work leaves East Ridge will be revealed, in part, on Thursday. The Raptors get the honor of facing one of the premier football programs to kick off their season for the second straight fall. A year ago, the final score read 46-0 Eagles.

Still, East Ridge welcomes the challenge.

“People think it’s a curse that we have Eden Prairie two years in a row, but I think, personally, as captains and as a team, we look at it as a great challenge, starting off against a premier team in Minnesota,” Zolnosky said. “It’s good to face a team right off the bat that’s going to show us what they got so we can learn and get better throughout the season. And also, it’s a great test to see what we’ve done in the offseason and how we can show what we’ve done on the field. I think it’s a great test, and we’re all super excited.”

The Raptors know from experience that Thursday’s game, win or lose, will not define their season. Lessons learned from that night will be applied moving forward, adjustments will be made and the team will aim to be better come Week 2.

That proved to be a successful formula in 2021. The key last fall, Zolnosky said, was that the players put their trust in the coaching staff, starting with head coach Dan Fritze. East Ridge’s offensive playbook was constantly evolving throughout the fall. And with it, the results got better and better.

That relationship goes both ways, as senior tight end and defensive lineman Jaylin Reese noted Fritze is the type of coach who is always gathering feedback from his players and applying it as he sees fit.

“He’s just trying to improve our playbook, see what our flaws are and improve on them,” Reese said.

“I think our guys kept trusting in it, and that’s why, by the end of the season, we had the success we did,” Zolnosky said. “And this year, same thing, we just trust our coaches.”

East Ridge seems to think the result may be different this time around against Eden Prairie. Players all said they’re more prepared for the test. Part of that is because they’ve had more time and opportunities to work with one another.

Another reason is that the focus on the little things that started in the middle of last season has been applied ever since. This time around, the Raptors plan on starting on a better foot. Pair that with exponential growth over the course of the fall, and there’s no telling where the Raptors may land by season’s end.

“Overall, (the goal is to) just have a successful year with the guys that we love,” Zolnosky said. “But obviously, our goal is to win sections and win state, and that’s why we’ve worked as hard as we’ve worked in the offseason. So that’s our biggest goal right now.”

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