North Dakota Preps

I think Hillsboro could start off a little slow with all of their losses, but they'll be a tough team to beat by the end of the year. Their JV had some hard runners, and Brandon Otto did a solid job his first year at starting QB. Plug some guys into the holes left by the graduated seniors, show them how to hit and block, and you have a team that nobody wants to face come playoff time.

I don't think there'll be any one or two teams head and shoulders above the rest of the crowd, however. Some of the standouts from last year (like Hillsboro, Thompson) might come back down a little. North Border played well last year and will be tough again. Interested to see the transition Cavalier makes, as well.

Meatball is always right, now matter what. his opinions are never bias even tho he obviously played for fshp last year

And i will be playing next year...all im trying to say is fshp played like crap...ppl are saying nb was so much better..they wernt....

It's going to be thompson, nb, cavalier, and hillsboro the top 4 teams. That's not the order im putting them in because theyre all even but itll be them 4 atop the region. And for meatball, FSHP is going to be awful this year. You guys will have one playmaker this year and thats ihry and like you were talking about, fumbling what 3-4 times against NB, thats not a good thing, he has speed and some jukiness thats about it. He's nothing like his brother he wont break tackles for huge gains, once hes hit hes down! I know quite a bit about this region just nothing about cavalier besides i know they come from 11man and lose a lot. Thopson loses quite a bit if u look back at there roster, Hjelmstad, waxvik, syrstad, hanevold, grotte, and some others i cant think of right now but theyll still be a good team with good coaching. Hillsboros always good, they lose mclean which is never good losing the senior athlete of the year, suchor, mike otto, anderson, stallman, and zink who didnt play much, but them also are always good with really good coaching with strong younger kids to replace them guys. And for NB, i think they might be the team to beat only losing a couple guys, they lose rude who was hurt most of the year at qb so they have a younger kid ready to start, pretty sure they lost laxdall who was a big asset to there team, and maybe 2 more guys who meant anything to there team, they might be the team to beat this year, but i still think itll be wide open!!!

I think everyone is giving Hillsboro too much credit. I can't say they won't make the playoffs, because I don't know enough about the rest of the region, but I'll say this will easily be their worst year in the past 5-6 years.

Yeah Flip, you might be right, but when you look at the rest of the region, its not a very strong showing out of the other teams, and if you go by past success they always find a way to grind it out and put on a good showing. Nobody thought that last years team was going to win the region championship over wyndmere either but they found a way to do it so you have to give them credit for that, they find ways to win games by getting there kids in the weight room a lot with good coaching.

NB is gonna be tough this year.

Regarding the NB comment -

How do you figure?

Hillsboro's biggest question is going to be how their completely rebuilt offensive line comes together. They have the bodies for it, but it remains to be seen if the bodies have the drive in them to get after people and open holes. They are very, very nice kids, which isn't always the best for the O-line. You need that mean streak to want to blast people out of the way.

And leadership will also be a big question mark. Last year's seniors were smart, experienced, and set the tone for everyone else to follow. New leaders need to step up.

In response to football chicken, they are returning with 5 seniors, they only lost 6...and these seniors have been playing throughout the rebuild years....

My Thoughts:

1. Hillsboro
2. Dakota Prairie
3. Thompson
4. North Border
5. Cavalier
6. Finley-Sharon-Hope-Page
7. New Rockford-Sheyenne
8. Central Valley
9. Drayton-Valley-Edinburg
10. Lakota-Adams-Edmore

Run4Fun2009 wrote:My Thoughts:

1. Hillsboro
2. Dakota Prairie
3. Thompson
4. North Border
5. Cavalier
6. Finley-Sharon-Hope-Page
7. New Rockford-Sheyenne
8. Central Valley
9. Drayton-Valley-Edinburg
10. Lakota-Adams-Edmore

Interesting picks Run.

I will give it a shot too.

1. North Border
2.Thompson
3. Hillsboro
4. Dakota Prarie
5. Cavalier
6. Hope Page Finely Sharon
7. Lakota
8. New Rockford
9. Central Valley
10. Drayton

GRIDIRON GURU wrote:

Run4Fun2009 wrote:My Thoughts:

1. Hillsboro
2. Dakota Prairie
3. Thompson
4. North Border
5. Cavalier
6. Finley-Sharon-Hope-Page
7. New Rockford-Sheyenne
8. Central Valley
9. Drayton-Valley-Edinburg
10. Lakota-Adams-Edmore

Interesting picks Run.

I will give it a shot too.

1. North Border
2.Thompson
3. Hillsboro
4. Dakota Prarie
5. Cavalier
6. Hope Page Finely Sharon
7. Lakota
8. New Rockford
9. Central Valley
10. Drayton

I'm not all that familiar with Region 2...just thought I'd throw out some predictions.

I was at the Thompson-Hillsboro game and I came away very impressed by Hillsboro. Hillsboro seemed to have athletes all over the field. Brandon Otto threw the ball very well tonight and the Bowen kid seemed to run the ball very well. Hillsboro's line seemed to play better as the game went along. Thompson's line didn't give Connor Weber very much time and there were some dropped balls. They also didn't open up many holes for there running backs. Hillsboro's defense deserves a lot of the credit for this and seem to have very good team speed again.

baseball1402 wrote: And for NB, i think they might be the team to beat only losing a couple guys, they lose rude who was hurt most of the year at qb so they have a younger kid ready to start, pretty sure they lost laxdall who was a big asset to there team, and maybe 2 more guys who meant anything to there team, they might be the team to beat this year, but i still think itll be wide open!!!

just wanted to say they lost more than rude and laxdall who doesn't even play for nb haha... they lost dazel 2 masloskis(all 3 were shriners) korpat mathison and brown... all are great players that are going to be very hard to replace... I do agree they're going to be a good team though... I think cav and nb are the 2 teams that make it to playoffs

4 teams from each region will make the playoffs.

I second Cubsfan on his take on Hillsboro. The biggest question they had going in was if they were going to get good line play. They struggled early but started to open holes as the game wore on. Hillsboro was certainly speedier than Thompson.

In defense of Thompson, Flickinger and a couple of other regulars were out. I doubt they would have made 28 points difference, but Flickinger might have been able to run down some of the big plays that Hillsboro had for TDs.

Anybody care to chime in on some of the other games in the region?

North Border returns with Tyler Stockton at QB after experience last yr, as well as Fraser, Berg, Brown, Soli and Schurman. They should be able to handle their own, all are very experienced on the field.

Week 1 results

8/23
Hillsboro 34 @ Thompson 8
Central Valley 12 @ New Rockford-Sheyenne 34
Cavalier 40 @ Drayton/Valley-Edinburg 16
Finley/Sharon-Hope/Page 8 @ Lakota/Adams-Edmore 20
North Border 40 @ Dakota Prairie 6

8/27
Drayton/Valley-Edinburg 28 @ Hillsboro 66
North Border 40 @ Central Valley 24
Thompson 34 @ Finley/Sharon-Hope/Page 6
Dakota Prairie 28 @ Lakota/Adams-Edmore 66
Cavalier 38 @ New Rockford-Sheyenne 14

Standings after Week 1:

Hillsboro 2-0
Cavalier 2-0
Lakota 2-0
North Border 2-0
Thompson 1-1
New Rockford 1-1
Drayton 0-2
Central Valley 0-2
Finley/S/H/P 0-2
DP 0-2

Hillsboro, Cavalier, North Border, and Lakota had good starts. Ill be suprised if Lakota can stick with the other 3. Hillsboro and Cavalier are my favorites, and they match up Sept 23. Next week has Cavalier traveling to North Border, which will be a huge game in this region. I think Thompson will rebound after their loss to Hillsboro and get a 4 possibly a 3 seed. Should be a fun year!

Flip wrote:I think everyone is giving Hillsboro too much credit. I can't say they won't make the playoffs, because I don't know enough about the rest of the region, but I'll say this will easily be their worst year in the past 5-6 years.

I've watched both Hillboro games and they're better than I anticipated them being. Offensviely they're going to put up a lot of points especially against bottom 6-7 teams in the region. But their main issue is going to be defensively. After Drayton ditched their spread attack and went to a power I at the end of the 1st quarter they ran it right down the throat of Hillsboro for the next 3 or 4 possessions. I'd be concerned if I were a Hillsboro fan when a team that switches on the fly to a power game can have that much success running the ball.

Saying all that I still think it is possible for Hillsboro to run the table and go 9-0 as I think region 2 is pretty mediocre this year.

Who did Hilsboro all lose last year? besides Suchor and Mclean

Dyhardballa09 and Flip are right on with their analysis. I too think Thompson will surpass LAE and get into the playoffs.

What I see in Hillsboro's defense is that their linebackers are smallish this year. They don't have the gap-stuffers they have been fortunate to have in the past. The linebackers are fast - their side to side pursuit is very good, but they don't have the bulk to stand in the hole and stop a running back cold. They are going to have to come up with a plan to get more bodies to the point of attack.

When you look at the size Drayton has up front, they should have never tried a spread offense. They need to use those big boys up front to open holes for some pretty good running backs. I think they learned something against Hillsboro and they could contend for a playoff spot.

the freak wrote:Who did Hilsboro all lose last year? besides Suchor and Mclean

Suchor and McLean are huge losses to their defense. They lost their whole interior offensive line - Suchor, Murphy, and Stallman. Murphy played the nose and Stallman was a d-end. They also lost their other end - Anderson.

Week 2 picks:

Central Valley @ Dakota Prairie - CV
Hope-Page/Finley-Sharon @ Drayton/Valley-Edinburg - DVE
Cavalier @ North Border - Cavalier
Hillsboro @ New Rockford/Sheyenne - Hillsboro
Lakota/Adams-Edmore @ Thompson - Thompson

Hinsa wrote:Week 2 picks:

Central Valley @ Dakota Prairie - CV
Hope-Page/Finley-Sharon @ Drayton/Valley-Edinburg - DVE
Cavalier @ North Border - Cavalier
Hillsboro @ New Rockford/Sheyenne - Hillsboro
Lakota/Adams-Edmore @ Thompson - Thompson

Hinsa...question for you...since you know Region 2 better than most others on this site. Is Dakota Prairie really that down?