The Bears tallied their 4th win of the season against their archrivals, the Breck Mustangs. It was the first homecoming win for Blake that anyone on this year’s team has experienced from the sidelines. The Bears improved to four and one after the 34-13 win, and are now in first place in the Tri-Metro Conference West Division. Despite shutting out the Mustangs in the first half, the team knows it can play better, “we started making some sloppy mistakes towards the end, but we still got the win,” says running back Marcus Berg. Sophomore Michael Malecha adds, “I think we relied more on brute force rather than intelligent calculations,” even going as far as to say that, “the game wasn’t fun to watch or play.” Senior Noah Smith agrees, “We played extremely well in the first half, but the second half was full of mistakes and penalties that made the game frustrating to play and frustrating to watch.” Even though it may not have been the Bears best game, the team was satisfied with the result, “it’s always good to beat Breck,” says Berg.

Players have differing views on why the team has been more successful this year than in past years, but they all agreed that senior leadership has been vital, “we have a lot of veterans on the team who have been playing together for a long time,” Berg thinks. Smith explains that more seniors lead to increased physicality, “the amount of physicality that we play with hasn’t been the case in years past,” and that practices are, “a much more competitive atmosphere.” Malecha thinks that teamwork has been essential this season, “we’re playing more as a team rather than just individuals,” and that, “instead of individuals just being hot-shots, we have a sense of unity among the players.” The Bears are certainly getting contributions from a plethora of players, especially from the fourteen seniors on the roster, but the offense is undoubtedly led by Marcus Berg, who is ranked 9th in the state with 725 rushing yards this season, according to the Star Tribune. When asked about why the team is better this year, senior Marissa Bernstein said, “because we’re winning, and our seniors are really good.”

Blake has high expectations and lofty dreams for the rest of the season. All three players interviewed said that the team hopes to win the rest of its regular season games. The bears have three difficult, yet very winnable games to finish out the season. These last three games are vital to the Bears chances in the postseason, “our goal is to get a home playoff game,” says Berg. The closing stretch begins on Friday, October 4th, at Providence, where the bears expect a very competitive game, “it’s gonna be neck and neck,” says Malecha, and continues at Concordia, and finally at home versus SPA. Blake also hopes to go far in the postseason, “other teams in our section are very strong, but we think we have a chance to make it at least to the section finals,” believes Smith. Elaborating on the possibility of making it to state, Malecha remarked, “I think it’s a big dream, and it’s gonna take a lot of hard work to get to, but like anything, if you believe enough I think you can do it.” Smith also has dreams of making the state tournament in his senior year, saying, “the sky is the limit in the state tournament.”