Two Rivers football team wraps up Cinderella season, heading into Sections
MENDOTA HEIGHTS, Minn. — Two Rivers football has spent several seasons in a row without many wins, but that losing streak is over as they wrap up their regular season 7-1, beating Simley on Wednesday 38-21.
In six of those wins, the Warriors have outscored their opponents by more 20 points.
"It feels great. It's obviously a lot more fun winning games. There's a lot more buy-in from the community and the team," Riley Pearce, a standout senior running back and team captain, said.
Pearce credits the team's success to the work done in the offseason.
"Everyone was here every day this summer. We had 60 guys consistently, week in and week out. Putting the work in is finally paying off," said Pearce.
Max Mogelson, a senior captain who plays both sides of the ball, doesn't believe in resting on the success they've had so far.
"When you take a play off, a game off, take a day off ... you can't do that if you want to be great," said Mogelson. "Keeping the mindset of we're not finished and we're not satisfied with anything."
When Mogelson and Pearce were sophomores two years ago, the team lost every single game that season. Flash-forward to this season, they've won almost every game this season, and the Warriors are in the top of their conference.
"It would have been really easy for our seniors to say, 'I don't want to be a part of that,' but they didn't, they put in the work," said Tom Orth, co-head coach of the Two Rivers Football team, who has been coaching Warrior Football for over 30 years.
New this season, Orth is joined by Bruce Carpenter as his co-head coach. Carpenter spent his career coaching college, most recently for University of St. Thomas. He's bringing that knowledge to this team.
"Some of the expectations and some of the things that we're trying to do in how we practice and how we prepare, certainly comes from the college level," said Carpenter.
"[Carpenter] has brought so much knowledge, and knowledge of winning," said Pearce.
Pearce and Mogelson are captains for their second season, and bring their own knowledge to this team too, which is knowing how to lead through the lows and the highs.
"I think we have a pretty good balance. [Pearce] keeps me serious, I keep [Pearce} having fun and being goofy," said Mogelson.
The Warriors play Hastings Football on Tuesday, Oct. 24 in the Section 3AAAAA Quarterfinal. Hastings is the only team they lost to in the regular season.