The 2016 pony football season is underway and high expectations have already been set for the Ponies, as they have shown a lot of promise in the first two games. The team definitely still has some questions to answer, but going 2-0 to start the season has the Ponies starting off on the right foot.

The Ponies finished last year with a record of 6-4 as they had a five game winning streak before losing to Lakeville North to end their season, via www.poniesfootball.com. The team lost a lot of seniors from last year, so it’s interesting to see the team succeed, but so far they (juniors and sophomores) have answered the call of stepping up and doing their job.  In addition, the roster is smaller as far as numbers go, but the Ponies are certain that the skill is most definitely there on the field even with some lack of depth at positions.

The first game of the season came a couple weeks ago on Thursday night when Stillwater went into Eagan and gave them a little taste of their own medicine after Eagan beat Stillwater last year by a score of 30-13 at Pony Stadium to start the year. The final score was 36-7 as the Pony offense erupted in the season debut. In addition, the Ponies were able to fight off Roseville in their first game on the new turf by a score of 14-0 to improve to 2-0 to start the season which is a wonderful start for a smaller, and younger team.

Coach LaBore hit on how big it was for the team to get a nice road victory in the season opener by saying, “It’s not so much about the win or loss column for us, but rather we care about how we prepare, execute, and the character that we exhibit while doing it. Three good weeks in practice helped a lot, and we played at a high level even though it was just the first game.”

The team is smaller in terms of roster size and is full of younger players (juniors and sophomores). However, the Ponies feel that if they work hard in practice day in and day out, they will be happy with the end results and believe they can possibly make a deep playoff run.

Senior captain Mitch Banken explained, “

Lastly, the senior players have been great role models and leaders to the underclassmen which has helped the team chemistry. In addition, the senior’s hard work and willingness to work hard each week has not gone unnoticed by coaches or these younger players.

Junior kicker Tyler Cullen said, “Their will to win is very apparent to us (underclassmen) and this need and want to win helps to keep us in line with them so that we both know what we are trying to achieve this season. If we can be on the same page, that will go a long way in deciding how well we do this year.”

All in all, the players and coaches for the 2016 Pony football team couldn’t be happier with their 2-0 start, but there’s still lots of work to do.

When asked about how far the Ponies can go, senior captain Mitch Banken explained, “We’ve been playing together for around five years now and are all extremely confident in the locker room and on the field. I think our chemistry this year makes us really focused to go out and make a run for it (state title).” It will be extremely interesting to see if the Ponies can do just that, and bring home the hardware.