On Friday September 9th,  the Stillwater Ponies beat the Roseville Raiders in the first game on the new turf at Pony Stadium. The atmosphere was electric as the defense once again played lockdown and the offense scored early.

Pony Stadium is one of the most prime time pieces of real estate in the district, and the Ponies advanced to 2-0 last Friday in front of a home crowd in the newly renovated stadium. One of the biggest upgrades that may ever happen to the stadium took place over the Summer, and the team had a chance to make history because this was it’s debut. Playing a much tougher opponent in Roseville, the Ponies came out and proved they are a powerful football team, winning 14-0.

Pony Stadium has undergone one of the biggest renovations people might ever see: Brand new turf on three practice fields and on the main field.  This year’s team will go down in history as the first to use this amazing new facility, and they are starting off strong.  The first game of the season was at Eagan, so they got a little warm up before they came back to take on Roseville at the home opener.

“We share with our football players that when you play for a school that’s had football for 121 years, that’s had a great deal of success, it’s difficult to make history.” Head coach Beau Labore said. “But with the stadium opening in 2002 and now receiving its biggest facelift and probably biggest investment that it will have for any of our lifetimes, they have an opportunity to go out and play Ponies’ football and open the stadium the right way.”

The Ponies did indeed open it up the right way, beating Roseville 14-0. No one wanted to lose the first game on the new turf, and it showed in that game.  The defense kept Roseville scoreless and even came up with a key goal line stop in the fourth quarter.

Senior captain Graham Laubscher said, “I believe that the team played very well.  I think the idea of the first game on turf gave us extra motivation to give everything we had and it turned out to be enough to get the win”.

This was a statement win for the Ponies, not only because it was the first one on the new turf, but also because it proved that the week one victory was no fluke. Many people doubted them saying that Eagan was just a bad team, and that the ponies weren’t actually that good. But coming out and playing that type of game against a much better team in Roseville, proved they really are a powerhouse.

When asked about it, Senior captain Graham Laubscher said, “I feel like that game held a lot of value because it in a way proved that our win against Eagan wasn’t a one time thing. We came out and proved we can play football against a good team. The more valuable games are coming though, as we play some of the best teams in the conference down the stretch, but I feel like this win will give us much more confidence going into those games.”

The grand opening of the turf did live up to all the hype. The ponies got a win and proved they are not to be under estimated. When asked about the atmosphere of the game, junior backup quarterback Mark Roettger said, “It was wild, after every big play the fans went crazy, it was just really fun to be apart of and experience.” That is a perfect way of describing the home opener, and hopefully that energy can remain that strong through the season.