Page 8 Stillwater Ponies Football Preview • Friday , August 23 , 2024 stillwatergazette . com

Stillwater junior running back returns after rushing for 707 yards on 123 carries ( 5.7 avg .) with nine touchdowns and also hauled in 20 catches for 256 yards and two more scores .

( Continued from page 7 )

( 6-3 , 180 ), junior Owen Egge ( 5- 10 , 170 ) and sophomore Carter Zollar ( 6-3 , 200 ), among others . Senior Enzo DeAgazio was also expected to contribute , but an injury has taken him out of the mix .

“ There will be a lot of competition at the wide receiver position ,” LaBore said . “ There is a lot of competition there .

“ We like that there ’ s more than four . We threw the ball 57 times against Woodbury last year so that ’ s a lot of routes to run in one night .”

Egge caught 25 passes for 327 yards ( 13.1 avg .) and three touchdowns as a sophomore last season at St . Michael-Albertville , a more run-oriented team . He is expected to make an immediate impact with the Ponies .

“ That ’ s still kind of coming together ,” LaBore said . “ We ’ re definitely going to miss two record-setting wide receivers , but we know Egge is going to really develop in the way we do things and Carter Zollar could step in right away as a 10th-grader . We also have other guys who are able to step in to fill roles , but we ’ ll have to see .”

Delivering the ball is Kinsey ( 6-2 , 210 ), who tied a school record with four touchdown passes in a game during victories over White Bear Lake and Rochester Mayo . He also set school records with 28 completions and 48 passing attempts against Woodbury . Kinsey completed 164 of 285 passes ( 57.5 percent ) for 2,268 yards and 24 touchdowns with just four interceptions in 10 games .

He became just the second Stillwater football player to earn all-sub district ( all-conference ) honors as a sophomore — dominating defensive lineman Nate Dwyer in 1994 was the other .

“ That is incredibly rare ,” said LaBore , nothing Dwyer is the only Ponies player to earn allconference honors three times .

“ Nick has found the weight room and he is bigger , faster and stronger ,” LaBore said . “ He ’ s a presence and he has crossed the entire country for 7-on-7 tournaments , various Division I football camps and other opportunities to fine-tune his skill set . We expect him to have a great year .”

Connor McGlynn delivered an impressive performance while making one start at quarterback last season , completing 13 of 17 passes for 161 yards and a touchdown in the victory over Park . He might be used there again if the situation requires it , but sophomore Jack Runk is also taking reps at quarterback .

Emilio Rosario Matias ( 5-7 , 200 ) rushed for 707 yards on 123 carries ( 5.7 avg .) with nine touchdowns a year ago , in addition to catching 20 passes for

256 yards ( 12.8 avg .) and two scores .

“ Emilio lifts with the offensive linemen ,” LaBore said . “ He is very strong and he ’ s also gotten faster . He ’ s poised to have a great junior season after sharing some time with Sam ( Young ) last year . Hopefully Emilio has a lot of opportunities to catch the ball , too .”

See Offense , Page 9

2024 Stillwater JV football schedule

2024 Stillwater sophomore football schedule