Panthers win football opener

With a 20-6 defeat of New London-Spicer on Saturday, Aug. 22, the Glencoe-Silver Lake football team not only opened the 2015 season with a victory, it also gained a measure of revenge for a 13-12 loss to the Wildcats in the 2014 Class AAA State Tournament semifinals.

“We don’t reflect on the past,” coach Scott Tschimperle said of the win in relation to last year’s state tournament defeat. “We have a lot of respect for New London-Spicer and our kids were confident that we could win that game.”

Both teams looked quite a bit different than they did last November on a frosty field at Eden Prairie High School. While Saturday’s weather was reminiscent more of late September or October with slate gray windswept skies and intermittent rain, the Panthers made it a sunny outcome for the visiting side.

Safety/multi-back Teddy Petersen got the afternoon off to a rollicking star, by intercepting a NL-S pass on the first play of the game to set the Panthers up at the Wildcats’ 9-yard line.

While GSL turned the ball away on a fumble three plays later, the tone was set for the day with the visitors establishing an early upper hand.

“There were some first-game jitters,” Tschimperle said. “We played better as the game went on.”

For more on this story, see the August 26 issue of the Chronicle.