WJONAM

The Gopher Football team won their season opener 30-27 in 3 overtimes at UNLV Thursday night. Jordan Wettstein made a 32-yard field goal in the 3rd overtime to win the game. Marquis Gray threw for 269 yards and 2 touchdowns and ran for 68 yards. Gray missed on some possible touchdown passes earlier in the game and threw for 1 interception that set up UNLV's first field goal.

The St. Cloud State Football team began the season with a 32-19 loss at home to the University of Sioux Falls Thursday night. SCSU trailed 29-13 at halftime. Phil Klaphake was 15-37 passing for 223 yards and a touchdown with an interception. Klaphake also ran for 119 yards and a scored for SCSU. Austin Harrington led the Huskies with 6 catches for 134 yards and a touchdown.

The Vikings lost their final preseason game 28-24 at Houston Thursday night. Some players made strong cases to make the Viking final roster including receiver Jarius Wright and running back Jordan Todman. Wright led the Vikings with 6 catches for 122 yards and a touchdown. Todman carried the ball 10 times for 114 yards including a 76-yard touchdown run. Devin Aromoshodu is also on the bubble to make the team. He had 5 catches for 89 yards.

The Twins lost 5-4 at home against Seattle Thursday in the final game of a 4-game series. Josh Willingham's dropped ball in the 6th inning led to 4 Seattle runs and may have cost the Twins the game. Willingham did hit a 2-run homerun later in the game. Alexi Casilla was 2-3 with 2 runs scored and 1 RBI and Brian Duensing threw 5 1/3 innings with 4 hits and 3 earned runs allowed to take the loss and drop to 3-10.

You might spot a highly unusual vehicle here in our area during the next couple of days - and you will certainly recognize it. The famous Oscar Mayer Wienermobile will be making several stops around central Minnesota through Saturday.

The St. John's football team is looking for improvement on their 6-4 finish in 2011. The Johnnies didn't have stability at quarterback in 2011 but this season they appear to have that. Connor Bruns has emerged as the starting quarterback and will start week one against Northwestern University Saturday at 1pm at Clemens Stadium.

The High School Football season begins Friday for the majority of the area schools. Every year is different and every team is different but tradition and tradition of success remains. After looking at the schedules and knowing what each team has back I like the prospects of St. Cloud Tech in 2012. I expect the Tigers to finish the regular season with with record of 7-1 and be the #1 seed in their newly formed section.

Red Cross volunteers from St. Cloud are in Louisiana helping victims of Hurricane Isaac. Spokeswoman Carry Carlson-Guest says Dick and Judy Pike are driving one of the Emergency Response Vehicles.

The Gopher football team begins the 2012 season at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas at 10pm (CT) tonight, pregame on AM 1390-the Fan at 9:00. Minnesota was 3-9 in 2011 under, then first year head coach Jerry Kill. Kill has increased his win total in his 2nd year at each location his been at in his coaching career. Senior Marquis Gray will get the start at quarterback.

The Vikings close the preseason schedule tonight when they play at Houston against the Texans at 6pm, pregame on WJON at 5:00. The Vikings will sit many of their starters including quarterback Christian Ponder. Joe Webb will get the start at quarterback followed by Sage Rosenfels and McLeod Bethel-Thompson. The Vikings will also get a long look at receivers Manny Arceneaux, Devin Aromashodu, Stephen Burton, and Jarius Wright.