In this edition of the notebook:
JCC is 5-0 for the 9th time in school history
A look at the Section 3AA teams
Why you might want to get a PTO request in
State Class 2A postseason schedule
Unbeaten Class 2A teams
A look at the district
How state-ranked teams fared this week
Two area losing streaks halted
Luverne wins again
Sleepy Eye United upends No. 2 Springfield
5-0 start
Friday’s win over Redwood Valley marks the ninth time in 27 seasons of Jackson County Central football that the Huskies have started the started the season with a 5-0 record.
Here are those seasons with the final record that year in parenthesis.
1997 (13-1)
2000 (10-1)
2003 (10-1)
2009 (9-2)
2016 (10-1)
2018 (9-2)
2019 (11-1)
2022 (12-1)
2023 (?)
Section 3AA
Here are this week’s results and next week’s schedule for teams in Section 3AA.
Friday, Sept. 29
Jackson County Central (5-0): defeated Redwood Valley 29-14
Redwood Valley (3-2): Lost to Jackson County Central 29-14
Minnesota Valley Lutheran (3-2): Lost to Pipestone 34-16
Pipestone (3-2): Defeated Minnesota Valley Lutheran 34-16
Sibley East (2-3): Defeated LeSueur-Henderson 16-8
LeSueur-Henderson (0-5): Lost to Sibley East 16-8
Lake Crystal Wellcome Memorial (0-5): Lost to Maple River 34-0
Windom (1-4): Defeated Russell-Tyler-Ruthton 28-20
Friday, Oct. 6
Jackson County Central (5-0): vs. Minnesota Valley Lutheran (3-2)
Redwood Valley (3-2): at Sibley East (2-3)
Minnesota Valley Lutheran (3-2): vs. Jackson County Central (5-0)
Pipestone (3-2): at Luverne (4-1)
Sibley East (2-3): vs. Redwood Valley (3-2)
LeSueur-Henderson (0-5): vs. Maple River (4-1)
Lake Crystal Wellcome Memorial (0-5): vs. Blue Earth Area (0-5)
Windom (1-4): vs. Wabasso (0-5)
Section championship game
Use any cliché you want such as not looking too far ahead or not putting the cart before the horse, but just the same….you may want to get a PTO request submitted when you go to work on Monday.
The Section 3AA quarterfinals are at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 24 and the semifinals are at 3 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 28. That’s nothing new. Most people are okay there.
Where it could get dicey for you is the championship game on Friday, Nov. 3.
Ever since Mattke Field at Southwest Minnesota State University in Marshall has been utilized for section championship games on the first Friday in November, the Section 3AA game has been the final game of the day.
This year, according to the brackets on the MSHSL website, the Section 3AA game will be first, scheduled for 11:30 a.m.
Here’s the schedule for that day:
11:30 a.m.: Section 3AA
2 p.m.: Section 3 9-player
4:30 p.m.: Section 5A
7 p.m.: Section 3A
Jackson County Central has advanced to the section title game in 10 straight seasons where the playoffs were played to a conclusion. The 2020 playoff format was altered after the first round due to COVID and no state tournament was held.
Five of those title game appearances were in Section 3AA and five in Section 3AAA.
Here are those section championship game appearances:
Section 3AA
2012 - Jackson County Central 35, Luverne 28
2013 - Jackson County Central 23, Maple River 7
2014 – Pipestone 42, Jackson County Central 16
Section 3AAA
2015 - Jackson County Central 35, Fairmont 12
2016 - Jackson County Central 21, Fairmont 14
2017 – Fairmont 29, Jackson County Central 21
2018 – Fairmont 35, Jackson County Central 18
2019 - Jackson County Central 36, Fairmont 12
Section 3AA
2021 – Pipestone 34, Jackson County Central 28
2022 – Jackson County Central 31, Pipestone 14
State Class 2A tournament
As long as you’re looking down the road for what’s ahead, here’s the state Class 2A playoff schedule:
Quarterfinals
Thursday, Nov. 9
Upper bracket
Section 3AA vs. Section 1AA at Rochester Mayo, 7 p.m.
Section 6AA vs. Section 8AA at Alexandria, 7 p.m.
Lower bracket
Section 4AA vs. Section 2AA at New Prague, 7 p.m.
Section 7AA vs. Section 5AA at Forest Lake, 7 p.m.
Semifinals
Friday, Nov. 17
At U.S. Bank Stadium
Upper-bracket winners, 9 a.m.
Lower-bracket winners, 11:30 a.m.
Prep Bowl
Friday, Nov. 24
At U.S. Bank Stadium
Semifinal winners, 1 p.m.
Undefeated teams
Jackson County Central is one of nine Class 2A football teams in the state that has a 5-0 record to start the season.
There had been 10 undefeated teams after last week, but Holdingford (Section 5AA) lost on Friday.
The number of unbeatens will be reduced by at least one more this Friday at Chatfield plays at Caledonia.
Undefeated Class 2A teams
1AA: Caledonia, Chatfield
2AA: None
3AA: Jackson County Central
4AA: Norwood Young America, St. Agnes
5AA: Eden Valley-Watkins, Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg
6AA: None
7AA: Barnum
8AA: Barnesville
Points per game
Jackson County Central ranks fifth in the state in Class 2A in points scored per game and seventh in points allowed.
For our purposes, we’re only including games played.
Using the four games played, JCC is scoring 40.7 points and allowing 8.2.
If you use the official score of 2-0 for the forfeit win over LeSueur-Henderson, those numbers change to 33.0 and 6.6.
Most points scored
Chatfield 46.4
Eden Valley-Watkins 46.4
Cannon Falls 45.4
Caledonia 42.0
Jackson County Central 40.7
Holdingford 39.6
Barnesville 38.4
Barnum 38.0
Staples-Motley 37.8
Pelican Rapids 36.8
Fewest points allowed
Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg 4.8
Norwood Young America 5.0
Chatfield 5.0
Caledonia 6.8
Barnesville 7.0
St. Agnes 7.8
Jackson County Central 8.2
Kimball Area 8.8
Aitkin 9.2
Eden Valley-Watkins 9.4
South Central Silver District
Jackson County Central plays in the South Central Silver District during the regular season. Here are this week’s results and next week’s schedule.
Friday, Sept. 29
Jackson County Central (5-0): Defeated Redwood Valley 29-14
Luverne (4-1): Defeated Blue Earth Area 30-7
Minnesota Valley Lutheran (3-2): Lost to Pipestone 34-16
Pipestone (3-2): Defeated at Minnesota Valley Lutheran 34-16
Redwood Valley (3-2): Lost to Jackson County Central 29-14
Friday, Oct. 6
Jackson County Central (5-0): vs. Minnesota Valley Lutheran (3-2)
Luverne (4-1): vs. Pipestone (3-2)
Minnesota Valley Lutheran (3-2): vs. Jackson County Central (5-0)
Pipestone (3-2): at Luverne (4-1)
Redwood Valley (3-2): at Sibley East (2-3)
How they fared
How the top 10 teams in last week’s Class 2A football poll fared this week.
Barnesville: Defeated Warroad 52-0
Caledonia: Defeated Dover-Eyota 20-13
Chatfield: Defeated Zumbrota-Mazeppa 40-7
Eden Valley-Watkins: Defeated Royalton 42-6
Jackson County Central: Defeated Redwood Valley 29-14
St. Agnes: Defeated Concordia Academy 42-0
Holdingford: Lost to Osakis 34-22
Barnum: Defeated East Central 53-6
(tie). Norwood Young America: Defeated Lester Prairie 14-12
Cannon Falls: Defeated LaCrescent-Hokah 71-40
Two losing streaks halted
Windom ended a 17-game losing streak with a 28-20 win over Russell-Tyler-Ruthton Friday in Tyler.
It was the first win for the Eagles since beating LeSueur-Henderson 28-0 on Oct. 1, 2001. Windom lost its final four games that season, was 0-9 in 2022 and started this season 0-4.
On Friday, Karson LaCanne scored three touchdowns, catching touchdown passes of 22 and 19 yards from Quintin Tietz and returning an interception 54 yards for a score.
Luverne wins third straight
After going 4-6 and 5-5 in the last two seasons, Luverne is off to a 4-1 start this season.
The Cardinals split their first two games and have won three straight by a margin of 101-7, beating Sibley East 35-0, Minnesota Valley Lutheran 36-0 and Blue Earth Area 30-7.
Sam Rock ran for two touchdowns for Luverne, which hosts Pipestone in the Battle Axe game next week.
SEU upends Springfield
The cooperatively sponsored Sleepy Eye United program (Sleepy Eye and Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s), which is in its first year, is 5-0 after upending Class 1A second-ranked Springfield 16-14 on Friday.
Caden Evers had 115 yards rushing and a touchdown for United. Jakob Nachreiner threw for 345 yards and a touchdown for the Tigers.
Sleepy Eye Public’s program had been having low participation numbers in recent seasons and had a 7-36 record in the last five years. St. Mary’s was a nine-player football program from 2017-2022.
Many of the players on the SEU squad were familiar with each other prior to this football season, having played on the Sleepy Eye Post 7 team that won the state Division II American Legion baseball title.
Sleepy Eye United will play Martin County West in Sherburn next Friday.