Football notes
Plenty of good stuff again in this edition
Two programs that Jackson County Central has played at U.S. Bank Stadium in recent years is the Class 2A Game of the Week for Week 6.
No. 4 Staples-Motley (5-0) of Section 6AA will play at Barnesville (4-1) of Section 8AA. The Trojans dropped out of the Top 10 this week, being replaced by Redwood Valley (4-1).
Barnesville’s loss was to No. 6 Pillager.
JCC defeated Staples-Motley for the state Class 2A title at Prep Bowl last year. The Huskies lost to Barnesville in the semifinals in 2022 and 2023.
Here’s how those teams have to this point:
Staples-Motley (5-0)
Staples-Motley 42, East Grand Forks 13
Staples-Motley 59, Roseau 8
Staples-Motley 43, Hawley 34
Staples-Motley 49, Perham 14
Staples-Motley 28, Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton 18
Barnesville (4-1)
Barnesville 52, Roseau 19
Barnesville 44, Pelican Rapids 36
Pillager 27, Barnesville 6
Barnesville 38, Hawley 36
Barnesville 20, Perham 13
Who they play
Here’s who the Top 10 teams in this week’s state Class 2A football poll play this week:
Class 2A
1. Jackson County Central (5-0): vs. Le Sueur-Henderson (4-1)
2. Chatfield (5-0): vs. St, Charles (1-4)
3. Holdingford (5-0): vs. Class 3A Melrose (3-2)
4. Staples-Motley (5-0): at Barnesville (4-1)
5. Goodhue (5-0): vs. Cannon Falls (3-2)
6. Pillager (5-0): vs. Class 3A Perham (2-3)
7. Waterville-Elysian-Morristown (5-0): vs. Blooming Prairie (1-4)
8. Moose Lake-Willow River (5-0): at Crosby-Ironton (2-3)
9. Redwood Valley (4-1): vs. Kimball Area (2-3)
10. Eden Valley-Watkins (3-2): at Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg (1-4)
Top 10 lists
Here are the top 10 teams in the state in points scored per game and points allowed across the seven classes after five weeks, with classification in parenthesis.
57.6: Jackson County Central (2A)
53.2: Hills-Beaver Creek (9-player)
53.0: Minneota (1A)
51.4: Springfield (1A)
49.2: Edgerton (9-player)
48.8: Hermantown (4A)
44.2: Staples-Motley (2A)
43.8: Annandale (3A)
43.8: Pequot Lakes (3A)
43.6: Hillcrest Lutheran Academy (9-player)
43.6: Wabasso (9-player)
Points against
1.6: Mahnomen/Waubun (1A)
2.8: Edgerton (9-player)
3.8: Marshall (4A)
4.0: St. Peter (4A)
4.2: Pine Island (3A)
4.4: Annandale (3A)
4.5: Cook County (9-player)
5.4: Le Sueur-Henderson (2A)
6.4: Waseca (3A)
6.8: Goodhue (2A)
Top-ranked teams
If you read the newsletter about this week’s state ratings that I posted Wednesday, I mislead you a bit.
I mentioned the nine-player heavyweight matchup in Hills where No. 1 Hills-Beaver Creek (5-0) hosts No. 3 Edgerton (5-0).
Well, there’s a similar clash in Class 4A with No. 1 Byron (5-0) entertaining No. 3 Kasson-Mantorville (5-0).
Here’s who the number one ranked team in each class plays this week:
9-player: Hills-Beaver Creek (5-0) vs. No. 3 Edgerton (5-0)
Class 1A: Minneota (5-0): vs. Lac qui Parle Valley (0-5)
Class 2A: Jackson County Central (5-0) vs. Le Sueur-Henderson (4-1)
Class 3A: Annandale (5-0) vs. Rockford (1-4)
Class 4A: Byron (5-0) vs. No. 3 Kasson-Mantorville (5-0)
Class 5A: St. Thomas Academy (5-0) vs. Hastings (3-2)
Class 6A: Maple Grove (5-0) vs. St. Michael-Albertville (1-4)
Things can change
When putting together the previous section on the state’s top-ranked teams I was struck about a couple of changes over the past quarter century.
Two postseason opponents in the early years of Jackson County Central were Kasson-Mantorville and St. Michael-Albertville. At the time, all three schools competed in Class 3A in a six-class football format.
JCC and K-M met up twice, with the Huskies winning each time.
In 1998 they played in the state Class 3A quarterfinals on a muddy track on a foggy night in Kasson, with the Huskies winning 27-19. By 2001 both teams were in Section 3AAA, with JCC shutting out K-M 21-0 in the championship game at Swearingen Field.
Before that, JCC was a 35-15 winner over St. Michel-Albertville 15 in the state Class 3A semifinals at the Metrodome in 1997.
Now:
Jackson County Central competes in Class 2A with an enrollment of 285
Kasson-Mantorville competes in Class 4A with an enrollment of 617
St. Michael-Albertville competes in Class 6A with an enrollment of 2,071
Unbeaten teams
The number of unbeaten teams in the state across the seven classes is now 44 after there were 52 heading into last week.
Mankato West junior linebacker Hudson Clarksean, the son of Jackson County Central graduate Dallas Clarksean, played a hand in one of the unbeatens falling as he had nine tackles including a sack as the Scarlets were 28-21 winners over Class 5A No. 2 Chaska.
Class 3A was guaranteed to lose one undefeated team and wound up losing three:
No. 1 Annandale defeated No. 4 Holy Family Catholic 30-10 in a game matching teams coming in unbeaten.
No. 10 Luverne lost the Battle Axe game 20-16 at Pipestone.
Unranked Breck lost for the first time, falling 28-26 to Concordia Academy.
Class 1A also had a matchup of teams matching 4-0 records coming in as No. 7 Breckenridge routed No. 9 Otter Tail Central 42-0.
One team fell from the unbeaten ranks in nine-player as Spring Grove topped No. 2 Kingsland 14-8.
At least one more nine-player unbeaten will fall this week as No. 1 Hills-Beaver Creek hosts No. 4 Edgerton.
In Class 4A, No. 5 Hermantown took its first loss, 34-20 at home to unranked Grand Rapids.
The number of unbeatens in the other classes remained the same as all eight Class 2A and each of the three Class 6A unbeatens won.
Here’s the list for each class. Listed are section, team and record in parenthesis.
9-player (10)
1 9P: Mabel-Canton (5-0)
2 9P: Red Rock Central (5-0), Wabasso (5-0)
3 9P: Edgerton (5-0), Hills-Beaver Creek (5-0)
4 9P: Hillcrest Lutheran Academy (5-0)
5 9P: Bertha-Hewitt (5-0), Mille Lacs (5-0)
6 9P: None
7 9P: Cook County (4-0)
8 9P: Kittson County Central (6-0)
Class 1A (7)
1A: Fillmore Central (5-0)
2A: Cleveland (5-0)
3A: Springfield (5-0)
4A: Minneota (5-0)
5A: None
6A: Breckenridge (5-0)
7A: Mountain Iron-Buhl (5-0)
8A: Mahnomen/Waubun (5-0)
Class 2A (8)
1AA: Chatfield (5-0)
2AA: Waterville-Elysian-Morristown (5-0)
3AA: Jackson County Central (5-0)
4AA: Goodhue (5-0)
5AA: None
6AA: Holdingford (5-0), Pillager (5-0), Staples-Motley (5-0)
7AA: Moose Lake-Willow River (5-0)
8AA: None
Class 3A (8)
1AAA: Pine Island (5-0)
2AAA: None
3AAA: Albert Lea (5-0), Waseca (5-0)
4AAA: Minneapolis North (5-0), St. Croix Lutheran (5-0)
5AAA: Annandale (5-0)
6AAA: None
7AAA: Pequot Lakes (5-0), Pierz (5-0)
8AAA: None
Class 4A (5)
1AAAA: Byron (5-0), Kasson-Mantorville (5-0)
2AAAA: Marshall (5-0)
3AAAA: None
4AAAA: None
5AAAA: None
6AAAA: None
7AAAA: North Branch (5-0)
8AAAA: Fergus Falls (5-0)
Class 5A (3)
1AAAAA: None
2AAAAA: None
3AAAAA: St. Thomas Academy (5-0)
4AAAAA: Mahtomedi (5-0)
5AAAAA: None
6AAAAA: Spring Lake Park (5-0)
7AAAAA: None
8AAAAA: None
Class 6A (3)
3AAAAAA: None
4AAAAAA: Forest Lake (5-0)
5AAAAAA: None
6AAAAAA: Maple Grove (5-0), Minnetonka (5-0)
Tracking Hudson
More Hudson Clarksean news.
He had another Game Day visit last weekend as he was in Columbia, Missouri as the Tigers of the SEC improved to 5-0 with a 42-6 nonconference win over UMass.
Missouri moved up to 19th in this week’s AP ratings and has a big game this week when it hosts No. 10 Alabama (3-1).
Hudson is the son of JCC graduate Dallas and his wife, Nicki, and the grandson of Charlie and Linda Clarksean of Alpha.
Hudson has made trips to Big 10 schools Michigan, Michigan State and Wisconsin recently, as well as Kansas State of the Big 12.
K-State posted this graphic of Hudson this week:
Hudson (6-1, 195) is listed as an Athlete. He’s 38th in Minnesota’s Class of 2027 rankings by prepredzone.com, sixth among those at the Athlete position.
Section records
The overall records of teams in each section and this week’s games.
Section 3AA
Jackson County Central 5-0
LeSueur-Henderson 4-1
Pipestone 3-2
Lake Crystal Wellcome Memorial 3-2
Windom 3-2
Minnesota Valley Lutheran 0-5
Sibley East 0-5
Friday, Oct. 3
Le Sueur-Henderson at Jackson County Central
Windom at Sibley East
Pipestone at Lake Crystal Wellcome Memorial
Luverne at Minnesota Valley Lutheran
Section 2AA
Waterville-Elysian-Morristown 5-0
Maple River 3-2
Blue Earth Area 3-2
Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton 2-3
St. Clair/Loyola 2-3
Blooming Prairie 1-4
Medford 0-5
Friday, Oct. 3
St. Clair/Loyola at Blue Earth Area
Maple River at Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City
Blooming Prairie at Waterville-Elysian-Morristown
Medford at Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton
Section 2A
Cleveland 5-0
Mayer Lutheran 4-1
St. James Area 3-2
Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop 3-2
Lester Prairie 2-3
Martin County West 1-4
Madelia 0-5
Friday, Oct. 3
Martin County West at St. James Area
Cleveland at Mayer Lutheran
Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop at Lester Prairie
Yellow Medicine East at Madelia
Section 3AAA
Albert Lea 5-0
Waseca 5-0
Luverne 4-1
Fairmont 3-2
Belle Plaine 2-3
Tri-City United 0-5
Worthington 0-5
Friday, Oct. 3
Belle Plaine at Fairmont
Waseca at Worthington
Luverne at Minnesota Valley Lutheran
New Ulm at Tri-City United
St. Peter at Albert Lea
Section 2AAAA
Marshall 5-0
Rocori 4-1
St. Peter 4-1
New Ulm 2-3
Willmar 2-3
Hutchinson 1-4
Friday, Oct. 3
Orono at Marshall
St. Peter at Albert Lea
New Ulm at Tri-City United
Fergus Falls at Rocori
St. Cloud Tech at Willmar
Hutchinson at Detroit Lakes
Section 3 9-player
Edgerton 5-0
Hills-Beaver Creek 5-0
Adrian-Ellsworth 3-2
Alden-Conger/Glenville-Emmons 3-2
GHEC/Truman 2-3
Heron Lake-Okabena/Fulda 1-4
Bethlehem Academy 0-5
Mountain Lake Area 0-5
Friday, Oct. 3
Heron Lake-Okabena/Fulda at Westbrook-Walnut Grove
Edgerton at Hills-Beaver Creek
Adrian/Ellsworth at GHEC/Truman
Saturday, Oct. 4
Red Rock Central at Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart
Cedar Mountain at Renville County West
Section 2 9-player
Red Rock Central 5-0
Wabasso 5-0
Cedar Mountain 2-3
Renville County West 2-3
New Ulm Cathedral 2-3
Nicollet 2-3
Westbrook-Walnut Grove 2-3
Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart 0-5
Friday, Oct. 3
Heron Lake-Okabena/Fulda at Westbrook-Walnut Grove
Nicollet at Wabasso
Saturday, Oct. 4
Red Rock Central at Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart
Cedar Mountain at Renville County West