Football notes
Saturday is semifinal day for high school football section playoffs around the region.
Here’s a look at the pairings and who won the regular-season matchup if those teams played.
Section 3AA
Le Sueur-Henderson (5-4) at Jackson County Central (8-0): JCC 61-14
Redwood Valley (7-2) at Pipestone (6-2): Pipestone 14-0
Section 3A
Sleepy Eye United (6-3) at Springfield (8-0): Springfield 34-6
Murray County Central (7-2) at Adrian/Ellsworth (7-1): AE 13-11
Section 3AAA
Jordan (5-4) at Waseca (7-1): Waseca 38-21
Luverne (7-2) at Fairmont (6-2): DNP
Section 3 9-player
Alden-Conger/Glenville-Emmons (5-4) at Hills-Beaver Creek (8-0): DNP
Edgerton (6-3) at Mountain Lake Area (6-2): MLA 38-14
Section 2AAAA
Willmar (2-7) at Marshall (7-1): Marshall 33-7
St. Peter (4-4) at Hutchinson (3-5): DNP
State QRF rankings
Jackson County Central is third in the latest QRF rankings compiled by Minnesota-scores.net. Kimball Area is first and Chatfield second.
Three teams from Section 3AA are in the top 13 as Redwood Valley is 12th and Pipestone 13th. The Arrows host the Cardinals Saturday in the semifinals.
1. Kimball Area (8-0) 82.3
2. Chatfield (8-0) 81.4
3. Jackson County Central (8-0) 81.0
4. St. Agnes (6-2) 75.6
5. Barnesville (9-0) 74.2
6. Rush City (8-0) 73.8
7. Eden Valley-Watkins (6-1) 71.2
8. Caledonia (6-2) 69.0
9. Cannon Falls (7-2) 66.6
10. Staples-Motley (7-0) 65.2
11. Norwood Young America (9-0) 63.1
12. Redwood Valley (7-2) 61.8
13. Pipestone (6-2) 61.5
14. Pelican Rapids (8-1) 61.4
15. Barnum (9-0) 61.1
16. Triton (6-2) 58.9
17. Moose Lake-Willow River (7-2) 57.4
18. Holdingford (7-2) 57.1
19. Waterville-Elysian-Morristown (7-1) 55.9
20. e-Randolph (7-2) 53.3
Class 2A unbeatens
There are eight undefeated teams in Class 2A.
Two teams are unbeaten in Section 4AA and there are no unbeatens in Section 2AA.
Here’s the list of unbeaten teams by section:
1AA: Caledonia (8-0)
2AA: None
3AA: Jackson County Central (8-0)
4AA: Norwood Young America (9-0), Rush City (8-0)
5AA: Kimball Area (8-0)
6AA: Staples-Motley (8-0)
7AA: Barnum (9-0)
8AA: Barnesville (9-0)
School records
Before opening the Section 3AA football playoffs with a 34-13 victory over Windom Tuesday night, Redwood Valley had players set school records in two separate regular season games.
Senior Ethan Louwagie threw five touchdown passes for the Cardinals in a 56-7 win over Sibley East according to the Redwood Falls Gazette. He was 12-for-17 passing for 235 yards.
The next week, junior Lane Cooper set a school single-game rushing record with 260 yards in a 27-12 win over Minnesota Valley Lutheran. He averaged 10 yards per carry as he had 26 attempts and scored three touchdowns.
The Cardinals (7-2) will play at Pipestone in the semifinals Saturday.
Coyotes host playoff game
Heron Lake-Okabena/Fulda hosted a Section 3 9-player playoff game Tuesday for the first time in four years.
The fifth-seeded Coyotes lost to fourth-seeded Alden-Conger/Glenville-Emmons 43-0 in Fulda to finish the season with a 5-4 record.
HLOF went 5-1 in the COVID-altered 2020 season and then won a total of five games the next three years, going 3-6 in 2021, 0-9 in 2022 and 2-7 in 2023.
The last postseason win for the Coyotes was in 2020 when they won twice in four days.
After a first-round win over Granada-Huntley-East Chain/Truman in Fulda on a Tuesday, the playoff format was altered, and it was announced that the season would be canceled starting at midnight Saturday.
The Coyotes ended the season with a win over Edgerton in Heron Lake that Saturday.
Forfeits
Most sections in the state adopted formats this year to reduce the number of teams making the playoffs and reduce the number of first-round forfeits.
It appears that there were still three forfeits on Tuesday. Two were in one section and on the same side of the bracket.
In each case, the school forfeiting cited low player numbers causing a safety issue.
In Section 8A, seventh-seeded Cass Lake-Bena/Bug-O-Nay-Ge-Shig forfeited to second-seeded Red Lake County and sixth-seeded Red Lake forfeited to third-seeded Ada-Borup-West. Red Lake County now hosts Ada-Borup-West on Saturday.
The issue was limited to smaller classes, however.
Austin forfeited its first-round game in the five-team Section 1AAAA playoffs. The Packers were seeded fifth and the Winhawks fourth.
In each of those three cases, the team that forfeited finishes its season with an 0-9 record.
Hanging in there
The Bigfork Huskies did not forfeit their first-round Section 7 9-player game vs. Mountain Iron-Buhl even though they were aware they had a tall task in front of them.
The teams met in the regular-season finale on Oct. 16 with 9-player No. 2 MIB winning 76-6.
Six days later those teams matched up the opening round of section play with the Rangers winning that game 91-0.
Bigfork finished the season with a 1-8 record.
The Huskies forfeited to Cherry in Week 3, but earned their lone win in Week 5, beating Carlton/Wrenshall 60-0. In the eight games they played, Bigfork was outscored by an average of 49.8-16.5 as that 60-point outing skewed their average.
You may wonder about that Carlton/Wrenshall team lost to Bigfork.
Well, the Raptors, who had forfeited in Week 6 to Ogilvie, played their Section 5 game against top-ranked Nevis.
C/W lost to Nevis 52-8 to end its season 0-9.
However, that was a season low in points allowed for the Raptors, who also scored their first points of the season after being shut out seven times.