State football notes
Information about the tournament
There have been adjustments made in the schedule for the state Class AA football playoffs.
Friday’s Jackson County Central-Central Public Schools (Norwood Young America) winner advances to the semifinals on Friday, Nov. 15 at U.S. Bank Stadium. Rather than the Class AA semifinal games being played back-to-back, there will be two games in between.
The Nov. 15 scenario for the Huskies:
JCC and Chatfield win: The Huskies play at 9 a.m.
JCC and Triton win: The Huskies play at 4:30 p.m.
The Minnesota State High School League made the change to get fans of the competing teams in and out of the seating area quicker by alternating games between smaller and larger schools.
Here’s the schedule of games on Nov. 15:
9 a.m. – Class AA Low South vs. High North
11:30 a.m. – Class AAAA Low North vs. High South
2 p.m. – Class AAAAA Low South vs. High North
4:30 p.m. – Class AA Low North vs. High South
7:30 p.m. – Class AAAAAA TBD
Prep Bowl
The schedule for the state championship games is also a little different.
Instead of being played on the Friday and Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend, they will be played Nov. 22-23.
The schedule:
Friday, Nov. 22
10 a.m. – Class A
1 p.m. – Class AAAA
4 p.m. – Class AA
7 p.m. – Class AAAAAA
Saturday, Nov. 23
10 a.m. - 9 player
1 p.m. – Class AAA
4 p.m. – Class AAAAA
Local officials
Two Lakefield residents will be officiating in the state tournament.
Alex Hein and Eric Kruger are on a crew with Scott Monson (Minneota superintendent and Eric’s brother-in-law) along with Rob and Bryce Jergenson of Morris.
That crew is scheduled to do the 9 a.m. Class AA semifinal on Nov. 15, but JCC could be involved in that game.
If that’s the case, they’ll get rescheduled to another game, possibly just to the other Class AA semifinal.
Alex said the crew is very excited to work the game and is doing a lot of diving into the rulebook to prepare.
Also officiating in the tourney will be Doug Storbeck of Welcome.
And then there are these gentlemen from Fairmont who will be working games:
Lee Baarts
Justin Borchardt
Spencer Chirpich
TJ Pyletski
Greg Thiesse
Chris Voss
Jordan Voss
Cardinals in tourney
Speaking of Fairmont, the Cardinals will be making their 13th state tourney appearance when they face Dassel-Cokato at 3 p.m. Saturday in a Class AAA quarterfinal at Minneapolis Washburn. It’s the seventh with Mat Mahoney at the helm.
Fairmont is 8-2. The Cardinals lost 20-19 at Waseca in Week 8. They would beat the Bluejays 17-12 in the Section 3AAA championship game in New Ulm.
The other loss was 28-9 to Class AAAA state entrant Marshall in Week 6.
D-C is 9-1, losing only to Class AAAA Princeton 23-13 in a Week 8 game that saw both teams entering the contest with a 7-0 record. Princeton finished 9-1, losing to Becker (10-0) in the Section 8AAAA championship game.
Fairmont state tournament appearances: 1978, 1982, 1989, 1992, 1996, 1997, 2011 AAA Runner-up, 2013, 2017, 2018 AAA Runner-up, 2021, 2022, 2024.
Two dozen unbeatens
Jackson County Central is one of 24 teams that remain undefeated heading into the state tournament.
There are a total of 56 teams still chasing state championships with eight in each of the seven classes. Quarterfinal round games will be played at various sites Thursday through Saturday.
Class 2A has the highest number of undefeated teams as six of the eight teams have yet to lose.
Here’s the complete list of unbeatens with the teams listed alphabetically by class:
9-player (4): Fertile-Beltrami, Hills-Beaver Creek, LeRoy-Ostrander/Lyle-Pacelli, Mountain Iron-Buhl.
Class 1A (5): Goodue, Mahnomen/Waubun, Minneota, Springfield, Upsala/Swanville.
Class 2A (6): Barnesville, Chatfield, Jackson County Central, Kimball Area, Norwood Young America, Staples-Motley.
Class 3A (4): Albany, Fergus Falls, Pequot Lakes, Stewartville.
Class 4A (2): Becker, Totino-Grace
Class 5A (2): Owatonna, Robbinsdale Armstrong.
Class 6A (1): Maple Grove.
Regular season rematch
Thursday’s Chatfield-Triton quarterfinal in Hastings is a rematch of a regular season game.
The top-seeded Gophers were 33-6 winners over the fourth-seeded Cobras in Week 5 in Chatfield.
Triton’s other loss was 36-6 to Cannon Falls in Week 6. Cannon Falls lost 21-14 to Norwood Young America in the Section 4AA championship game.
Walters on Huskies’ staff
A former Jackson and Jackson County Central teacher and coach is on the coaching staff at Owatonna.
Those Huskies are 10-0 and seeded first in the south half of Class AAAAA and will play fourth-seeded Cretin-Derham Hall (6-4) at 1 p.m. Saturday at Eastview High School.
The former Amboy-Good Thunder and Minnesota-Morris standout is in his 24th year on the staff at Owatonna. He’s the head ninth grade coach and an assistant on the varsity.
Deano was an assistant coach at Jackson High School under Tyrone Wacker and was also the head coach of the Blue Jays for three seasons. The 1994 Jackson squad went 9-2 and made it to the section title game, losing 15-7 to Madelia/Truman.
He was also an assistant coach on a pair of teams coached by Darren Baartman that made it to Prep Bowl.
Walters retired from teaching in 2021. He is also the head golf coach at Maple River.
Other state tourney notes
Minneota, winner of the last two Class A state championships, is the South No. 1 seed and plays Lester Prairie at Jordan on Friday. Springfield, Class A runner-up to Minneota the last two seasons, is the South No. 3 seed and meets Goodhue.
Cromwell-Wright upset No. 1 seed Nevis, 20-14, in the Section 5 9-Player final. That came five weeks after a 48-8 loss to the defending state champion Tigers.
Saturday’s schedule features a rematch of last year’s thrilling Class AAAAA championship game won by Chanhassen, 34-31 in overtime over St. Thomas Academy. They are the No. 2 and 3 seeds in the South bracket and meet again at Osseo at noon.
Also on Saturday, reigning Class AAA champion Stewartville faces Holy Family Catholic in the South 1-vs.-4 matchup at Totino-Grace.
Monticello is making its first state tournament appearance since 1988. The Magic are the North No. 4 seed in Class AAAAA.
Other top seeds include Elk River and Owatonna in Class AAAAA, Becker and Totino-Grace in Class AAAA, Fergus Falls in Class AAA, Kimball and Chatfield in Class AA, Upsala/Swanville in Class A and Mountain Iron-Buhl and LeRoy-Ostrander-Lyle-Pacelli in Class 9-Player.