A Redwood Valley team that gave Jackson County Central its closest game of the season to date will be the opponent for the Huskies in the championship game of the Section 3AA football playoffs at 11:30 a.m. Friday at Mattke Field at Southwest Minnesota State University in Marshall.
JCC beat the Cardinals by 15 points (29-14) in its homecoming game on Sept. 29. The next closest margins of victory have been a pair of 34-point wins (34-0 over Luverne and 48-14 over Pipestone).
The Huskies had a 21-0 lead over Redwood just past the midway point of the first quarter that night but were haunted by mistakes the rest of the night and the Cardinals were able to stay within striking distance.
Jackson County Central had a season-high in points scored in the section semifinals as they defeated Minnesota Valley Lutheran 55-13.
Seth Stai ran for three touchdowns and Roman Voss ran for two more and also caught a TD pass.
“Our line is playing awesome right now,” said Stai, a senior. “It’s pretty much impossible not to find a hole right now. Everyone is doing their job. Our offense is clicking. We’re playing the best we have all season.”
Jackson County Central piled up 451 yards offense last week, 408 rushing and 43 passing while allowing the Chargers 182 yards, 95 rushing and 87 passing.
“We have to focus on our pass coverage a little more,” Stai commented. “But we’re lights out against the run and that’s good in the playoffs.”
Friday’s game, and any subsequent games are going to be played on a turf field and not on a muddy surface like last week.
“We’ll be playing on an artificial surface, so the game will be much faster,” said Schuller. “The field conditions aren’t going to slow anybody down. Redwood really throws the ball well. They have a nice quarterback and two really good wide receivers. That’s going to be a challenge for us.”
How about as far as when JCC is on offense?
“We have to be able to throw a lot of stuff at them,” said Schuller, who has a team in a section final for the 11th straight year.
“We need to stay balanced and hit them with some pass and some run,” he said. “We played a really good first quarter against them last time and then not so good the rest of the way. We need to continue to increase our depth, and we’re hopefully going in moderately healthy.”
Bryson Powers missed the MVL game and his status for Friday’s title game is uncertain.
NOTES
Friday will end a streak of four straight JCC-Redwood games being played in Jackson.
This is the third consecutive year the Huskies and Cardinals have met in the postseason.
Redwood Valley is playing in a section championship game for the second time in five years and the fourth time since 2003.
Cardinals’ coach Matt Lundeen is the son of Becker coach Dwight Lundeen. The elder Lundeen has his team in the Section 8AAAA championship game vs. Rocori Friday in Monticello. JCC beat Becker 42-7 for the state Class 3A title in 2001.
The JCC-Redwood game is the first of four at SMSU Friday. Hills-Beaver Creek plays Edgerton for the Section 3 9-player title at 2 p.m., Minneota plays BOLD in Section 5A at 4:30 p.m. and Sleepy Eye United takes on Springfield in Section 3A at 7 p.m.
Ninth-ranked Moose Lake-Willow River is the first team to qualify for the state Class 2A football tournament. The Rebels (10-1) handed Barnum (10-1) its first loss of the season, 13-0, in the Section 7AA title game Thursday night in Esko. Barnum had defeated MLWR 28-22 in Week 1.
Jackson County Central
HEAD COACH: Tom Schuller
MSHSL ENROLLMENT: 288
STATE APPEARANCES: 9
STATE TITLES: 1
RECORD: 9-0
STREAK: Won 9
LAST GAME: Defeated Minnesota Valley Lutheran 55-13
POINTS FOR: 43.4 ppg (not including forfeit)
POINTS AGAINST: 8.2 ppg (not including forfeit)
Redwood Valley
HEAD COACH: Matt Lundeen
MSHSL ENROLLMENT: 309
STATE APPEARANCES: 3
STATE TITLES: 0
RECORD: 7-3
LAST GAME: Defeated Windom 49-20
STREAK: Won 2
POINTS FOR: 28.0
POINTS AGAINST: 17.1
JCC football schedule
Fri., Sept. 1: Lake Crystal Wellcome Memorial, W 42-13
Fri., Sept. 8: at Worthington, W 43-0
Sat., Sept. 16: Blue Earth Area, W 49-6
Fri., Sept. 22: at LeSueur-Henderson, W 2-0 (forfeit)
Fri., Sept. 29: Redwood Valley, W 29-14
Fri., Oct. 6: at Minnesota Valley Lutheran, W 47-6
Thurs., Oct. 12: Luverne, W 34-0
Wed., Oct. 18: at Pipestone, W 48-14
Sat., Oct. 28: Minnesota Valley Lutheran, W 55-13
Fri., Nov. 3: Redwood Valley at SMSU, 11:30 a.m.
REDWOOD VALLEY SCHEDULE/RESULTS
Fri., Sept. 1: LeSueur-Henderson, W 35-26
Fri., Sept. 8: at Maple River, L 22-19
Fri., Sept. 15: Lake Crystal Wellcome Memorial, W 29-7
Fri., Sept. 22: Pipestone, W 24-21
Fri., Sept. 29: at Jackson County Central, L 29-14
Fri., Oct. 6: at Sibley East, W 34-0
Fri., Oct. 13: Minnesota Valley Lutheran, W 27-6
Wed., Oct. 18: at Luverne, L 33-21
Tues., Oct. 24: Lake Crystal Wellcome Memorial, W 28-7
Sat., Oct. 28: Windom, W 49-20
Fri., Nov. 3: Jackson County Central at SMSU, 11:30 a.m.
Series highlights
Series: Jackson County Central leads 26-4
Regular season: Jackson County Central leads 24-3
Postseason: Jackson County Central leads 2-1
First meeting: Jackson County Central 20, Redwood Valley 14 (1997)
Last meeting: Jackson County Central 29, Redwood Valley 14 (2023)
Current streak: Won 5
Longest Huskies win streak: 14 (2004-2017)
Longest Cardinals win streak: 1 (4 times)
Most Huskies points: 49 (1998, 2012, 2015, 2019)
Most Cardinals points: 28 (2004, 2011)
Huskies shutouts: 1998, 2000, 2022
Cardinals shutouts: 2018
Scores
All-time scores in the JCC-Redwood Valley series.
1997: Jackson County Central 20, Redwood Valley 14
1998: Jackson County Central 49, Redwood Valley 0
1999: Jackson County Central 47, Redwood Valley 24
2000: Jackson County Central 38, Redwood Valley 0
2001: Redwood Valley 22, Jackson County Central 15
2002: Jackson County Central 34, Redwood Valley 30
2003: Jackson County Central 18, Redwood Valley 13; Redwood Valley 19, Jackson County Central 6 (Section 3AAA championship)
2004: Jackson County Central 31, Redwood Valley 28
2005: Jackson County Central 42, Redwood Valley 14
2006: Jackson County Central 31, Redwood Valley 13
2007: Jackson County Central 15, Redwood Valley 13
2008: Jackson County Central 35, Redwood Valley 13
2009: Jackson County Central 33, Redwood Valley 20
2010: Jackson County Central 46, Redwood Valley 6
2011: Jackson County Central 42, Redwood Valley 13
2012: Jackson County Central 49, Redwood Valley 28
2013: Jackson County Central 26, Redwood Valley 2
2014: Jackson County Central 41, Redwood Valley 12
2015: Jackson County Central 49, Redwood Valley 7
2016: Jackson County Central 35, Redwood Valley 7
2017: Jackson County Central 26, Redwood Valley 14
2018: Redwood Valley 7, Jackson County Central 0
2019: Jackson County Central 49, Redwood Valley 12
2020: Redwood Valley 28, Jackson County Central 14
2021: Jackson County Central 21, Redwood Valley 18; Jackson County Central 38, Redwood Valley 12 (Section 3AA semifinals)
2022: Jackson County Central 35, Redwood Valley 0; Jackson County Central 34, Redwood Valley 7 (Section AA semifinals)
2023: Jackson County Central 29, Redwood Valley 14
Total points: Jackson County Central 948, Redwood Valley 410
Average: Jackson County Central 31.6, Redwood Valley 13.7
Class 2A section schedules
Here is the schedule for Class 2A section championship games.
SECTION 1AA
Friday, Nov. 3
At Winona
Caledonia (9-0) vs. Dover-Eyota (6-3), 7 p.m.
SECTION 2AA
Friday, Nov. 3
At Janesville
Maple River (8-1) vs. Triton (5-5), 7 p.m.
SECTION 3AA
Friday, Nov. 3
At SMSU
Jackson County Central (9-0) vs. Redwood Valley (7-3), 11:30 a.m.
SECTION 4AA
Friday, Nov. 3
At Watertown-Mayer High School
St. Agnes (9-0) vs. Cannon Falls (8-2), 7 p.m.
SECTION 5AA
Friday, Nov. 3
At St. John’s
Eden Valley-Watkins (9-0) vs. Holdingford (7-3), 7 p.m.
SECTION 6AA
Friday, Nov. 3
At Fargo
Osakis (8-1) vs. Staples-Motley (8-1), 3 p.m.
SECTION 7AA
Thursday, Nov. 2
At Esko
Moose Lake-Willow River 13, Barnum 0
SECTION 8AA
Friday, Nov. 3
At Fargo
Barnesville (10-0) vs. Pelican Rapids (9-1), 5:30 p.m.
State Class 2A tournament
Here’s the schedule for the state Class 2A football tournament.
Thursday, Nov. 9
Quarterfinals
Upper bracket
Section 3AA vs. Section 1AA at Rochester Mayo
Section 6AA vs Section 8AA at Alexandria
Lower bracket
Section 4AA vs. Section 2AA at New Prague
Moose Lake-Willow River vs. Section 5AA at Forest Lake
Friday, Nov. 17
Semifinals
At U.S. Bank Stadium
Upper-bracket winners, 9 a.m.
Lower-bracket winners, 11:30 a.m.
Friday, Nov. 24
Championship
At U.S. Bank Stadium
Semifinal winners, 1 p.m.