Friday night was a night that a lot of people will remember for a long time and for good reason. It was another opportunity to showcase our talent on what is considered the biggest stage for Minnesota, the Prep Bowl. The week leading up to the game was incredible for the players and coaches. They had a tremendous week of practice, but then were fortunate to have many opportunities to be taken care of by the boosters, the school and the community. I am sure for a moment the players felt like a celebrity. Again, I can’t thank everyone involved with getting all these extra events set up and for how smoothly everything went. Our drive down to the game was not the smoothest as there happen to be an unfortunate accident on I-94. So, this put a slight bit of uncertainty knowing what time we may arrive to the stadium. The fire and police escort helped our situation out fortunately for us, but not for the other vehicles. Upon arriving at US Bank, everything went well with check in, and the players were locked in ready for the game. This maturity of the players was showing well on the biggest stage that they would be on.

The game started out really well for us when our two inside linebackers made an impactful type of play. Ryder Skanson was able to strip the quarterback of the ball and Jacob Wrbanek was able to scoop and score his way to a touchdown. This allowed us to jump on Minnetonka early which was something we didn’t do in our first showdown with them on the year. Three minutes into the game, we already had a 7-0 lead. Both teams then had a quick possession before Minnetonka went down the field on a 13-play drive where they converted a 4th down that I felt like we had them stopped, but the officials did not. Either way, they were then able to pound one into the end zone and tie the ball game up early in the second quarter. Fortunately for us, our offense was able to drive down the field again including a big third down conversion by Kaden Harney and Dylan Vokal. The drive was capped off by Chuck Langama leaving a defender stuck in place. Chuck ran by a defender untouched and plunged into the end zone from 4 yards out. This put us up 14-7 about halfway through the second quarter. Our defense then came up big twice with huge plays by Sam Hanson to make it where Minnetonka punted again to us under 2 minutes left in the half. Our offense came up with 2 huge throws in our 2-minute game. One of the throws was to Bo Draheim and the other was to Dylan again. This set up another 18-yard scamper by Chuck to the corner of the end zone.

We played well enough to go into halftime up 21-7. This allowed everyone to take a deep breath at halftime and put into focus that we needed to play well for 24 more minutes. The composure, the maturity, the mental toughness of the group was on full display as we talked through some adjustments and what it was going to take to finish the game off the rest of the way.

The second half we came out and was driving down the field and made our way into the red zone before turning the ball over. Our defense came up big again even though we had lost some yardage when Dylan was able to intercept a tipped pass. Both teams traded possessions the remainder of the third quarter and part way through the fourth quarter. That is when our offense was able to put together one more drive that was very impactful. It was capped off by Patrick Wright taking the ball 10 yards to paydirt. This put us up 28-7 with about five minutes left in the game. That is what I envisioned the score finishing. Minnetonka had other plans; they were able to score relatively quickly on some plays that our guys wish they had back. If I had to go back and play that part of the game over again, I would have used a timeout to recompose the players and let them know the situations a little bit better. All in the past though. Therefore, Minnetonka was able to get the score

back to 28-21 with just under 3 minutes left. Our offense needed to grind out first downs because Tonka was down to 2 timeouts left in the game. Our offense nearly did it all, but we did need to punt with 19 seconds left. I had complete faith in our defense that they would not be able to score that quickly, so after getting the punt off and covering it decently well. They had over 80 yards of field to use and only 12 seconds. That is when D-Vo made the last impactful type of play of the day when I picked off the opponent one last time. All we needed was one kneel down before we were crowned state champions again.

After the game is all a blur to me, I was so happy and proud of our players, coaches and everyone involved. The comradery that these players, managers and coaches all shared one last time on the turf was incredible. To be able to hold onto the trophy, take pictures with great teammates, say hi to families, it was a moment that I’ll hold onto for a long time.

On our return to the school, we were again brought back by an escort, and it was an awesome moment. I hate to say it, but I hope we woke people up to the sirens and our kids cheering/yelling for our successes. We then returned to an incredible fan base back at the school. It was one last time that the players were able to thank their families and friends for supporting us all season long. It was an emotional moment and again a moment that won’t leave my memory bank for a long time.

So, I close by saying THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart for everyone and everything that happened this season. There are way too many people to single out for thanks and that is why it is easier to just say Thank you to everyone. I hope that 2024 Crimson Football is just a start of what we can continue to see in the years to come.

LEAVE NO DOUBT!

Coach Spurrell