Maple Grove completed a 7-1 season with a 40-0 rout of Spring Lake Park Wednesday, Oct. 15.

The Crimson bounced back nicely from the disappointing home loss to Osseo the previous week and dominated a solid Panther team.

“I thought we played really well on both sides of the ball,” Maple Grove coach Matt Lombardi said. “It was a short week so it was tough because Spring Lake Park runs a unique offense. Our defense had only two days to prepare for it and they did a nice job.”

Offensively, Maple Grove showed great balance. Quarterback Brad Davison was 8-13 for 146 yards and a touchdown, connecting on an 11 yard scoring strike to Eddie Lee, who scored his first varsity touchdown. Isaac Collins carried 16 times for 102 yards and two touchdowns, Shaun Harrell had 80 yards on four carries and a long touchdown and Clark Wieneke had 76 yards on 14 tries and a touchdown and had two catches for 49 yards. Adam Brant caught four passes for 71 yards.

Defensively, Brant and Christian Ujhelyi both had 14 tackles and Grant Hemze added 10. The defensive line consisting of Kraig Urquhart, Jack Dahl-Maglone, Kyle Anderson, Ben Shoults and Michael Rengel dominated the front and combined for 25 tackles. Collins had eight tackles a caused a fumble that led to a touchdown late in the first half.

The total team effort meant the Crimson finished with a 7-1 regular season record and secured the No. 1 seed in Section 5AAAAAA.

The Crimson now set their sights on winning a second consecutive section championship. Seeded first, they have secured home field advantage for the two section games. They host Coon Rapids Friday, Oct. 24, in the playoffs opener.

If they win they will host a crossover opponent, either Stillwater or Roseville, Friday, Oct. 31, at 7 p.m.

“Every game is the biggest game at this point so that’s kind of the fun of it,” Lombardi said. “I am very pleased with our season so far. Our goal in the regular season is to put us in a position to where we could do good things in the playoffs. We have given ourselves the opportunity to doing that.”