2025 Minnesota High School Football Thread

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Gold Vision said:
Unfortunately Tonka lost their quarterback for the season. They have looked a little more one-dimensional on offense since losing him.

I’m not sure they can put up the points to keep up with MG. It will definitely be a fun one to watch though.
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I'm just assuming that Tonka is going to steamroll Wayzata today for Wayzata's homecoming.
 

MaxyJR1 said:
St. Peter lost to Waseca in week 1 by getting stopped on a 2pt. conversion late. 7-6. This will be their toughest test since that game. They haven't given up more than 7 in a game and have 2 shut outs. Albert lea also has two shut outs.

Albert Lea scores 38 a game and gives up 11
St. Peter scores 28 and gives up 4

STP opponents are 9-16
Albert Lea's are 6-19

Common Opponents
Worthington (0-5) both won by over 40
Tri-City United (0-5) both beat, St. Peter by 39 and Albert Lea by 21

Their expecting a big crowd for the Homecoming game tonight

sports.yahoo.com

Multiple generations cheering on Albert Lea football team ahead of big Homecoming game

Oct. 2—Tiger pride is swelling in the community this week as the undefeated Albert Lea High School football team prepares to take on St. Peter Friday in its Homecoming game. Nowhere was that more true Thursday afternoon than at Thorne Crest Senior Living Community, where residents congratulated...
sports.yahoo.com sports.yahoo.com
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Wish I could get over to see it. Might have to try next week for the game with Waseca. Should be a couple of great games.
 

FireDaveLee said:
After watching Tonka last week, the one thing I will say about the one-dimensional attack is the QB is a beast & seems to almost get 4 yards just by falling forward automatically.

Add to that a pretty massive o-line & they can easily possess the ball for a long time. I think the 2nd half last week, there were only 3 EP & 2 Tonka possessions respectively....

Having seen all 3, I think Maple Grove definitely has more offensive balance & think they have the best D of the 3.
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I attended the EP@MG game and the EP@Tonka game. I agree that MG at this point in the season is the best. I don't know if Tonka can rely on one person, despite a very good OL. How many times can a high school athlete, as good as he is, go for rushing 267 yards, whereas EP used at least six RB's to get similar yardage. As far as the playoffs, Grant is known to use his best athletes in the run up to the Championship series at USB, as evidenced by his use of the OL on EP's successful goal line stand. The question there is can they go both ways the entire game; very doubtful. All three are built for the cold weather games coming up. I can't wait for the matchups after the last regular season game.
 

Gopher 461 said:
I attended the EP@MG game and the EP@Tonka game. I agree that MG at this point in the season is the best. I don't know if Tonka can rely on one person, despite a very good OL. How many times can a high school athlete, as good as he is, go for rushing 267 yards, whereas EP used at least six RB's to get similar yardage. As far as the playoffs, Grant is known to use his best athletes in the run up to the Championship series at USB, as evidenced by his use of the OL on EP's successful goal line stand. The question there is can they go both ways the entire game; very doubtful. All three are built for the cold weather games coming up. I can't wait for the matchups after the last regular season game.
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Grant has always had a specialized goal line unit for offense and defense using the largest guys. He did it back in the 90's when I played for him.
 

Random Guy 12 said:
Would love to see an Albert Lea win tonight to set up an undefeated battle with Waseca next week in Albert Lea. That would probably be the biggest football game in Albert Lea in over 30 years. Great to see.
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If Albert Lea and Waseca face each other both unbeaten, it will be the biggest game for AL this late in the season in roughly 50 years.
 


MaxyJR1 said:
St. Peter lost to Waseca in week 1 by getting stopped on a 2pt. conversion late. 7-6. This will be their toughest test since that game. They haven't given up more than 7 in a game and have 2 shut outs. Albert lea also has two shut outs.

Albert Lea scores 38 a game and gives up 11
St. Peter scores 28 and gives up 4

STP opponents are 9-16
Albert Lea's are 6-19

Common Opponents
Worthington (0-5) both won by over 40
Tri-City United (0-5) both beat, St. Peter by 39 and Albert Lea by 21

Their expecting a big crowd for the Homecoming game tonight

sports.yahoo.com

Multiple generations cheering on Albert Lea football team ahead of big Homecoming game

Oct. 2—Tiger pride is swelling in the community this week as the undefeated Albert Lea High School football team prepares to take on St. Peter Friday in its Homecoming game. Nowhere was that more true Thursday afternoon than at Thorne Crest Senior Living Community, where residents congratulated...
sports.yahoo.com sports.yahoo.com
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Expecting 6000 for the game. The northside of town will be crazy.
 

disco said:
I'm just assuming that Tonka is going to steamroll Wayzata today for Wayzata's homecoming.
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Wayzata should attack them with the quick passing game and their nice receivers, but regardless of how they approach offense, I don’t think they can slow down the Tonka run game.
 

disco said:
I'm just assuming that Tonka is going to steamroll Wayzata today for Wayzata's homecoming.
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I think Tonka could steamroll, but they’re not really built to score fast and put up a ton of points. I’m guessing it will be similar to the Moorhead and Prior Lake games where they just hold the ball for big chunks of time.

My son is on the Tonka Sophomore team, and they won 61-8 against Wayzata on Wednesday. Throughout the youth association years, Wayzata had strong teams at his age level. Is there just a lot of attrition once they hit the High School level?
 

EP over Moorhead 34-33. Roller coaster game. Moorhead scored TD with under :30 & went for 2. Got a half the distance to the goal penalty, but had pass batted down.

#1 on Moorhead is LEGIT! Some questions for EP’s defense. But EP eventually able to roll on the ground. Should lock up 3 seed for EP for section.
 



Prior Lake takes down Shakopee so South Metro section will almost certainly come down to winner of Lakeville South at Rosemount in the final game of the season.
 

St Peter 26-21 over Albert Lea
Maple Grove hangs on over STMA
Lakeville South over Edina
Blaine handles Osseo after being down 14-0
Byron by 14 over K-M
 
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Northfield topples Owatonna 28-7 in front of a massive Homecoming crowd.

Ends a losing streak against them going back to 2017.
 

MaxyJR1 said:
St Peter 26-21 over Albert Lea
Maple Grove hangs on over STMA
Lakeville South over Edina
Blaine handles Osseo after being down 14-0
Byron by 14 over K-M
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St Peter scored two touchdowns early after scoring on the opening drive and an Albert Lea fumble gave them a short field. Albert Lea couldn't fully recover from that. On to Waseca.
 



MNVCGUY said:
Prior Lake takes down Shakopee so South Metro section will almost certainly come down to winner of Lakeville South at Rosemount in the final game of the season.
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South seeding
1/2 Rosemount south
Prior lake is 3 unless they stumble vs farmington week 8
Shakopee locked into 4 in my opinion unless they stumble vs Farmington week 7 or north week 8
5-7 is a three way tie where they all beat each other…I predict it goes Eagan 5, farm 6, 7 north 7 but it’s coaches vote so no science involved. If one of them upsets someone in the section the last two weeks it would cause them to win the 3 way tie.
3 way tie farmington beat north by 4
Eagan beat farmington by 3
North beat Eagan by 17 but it was the monsoon game and north may finish 1-7
 

Small school surprises last night

Mountain Iron-Buhl crushed by Barnum 54-0 MIB was a highly ranked team
Springfield squeaks out an OT victory over Sleepy Eye who was 1-4 coming into the game

One thing I am noticing about the teams that had to make the 9man to 1A jump this year, is that they are having real trouble with teams who pound the rock. Almost all these games are going the way of the traditional 1A schools. OTC is fairing well in these games but they were only a 9man team for 2 seasons
 

If
Some guy said:
South seeding
1/2 Rosemount south
Prior lake is 3 unless they stumble vs farmington week 8
Shakopee locked into 4 in my opinion unless they stumble vs Farmington week 7 or north week 8
5-7 is a three way tie where they all beat each other…I predict it goes Eagan 5, farm 6, 7 north 7 but it’s coaches vote so no science involved. If one of them upsets someone in the section the last two weeks it would cause them to win the 3 way tie.
3 way tie farmington beat north by 4
Eagan beat farmington by 3
North beat Eagan by 17 but it was the monsoon game and north may finish 1-7
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If Prior Lake beats South, which definately could happen, and then Rosemount beats South, isn’t PL the #2?
 
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prespsguy said:
If

If Prior Lake beats South, which definately could happen, and then Rosemount beats South, isn’t PL the #2?
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Prior Lake is solid and I assume in that scenario they would get the 2 seed. Tough final 2 weeks for South having Prior Lake and Rosemount left.
 

Gophers7NatTitlesBadgers0 said:
St Peter scored two touchdowns early after scoring on the opening drive and an Albert Lea fumble gave them a short field. Albert Lea couldn't fully recover from that. On to Waseca.
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As a St. Peter native that now lives in Iowa, can someone explain to me why St. Peter is 4A and Albert Lea is 3A, even though Albert Lea has a larger enrollment? I can't imagine demographics are greatly different between the two, but I can't think of any other reason...
 

FireDaveLee said:
EP over Moorhead 34-33. Roller coaster game. Moorhead scored TD with under :30 & went for 2. Got a half the distance to the goal penalty, but had pass batted down.

#1 on Moorhead is LEGIT! Some questions for EP’s defense. But EP eventually able to roll on the ground. Should lock up 3 seed for EP for section.
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Did Feeney play for the Spuds last night?
 

Ski-U-Ham said:
As a St. Peter native that now lives in Iowa, can someone explain to me why St. Peter is 4A and Albert Lea is 3A, even though Albert Lea has a larger enrollment? I can't imagine demographics are greatly different between the two, but I can't think of any other reason...
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ALHS counts 8th grade enrollment. 9-12 is under 1000 I believe. Not sure what SP 9-12 is.
 


Seems like some closer than expected scores in 6A?

Moorhead @ EP 33-34
Rogers @ Andover 31-34
Anoka @ CP 41-42 (Anoka's misery continues ... CP was 4-1, Anoka 0-5)
STMA @ MG 24-35 (not "close", but STMA was 1-4 and MG #1?)
L South @ Edina 30-28
 

prespsguy said:
If

If Prior Lake beats South, which definately could happen, and then Rosemount beats South, isn’t PL the #2?
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I think that probably true

All my my projections assumed shakopee was going to beat prior lake and prior lake was worse than the top 3


Prior lake should’ve beat Rosemount! Threw a pick 6 and lost by 3
They usually find ways to lose but they have high upside
 

GopherGrit said:
Seems like some closer than expected scores in 6A?

Moorhead @ EP 33-34
Rogers @ Andover 31-34
Anoka @ CP 41-42 (Anoka's misery continues ... CP was 4-1, Anoka 0-5)
STMA @ MG 24-35 (not "close", but STMA was 1-4 and MG #1?)
L South @ Edina 30-28
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EP has good offense no defense vs pass game
Rogers super strange and I can’t figure it out

Anoka is cursed

STMA vs maple grove is the most puzzling to me.

I was curious how south vs Edina would go. I think south is good not great.
I personally don’t think south is a contender


I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the surprising results are injury related.


Tonka and maple grove are clearly the favorites

A handful are in the second tier.
EP, Rosemount, south, the top 3 in the north, forest lake, maybe prior lake or shakopee


But for a lot of teams the difference between being number 12 and number 25 is probably being healthy vs having 2 key guys out
 

Gophers7NatTitlesBadgers0 said:
ALHS counts 8th grade enrollment. 9-12 is under 1000 I believe. Not sure what SP 9-12 is.
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Here are the MSHSL enrollment numbers. Albert Lea is at 827, St. Peter is 604. I also don't know what grades these numbers reflect, but it would strike me as odd if one school's enrollment would include 8th graders and another school's wouldn't.
 



prespsguy said:
MSHSL counts 9-12 for classification, plus the poverty number equation.
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I'm surprised that Albert Lea's poverty statistics are that much worse than St. Peter's. But I've never really spent a lot of time in Albert Lea either.
 


Ski-U-Ham said:
I'm surprised that Albert Lea's poverty statistics are that much worse than St. Peter's. But I've never really spent a lot of time in Albert Lea either.
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Not much industry in Albert Lea and the demographic is aging. The city has been mismanaged for decades though there are signs that things are slowly changing.
 

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