Three area teams in hunt for trip to state tourney

BY JIM BASTIAN

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM -- Sectional championship football games are in vogue Friday night with three area high schools vying for sectional titles.

In Section 3AA, the Springfield Tigers hope to ride their fourth quarter comeback win over Madelia-Truman last weekend when they travel to Windom to take on the Eagles in a 7 p.m. meeting.

Meanwhile, in Sleepy Eye the Section 2-1A title is up for grabs when the defending Section 2A and state champion McLeod West battles Sleepy Eye St. Mary's.

SPRINGFIELD (5-5) AT WINDOM (5-5) 7 P.M. WINDOM

Both the Tigers and the Eagles are teams that have peaked at the right time as they enter the Section 3AA title game with 5-5 marks.

Springfield coach Paul Dunn said that there is nothing fancy about the Eagles of the Southwest Conference.

"They run right at you," he said. "They do some play-action passing but for the most part, it is pretty much smash-mouth football."

Dunn said that Windom "is similar to McLeod West. They run out of a double wing while McLeod West runs out of power-I. But it is the same type of offense in that they just line up and try and run you over. They are bigger than we are -- they have three players who weigh 270 pounds or more and a couple of guys who are 240 pounds or bigger. They are about as big as McLeod West -- both of Windom's tackles are 6-foot 5. They are big kids."

Dunn felt that the Eagle backfield is power. "One of the things that we will have to use in our favor is our team quickness. They have a good halfback plus a solid fullback. They pull people all the time -- their splits (in the line of scrimmage) are really tight. They line up and run student body left and right and then a counter now and then."

Dunn said that his defense "will try and match-up as well as we can. We will try and free up our linebackers to make plays. We will try and demand double-teams. But their line splits are so tight -- they are unlike anyone like McLeod. Big teams like to do that -- big teams bunch their linemen together and try to come off of the ball and run you over."

On defense, Windom, out of the Southwest Conference, will show a 5-3 and 4-4 fronts. "In goal line situations, they will go into almost a six-man front. They stunt a little bit with their linebackers but for the most part it is a 5-3 defense and let their big guys try and handle our big guys and let their linebackers flow (to the ball)."

Dunn knows that getting this far means that his team has done a lot of things well. And facing the Eagles of Windom, he is more concerned about his team's performance than what Windom does.

"What has gotten us as far as we are is executing our offense, defense and special teams. If you line up against a team that is better than you, they will win. They key is that you do not give the game away -- you have to execute yourself. You need to do all of the things right that got you where you are. That is what we are focusing on -- we know what they are going to try to do, we understand that."

Both Windom and Springfield enter the title game with .500 records at 5-5. But Dunn said that the records of both teams can be deceiving.

"They played a tough schedule, we played a tough schedule. We have four (Southern Minnesota Conference) teams still alive and they have three. Part of the records that we both have is because of the schedule and definitely -- on our part -- getting hot. We are finally executing our offense and our defense like we need to."

"The kids are all smiles -- they are positive. But I don't think that they are satisfied. They have nothing to lose."

Dunn also feels that his Tigers will use that fourth quarter comeback against Madelia-Truman as a big confidence booster.

"I think that that is a wonderful experience that they can build on. They believe that they can score when they need to score. They believe and as a coach, you cannot ask for anything more than that."

MCLEOD WEST (7-3) AT SLEEPY EYE ST. MARY'S (7-3) SLEEPY EYE 7 P.M. FRIDAY

Two familiar foes meet in the Section 2-1A title game when the Falcons meet the Knights. Last year,McLeod West defeated St. Mary's for the section title and went on to win the Class A state championship.

Sleepy Eye St. Mary's gained a little revenge earlier in this past regular season with a 12-6 win over the Falcons in Sleepy Eye.

And Knight coach Ron Berdan said that he hopes to implement the same game plan in their meeting Friday night.

"It will be pretty much the same (game plan). But I do wish that it could be 90 degrees again. We know that because of the size advantage that they have on us that we cannot slug it out with them," he said. "We are going to have to mix it up -- use the run and pass- in the game to try and keep them off-balance."

Berdan feels that the Falcons are playing their best football right now.

"They have been coming on strong lately," he said. "We stumbled a couple of times with Cathedral and MLBO. But I think in our last two games,we have found a ground game to go with our passing attack and our defense has been playing just great."

Berdan said that the Falcons' biggest improvement has come with experience.

"They had a lot of miscues early in the season -- they had a lot of fumbles. In the Springfield game, I think that they had nine fumbles and in our game , they had quite a few also. They have now turned that around and are really taking care of business."

Berdan said that he was very impressed with the Falcons' 34-8 shellacking of top-seeded Mankato Loyola last Saturday. "They did what they do best -- they just took it to them. They pounded the ball and pounded the ball and wore Loyola down and had their way with them."

With the decided size disadvantage, Berdan hopes to use quickness. "They really only put 13-15 kids on the field most of the time. One of things that we want to do -- with Matt Mathiowetz and Brett Braulick back -- we want to do a lot of spot relief and keep our front runners as fresh as we can."

Berdan feels that the key to the game will be the bounce of the ball. "One of the things that we have to do is not let them get 4-5 yards a crack each time they touch the ball. They have hard runners -- (in the win over Loyola) they had 3-4 yard gains that turned into 15-20 yard gains. Our initial contact has to finish them off."

Berdan also feels that playing at home will be an advantage.

"It will be big -- we have a huge following of fans. We had just as many people in the stands as Cathedral did. I think that the place will be packed. It is our field -- we are comfortable at home."

McLeod West co-coach Curt Strand said that the Knights "outplayed us in that first game. We had some people injured -- we were not real ready because of inexperience but we just got outplayed badly in that first game."

But since then, the Falcons have gotten on a roll as shown by their two big wins in the sectional.

"We are playing better -- the guys who did not have that experience now have that experience. They are doing a better job."

Strand said that he does not think that the turnovers were the problem for the Falcons early but rather that inexperience.

Strand also said that the Falcons hope to use their decided size advantage against the Knights.

"Our first game against them, they used it to their advantage- they used their quickness and used that to their advantage."

"I think that the key to the game will be controlling the ball. We want to control the ball as much as we can.As long as we have the ball, they don't."

Strand said that they will basically use the same game plan that they did in their first meeting "except that we need to do it better than that first game. Our kids feel good about themselves."

"I know what (St.Mary's) and their athletes can do -- that scares me. But we need to do our thing."

One key to the game?

"If we can move the ball consistently -- don't give up the big play. That will tell a lot about the outcome of the game."