Photo by Jake Przytarski Canby’s Tyler Sayre fights for extra yardage during their Section 5A semifinal game against No. 2 Minneota on Saturday. The Lancers defeated the Vikings 13-0 to advance to the championship game.

MINNEOTA — For the first time since the 2014 season, the Canby football team will return to the Section 5A championship game after blanking Minneota 13-0 on Saturday at K.P. Kompelien Field.

The third-seeded Lancers relied on their bread and butter mix of mistake-free football on offense and ultra-physical play on defense to shutout the second-seeded Vikings for a second time this season.

Canby coach Nick Kockelman is grateful for the change of fortunes after being on the wrong side of some lopsided finishes in year’s past against Minneota.

“I kept going back to walking off this field losing 76-0 five years ago,” said Kockelman. “This is my second favorite place to play because you’re always going to have a well-coached team and a physical team. We had the better team this year, so it felt good to beat them twice in Minneota.”

The Lancers provided a preview of the steep challenge their defense would provide the Vikings offense by standing tall on their opening drive that began at the 35-yard line. After crossing midfield and into Canby territory, the drive stalled and eventually came to an end via a turnover on downs.

Minneota coach Chad Johnston said their offense failed to get into any sort of rhythm and credited Canby for a strong showing defensively.

“Offensively we just couldn’t get into any rhythm again. That’s been our thing the last two weeks is we’re struggling to get into a rhythm,” said Johnston. “We had some penalties at some key times that usually stall us a bit, and Canby just plays good football against us. They did a lot of good things.”

Minneota’s defense was equal to the task in the first half of play by limiting Canby to short gains and making key stops in crucial situations. Most notably, the Lancers had a golden opportunity to strike first in the waning seconds before halftime with the ball on Minneota’s one-yard line, but the Vikings dug deep and forced a turnover on downs to keep the game scoreless into halftime.

It wasn’t until the third quarter that the Lancers offense began to pick up some momentum with a key scoring drive that was set up by multiple explosive runs by Ty Stoks. Canby would put an exclamation point on the tone-setting series with a 14-yard touchdown connection from Parker Viessman to Kalib Greenman to take a 7-0 lead.

Prior to the start of the third quarter, Kockelman issued a challenge to the offensive line and they delivered.

“At halftime we challenged our offensive line. I don’t think we had a positive run play in the first half, but we challenged them to get something (going in the second half),” said Kockelman. “The first drive we came out and ripped off about three 20-yard gains and then Kalib Greenman (scored).”

Greenman and the Lancers were not finished, however, as the senior receiver hauled in another touchdown grab minutes later, this time from 80 yards out, to give Canby a 13-0 lead following a missed extra point attempt.

Holding on to a two-score advantage, Canby’s defense ensured that a Minneota comeback was not in the cards by shutting down the Vikings attempts to beat them through the air. The result was three interceptions in the second half alone, include a game-clinching pick by Shane Noyes in the final minute of play that allowed the Lancers to run out the clock for the victory.

Next up for the Lancers is the Section 5A championship game against No. 1 seed BOLD at SMSU where they will have a chance to advance to their first state tournament since the 2000 season.

Though Kockelman has yet to see game-film of the Warriors, he is confident that his team can compete with anybody.

“We’ll have to get film of them. You scoreboard watch and it is what it is I guess, but you don’t know until you see the film,” said Kockelman. “I mean this team is not afraid of anybody, we hadn’t beaten Minneota in 16 years and we beat them twice in three weeks, so I don’t think we’re really afraid of anybody in the state.”

The loss for the Vikings moves them to a final record of 8-2. Though the finish wasn’t the one that he had hoped for, Johnston was pleased with how his young team stepped up and how the season went overall.

“I’m happy, this has been a good season for us,” said Johnston. “I don’t think people put us in this position at the beginning of the year. (I’m) frustrated that we lost today in the fashion we did, but this was a good year for us.”