Photo by Jake McNeill: Canby running back Isaac Guzman (5) runs the ball through a gap during the first quarter of a Section 5A football tournament matchup against the Lakeview Lakers in Cottonwood on Tuesday night. The fifth-seeded Lancers defeated the No. 4 Lakers to advance to a section semifinal matchup against the four-time reigning section champion Minneota Vikings on Saturday. 

COTTONWOOD — The ground-and-pound offense of the Canby football team was nearly unstoppable on Tuesday night when the fifth-seeded Lancers went on the road to take on the No. 4 Lakeview Lakers. Canby threw the ball just five times in the first half but was consistently able to move the chains, riding a 23-0 halftime lead to a 36-6 win in the Section 5A quarterfinals.

The Lakers and Lancers have now met in the 5A quarterfinals in four of the last six seasons, with Tuesday’s result evening the rivalry at two wins apiece. The Lancers will now advance to face a familiar foe in the semifinals, going on the road to take on the top-seeded Minneota Vikings. The Vikings defeated the Lancers 39-6 in last year’s section semifinals, but Canby is also the most recent team to defeat the Vikings in the section tournament with a 13-0 win in 2019. 

Canby set the tone on the first drive of the game, taking up 10 minutes with the opening possession after throwing the ball just once over the course of the drive. Canby head coach Nick Kockelman said that the Lancers had talked all week about how running the ball effectively was going to be key to stealing a victory and that the first drive set the tone for the rest of the night.

“In schools this size, you’re playing both ways. So if you’re dominating on one side of the ball, that momentum carries onto the defensive side,” Kockelman said. “We’ve always hung our hat on our defense, so when our offense is playing really well, the games can look like this at times.”

Lakeview had three fourth-down opportunities to end the drive. A neutral zone infraction on fourth-and-2 from the Laker 45 kept the drive going once. Eli Greenman’s 10-yard run set the Lancers up at the 30 and, after a Jackson Barney tackle for loss helped set up a fourth-and-5 situation but Jace Sigler got a short completion to Bryant Hansen for an 11-yard gain, getting the offense up to the 14-yard line.

Once in the red zone, Canby was faced with another fourth down with four yards to go on the 9-yard line. Yet, Isaac Guzman ran it up the middle to set up a first-and-goal situation from the 3-yard line and then punched it in around the right tackle for a 1-yard touchdown outside the right tackle. He went the opposite direction to convert the ensuing 2-point conversion for an 8-0 Laker lead.

“You’ve got to tip your cap to Canby. They played a great game, they moved the ball, we just couldn’t get off the field in the first quarter on fourth down,” Lakeview head coach Scott Hanson said. “Football is a game of momentum. We gave up that momentum early. I thought we played a very, very good second quarter until right before half… we just got ourselves too far down the hole.”

Guzman finished the game with three touchdowns and 106 yards on 27 carries while Sigler added another 34 yards on six carries. As a team, Canby finished with 201 rushing yards while Lakeview finished with 101.

Earlier in the season, Lakeview went on the road and defeated Canby 14-8 in the Lancers’ first home game on their new field. The loss gave the Lancers a small bit of extra motivation heading into Tuesday’s rematch.

“We made a lot of mistakes [in that first matchup]. They beat us in the red zone on both sides of the ball, that’s why they won,” Kockelman said. “But we won in between the 20s, so we just knew we had to extend that out to 100 yards of playing them.”

Sawyer Verhelst forced and recovered a Lakeview fumble on the Lakers’ first possession and the Lancers once again marched down the field. A 17-yard Guzman run on third down got Canby to the Lakeview 15-yard line and, shortly thereafter, he spun into the end zone on a carry from the 7-yard line to make the score 15-0 with 10 minutes remaining in the first half.

In the final minute of the first half, Canby forced a Lakeview 3-and-out. The Lancers tipped the punt to get the ball back at the Lakeview 37-yard line with 20 seconds to play. 

Canby’s offense wasted no time with the opportunity. Cody Stoll completed a pass to Hansen for a 12-yard gain before clocking the ball with 12 seconds left. Hansen then beat a pair of Laker defensive backs to haul in a reception in the end zone on a fade route with six seconds before halftime.

Hansen brought in five catches for 86 yards in the match to lead the Lancer air attack. Stoll completed seven of his 11 attempts for 110 yards.

Marczak completed three of his six attempts for 14 yards for the Lakers, while Breylon Breyfogle caught two passes for 10 yards. Marczak’s four solo tackles were also a team-high while Gregoire led the team with seven total tackles and two tackles for loss.

Guzman fumbled the snap on the extra point attempt, but he recovered and beat the defense to the right side, extending the ball over the pylon for a successful 2-point conversion and a 23-0 halftime advantage. 

While the Lancers’ offense was unstoppable in the first half, the defense also did everything it needed to in order to lead Canby to victory. Verhelst led the stout Lancer defense with 11 tackles, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery while Sam Drietz and Sigler added another 11 and eight tackles respectively.

“The game comes down to the offensive and defensive lines, and that’s where we got beat tonight,” Hanson said. “They were able to move the ball, we put some good drives together and we just didn’t capitalize.”

Guzman scored first after the break on a 1-yard touchdown but Lakeview started to find some momentum when a 12-yard Garrett Schaefer rushing touchdown put them on the board, cutting the deficit to 29-6. The Lakers recovered an onside kick to get the ball right back at their own 49-yard line, but couldn’t move the chains. Canby maintained its lead for the remainder of the night.

In the first minute of the fourth quarter, Sigler ran the ball in from the 3-yard line to increase the Lancer lead to 30 points. 

Canby improves to 2-7 on the season with the win after forfeiting two of its regular-season wins over MACCRAY and Lac qui Parle Valley due to player ineligibility issues. 

Saturday’s semifinal matchup is scheduled to be played at 3 p.m. at K.P. Kompelien Field in Minneota. The Vikings enter the game looking for their 29th consecutive win as they pursue their third consecutive state championship. Canby, meanwhile, is looking for its first section championship game appearance since 2019, when they lost to B.O.L.D.

“We play Minneota every year, so it’s not like we run away from the best teams in the state in this section. But we’ve got to heal up,” Kockelman said of the focus ahead of the matchup. “We’ve got to be physical and we’ve got to tackle. They beat us in the pass again last time, so we’ve got to be a bit tighter in our coverage.”

Lakeview finishes its season at 3-6. The Lakers graduate eight seniors, Gregoire, Marczak, Colton Schlenner, Jace Danielson, Dylan Caron, Landon Albertson, Dakota Cowell and Ryder Torke. They’ll have a large returning crew for next season with 15 freshmen, four sophomores and 11 juniors on this year’s roster.

“Our senior group of kids are outstanding. They’re great leaders and they help the younger guys,” Hanson said. “They’re a group of kids that we’re really going to miss, but they also helped us get our football program back on the map this year by getting the fourth seed in the playoffs. It’s an incentive now for the younger guys to carry the torch that they lit for us this year.”