Photo by Samantha Davis: A pack of Minneota football defenders work together to make a tackle on Oct. 15 against Dawson-Boyd in the regular season finale at K.P. Kompelien Field. No. 1 Minneota will host No. 5 MACCRAY on Saturday in the Section 4A semifinals at 3 p.m.

MINNEOTA — The top-seeded and top-ranked Minneota football team will begin its quest of claiming its sixth-straight section title for another bid into the state tournament when it opens the postseason on Saturday, hosting No. 5 MACCRAY in the Section 4A semifinals.

The Vikings again earned the No. 1 seed in the seven-team section tournament after finishing the regular season 8-0, receiving a first-round bye along with home-field advantage.

“It’s [preparation] been good. It’s a little bit of a challenge when you’re not really preparing for something specific or team specific, but obviously that changed today. We know our opponent is going to be [now],” Minneota head coach Chad Johnston said about the team’s preparation during the bye, as MACCRAY defeated No. 4 Canby in Tuesday’s quarterfinals. “But, it’s also nice to kind of gear down a little bit and maybe give some guys some extra rest and get them ready to go.”

With a win on Saturday, Minneota would return to the section championship at Southwest Minnesota State University in a fight to once again earn a state tournament berth, which would mark the 18th appearance in program history while on a journey for its fourth-consecutive championship.

The battle of the Vikings and Wolverines

MACCRAY (3-6) advanced to the semifinals to meet Minneota after beating Canby in the section quarterfinals on Tuesday, 24-22, and finished the regular season 2-6. The Wolverines scored one touchdown in every quarter but the second, led by Grant Meyer’s 108 rushing yards on 12 carries. He also led with 7 tackles and two sacks.

MACCRAY had three interceptions on the night, and a pick-6 by Cooper Klinghagen, for the game’s difference maker.

Minneota and MACCRAY met each other once over the regular season on Sept. 26 on the Vikings’ field, with Minneota coming away with a 64-0 win.

“They’re going to take their shots deep, and we’re going to need to make sure that if we give up a big play, we got to be there to make sure we tackle them,” coach Johnston said. “That’s kind of always our game strategy, is that bend don’t break type of thing, and that’s what we’re going to gear up to do.”

The Vikings capitalized on 435 total offensive yards in the win, and held the Wolverines to 36 yards.

The Vikings broke away fast and early in the matchup with a 50-0 halftime lead.

“It’s kind of obviously our game plan for everything is trying to get a quick start and set the tempo for the game. We are going to do some similar things that we did last time against them, and going to change some things and tweak some things,” coach Johnston said. “Our key focus this time of year is we’re always trying to, hopefully, be playing our best ball, and hopefully we go out and set the tempo that we want to do for the playoffs.”

Tristen Sussner finished the game with 136 passing yards and a trio of touchdowns on 10 complete passes of 18 attempts.

Kellen Bradley led with 72-rushing yards on five carries with a touchdown, while Brock Fier followed with 40-rushing yards on three carries. Receiving-wise, Fier had a team-high 51 yards on two catches and Owen Myrvik followed with 45 yards on a pair of catches.

Minneota will continue to look at its multi-faceted defensive pressure to bring more offensive opportunities.

Against MACCRAY, Randy Sorensen led with six tackles, two sacks and three tackle-for-losses. Fier had six assisted tackles, while Easton Johnston and Bradley each had one interception.

In the Vikings’ final regular season game against Dawson-Boyd, they had four sacks and 12 tackle-for-losses. Joey Lacek and Hudson Thostenson each had four tackles, while Sorensen had three in the 34-3 win over Class A No. 9 Dawson-Boyd.

For the Wolverines, the Vikings will look to slow down Meyer, Griffen Noble, Blake Grimsley and Klinghagen.

Along with Meyer’s 108-rushing yards in MACCRAY’s quarterfinal win, Grimsley followed with 85 yards on 13 carries, who is also the team’s starting quarterback. Noble was the lone receiving target, and finished with 24 yards on one catch of four attempts.

“Grimsley is the one that is probably our biggest concern. Him at the quarterback position, and they’ve started to move him around a little bit, but he’s, to me, their best runner and our biggest fear is when he drops back to pass,” coach Johnston said. “If he sees a lane, he is going to take off. Last time, we were able to contain him pretty good. We were actually able to get to him and sack him a few times. That’s going to be key this time again. They’re going to take their shots and they’re going to do that, but we’ve got to really do a nice job and not let him get out in the open, because he’s pretty athletic.”

MACCRAY’s defense tallied 45 team tackles with four sacks against Canby. Klinghagen had five tackles with his pick-6, while Meyer and Noble had seven and six tackles, respectively.

“I think one of the things that it changes a little bit, is Canby is obviously a little bit more geared to doing a lot of throwing. What we watch them do is they played a lot of man-to-man, and just were very aggressive, doing a lot of blitzing. Not that they won’t try to blitz against us, they will. But, I think it’ll be a little bit of a different story with our different formations and our ability to run the ball,” coach Johnston said. “At this point in time, they probably feel like got nothing to lose, so I’m sure they are going to be real aggressive and try to do some good things.”

The Wolverines will be fighting for an opportunity to reach the section championship, who last made a state tournament appearance in 2006, the program’s first.

Looking further into the bracket

The winner of Minneota and MACCRAY will advance to the section championship next week, and will face the winner of No. 3 Lakeview (6-3) and No. 2 Dawson-Boyd (7-2), who will also be playing in the semifinals on Saturday.

The Section 4A championship is slated for next Friday at 10 a.m. at SMSU’s Mattke Field.

The Lakers defeated No. 6 Lac qui Parle Valley in the quarterfinals on Tuesday 41-0, as the Blackjacks handled No. 7 Yellow Medicine East, 73-12.

Dawson-Boyd was also the last team to hand the Vikings a loss on Oct. 13, 2022, 22-20. Since then, Minneota has been riding a 41-game win streak that is ongoing heading into Saturday.

Game details

The Vikings and Wolverines will kickoff for the semifinals on Saturday at 3 p.m. at K.P. Kompelien Field. Tickets can be purchased at the door.

“Obviously, this is an opponent that we’ve seen before. We had a lot of success against them, but this is a time of year that you can’t overlook anybody,” coach Johnston said. “You have to take it game by game, we’ve got to be focused on MACCRAY. Again, I think setting the tempo is going to be key. The more you allow teams to hang in the game with you, the more confidence they gain, and the more of a challenge it is for you.”