Photo by Samantha Davis: Minneota running back Kellen Bradley (34) runs behind a block from Brock Fier during the Vikings’ Class A state football semifinal matchup against Mahnomen/Waubun on Saturday at US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis. The Vikings are returning to US Bank on Friday to take on Breckenridge in their fifth consecutive Prep Bowl appearance.

MINNEAPOLIS — Heading into their fifth consecutive Class A state football championship game appearance against Breckenridge on Friday, the Minneota Vikings are looking to do something no 11-player team has done before in Minnesota football history: claim four consecutive state titles. A win would give the Vikings their 11th state championship, tying them with Class 2A Caledonia and Class 6A Eden Prairie for the most in state history.

The elusive four-peat has been accomplished just twice before in Minnesota, both times at the 9-player level. Grand Meadow did it most recently, winning every season from 2013 to 2016, and Stephen-Argyle Central won five consecutive titles from 2003 through 2007.

“A three-peat doesn’t happen very often. Our program, we’ve had a three-peat before, they had a three-beat back in the 80s [from 1986-88], but this would be something that, even in our historic program, nobody’s ever accomplished,” Minneota head coach Chad Johnston said. “It would really kind of stamp this group in the history of our program in being able to accomplish something that’s so rare.”

Minneota headed into the season with the belief that it had the personnel needed to return to the state championship game, though they still needed things to fall into place and for kids to stay healthy and play up to their potential Johnston said, adding that he felt like the players consistently put themselves in a position to improve and help the team reach its latest milestone in a long list of accomplishments.

Regardless of the outcome, this year’s graduating class has made quite a mark on Class A football. None of the players on the team know what it’s like to fall short of the state championship game; heck, none of them know what it’s like to not win it all, entering with state titles in their freshman, sophomore and junior seasons.

Smooth sailing for the Vikings

Over the course of the last few seasons, the Vikings’ run to the state championship was largely uncontested. Minneota has won 45 consecutive games since its loss to Dawson-Boyd in October 2022, accumulating three state titles and four section titles during that run with the opportunity to claim a fourth state title on Friday.

Perhaps most remarkable is the way in which the Vikings won most of those games. After falling to the Blackjacks in 2022, Minneota only had one game decided by fewer than three possessions (a 28-27 win over Fillmore Central in the Class A semifinals). Over the following two seasons, the Vikings had a total of four games decided by fewer than 30 points: a pair of one-possession section championship wins over BOLD, a 42-28 regular-season win over BOLD and a 28-6 regular-season win over Canby.

That same dominance has carried over to this season; the Vikings head into the state championship match averaging 51 points per game while holding their opponents to an average of 7. Still, they’ve been tested more this year than they were the last two, completing a second-half comeback to earn a 37-30 win over Class 2A Eden Valley-Watkins in the second week of the season and surging ahead in the second quarter to defeat Mahnomen/Waubun in the Class A semifinals last week.

“We tell the kids all the time that you’re going to get tougher opponents the further you get into the season, and you just have to be prepared,” Johnston said. “That’s kind of one of the challenges, trying to get kids to understand that they can’t be complacent. They can’t think it’s going to be like some of those games that we had in the regular season we got to play. We had a good game against Mahnomen. We felt like we didn’t execute some aspects of the game, and those are things that we have to work on this week.”​

Looking back at the semifinals

While the Vikings didn’t execute in this year’s state semifinals relative to their own lofty standards, the performance that they put together is one that would be considered a season highlight for many teams. Kellen Bradley ran for 143 yards and a touchdown, pacing the Vikings to a 218-170 advantage on the ground, and Tristen Sussner ran for 45 yards and a pair of touchdowns at quarterback.

Easton Johnston also had a two-way impact in the win, scoring the game’s first touchdown and coming down with an interception on defense in the final minutes to ice the game with the lone turnover of the day.

Mahnomen had a strong and physical team, coach Johnston said, adding that he was proud of how his team’s offensive line, in particular, adjusted to the Thunderbirds’ three-man front to keep the ground game rolling.

No room for suspense

Each of the last three seasons, Minneota matched up with Springfield in the Prep Bowl, though hopes for a rematch this time around were put to bed when the Tigers were upset by Murray County Central in the Section 3A championship.

Over the course of Minneota’s three state title bouts with Springfield, Minneota consistently won the game well before the final whistle. After falling behind 13-10 in the first half of the 2022 state championship, a pair of touchdowns from Zack Fier helped Minneota score 21 unanswered points before settling for a 38-21 win.

Things didn’t get any better for Springfield over the next two seasons; Ryan Meagher tied the Prep Bowl record of five rushing touchdowns while going for 199 yards in the Vikings’ 43-22 win in the 2023 championship, and he broke the record a year later with six touchdowns and 290 rushing yards in a 70-20 win last year.

Meagher finished his career with a total of 562 yards and 12 touchdowns in the Prep Bowl over three appearances. After the game, the MSHSL’s John Millea wrote that there’s no category for career prep bowl records, but that his numbers remained very gaudy.

Stepping up into the gap

Bradley played a complementary role in the Vikings’ run game the last two seasons, finishing last season with 37 carries for 263 yards and three touchdowns after getting 21 carries for 98 yards and a pair of touchdowns as a sophomore.

Following the graduation of Meagher, a two-time Independent Player of the Year who averaged over 2,100 yards per season over his junior and senior seasons, the Vikings’ run game hasn’t lost a step; Minneota has averaged 249 rushing yards per game as a team this year, and Bradley has been at the core of that.

Bradley has averaged 120 rushing yards per game for a total of 1,437 yards despite receiving limited second-half action with the Vikings typically blowing out their opponents by halftime, and he’s found the end zone a total of 26 times between rushing and receiving touchdowns.

“He’s just taking that opportunity. Throughout the regular season, we didn’t need him as much for a while there, he was averaging about seven or eight carries per game and done by halftime,” coach Johnston said, adding that one of the bigger challenges for Bradley was when he found out that he was going to be carrying the ball about 20 times per game about 20 times per game starting with the section championship against Dawson-Boyd.

“He’s doing a great job of that. Now we need to do a better job offensively of getting our wing-backs involved. Some teams are really focused on trying to take them out of the game, and they’ve done a nice job on some of our stretch plays. We need to get those guys established and take some pressure off Kellen.”

The Vikings have seven other players with more than 150 rushing yards on the season, with Easton Johnston, DeVlaeminck and Sussner running for 10, six and five touchdowns, respectively.

​Bearing down for

Breckenridge

The past three seasons, the Vikings have had to prepare for a more pass-heavy offense in the state championship game against Springfield. Jakob Nachreiner threw for 3,119 yards with 40 touchdowns his freshman season in 2021 and threw for 3,431 yards and 55 touchdowns as a sophomore with the Tigers. Last year, Parker Kuehn passed for 2,408 yards with 32 touchdowns. This time around, the Vikings will be tasked with a more run-heavy offense in Breckenridge.

“You have to respect both parts of their game. Obviously, I think [Breckenridge’s] strong suit is their running game. They do have the ability to throw the ball, so you have to stay honest, but it’s going to be again about our guys doing their job up front,” coach Johnston said. “We have to try to control the line of scrimmage. We’ve been fortunate to be able to do that throughout the season, but we need to continue to do that so our interior guys can focus on the run game and, hopefully, our DBs [defensive backs] can keep their mindset on the passing game.”

David Erlandson has been at the focal point of the Cowboys’ rushing attack, which has produced 3,795 rushing yards and 50 touchdowns on the season.

As an individual, Erlandson has taken 166 carries for 1,871 yards and 24 touchdowns on the season, coming on 11.3 yards per carry. Quarterback Riley Kappes has also been a dangerous dual-threat, running for 730 yards on nine yards per carry with 12 touchdowns, as well as 1,428 passing yards with 20 touchdowns and just one interception on the year.

Trenches set up secondary

Minneota’s front seven has been one of the key components of its defensive dominance in recent years. That’s no different this year, as the Vikings have limited their opponents to 2.5 rushing yards per attempt with five touchdowns and two fumbles over the course of the season.

As a team, Minneota has amassed 81 tackles for loss with 32 sacks on the season, including 11 tackles for loss with six sacks from Kyson Arndt and 10 tackles for loss with seven sacks from Brock Fier. Randy Sorensen has also been a major contributor up front with a team-leading 82 total tackles, 36 of which were solo, and five sacks.

Still, the Vikings’ secondary in particular has stepped up and capitalized on that pressure up front this season. The Vikings had eight interceptions in 2021, 12 in 2022 and 23 last year. They’ve already surpassed that number this season, heading into the championship round with 25.

Joey Lacek and Ian Myhre have led the ball-hawking charge with five interceptions each this season, including a pick-6 for Myhre, while Easton Johnston, Bradley and Quinton Anderson have each come away with another three.

The Vikings’ ability to stop the run has been a major part of the secondary’s ability to focus on the pass game and force those turnovers rather than providing run support, coach Johnston said.

“If you can force a quarterback to make some ill-advised throws, then all of a sudden you might get them to throw a ball where a guy can easily pick it off. I think that’s been our case throughout the season,” coach Johnston said.

Don’t overlook the long ball

Sussner has also proven to be a solid quarterback for the Vikings’ ground-and-pound offense, throwing the ball for 1,508 yards with 24 touchdowns on an average of 10.8 yards per attempt.

Brock Fier has been one of the primary beneficiaries in the passing game, going for 597 yards and eight touchdowns at the tight end position in 11 games. The Vikings are going to look to continue to get him involved in the passing game as they head into the state championship, coach Johnston said.

“We’ve kind of struggled throwing the ball a little bit in the state tournament. We need to get that down, but I think you’ll see more of an impact,” coach Johnston said. “We’re going to try to use Brock’s speed on the defensive line, which we’ve done all season. He’s rotated a little bit, and he gets there in passing situations. He’s not a big kid [6-foot-1, 195 pounds], but he’s a quick kid. We’re trying to utilize him a bit more defensively to see if we can have his speed cause some disruption and some issues when those guys [Breckenridge] are trying to do their pulling and everything they do on offense.”

How to watch the game

Kickoff for Friday’s state championship game at US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis is slated for 10 a.m. Tickets for the game are available online at MSHSL.org/tickets, with general admission seating available for $16 and student tickets going for $10. Live stats are also available on the MSHSL website, while the game will be broadcast on 45Prep.