Photo by Jake McNeill: Fans of the Murray County Central football team react during the Class A state quarterfinals in Rochester on Nov. 7.

SLAYTON — After a 25-year hiatus, the Murray County Central football team is back in the state semifinals. While plenty of time has passed, a lot hasn’t; the Rebels still represent the same hard-working rural community with the same hard-nosed, ground-and-pound football. As such, the Slayton area has taken great pride in its team’s success.

In the section championship against three-time reigning section champion Springfield, the Rebels had a strong showing of parents, students and other fans making the trip from Slayton to Marshall to support their team.

After upsetting the Tigers and qualifying for the Class A state tournament for the fourth time ever and first time since 2021, bookending the Springfield 3A titles, the Rebels were tasked with making a three-hour drive for their state quarterfinal matchup against Fillmore Central. Once again, the Rebels were underdogs in the game. Once again, the fans made the journey to support the team as they proved the doubters wrong; MCC opened the game with 21 unanswered points and held on for a 29-26 win.

“It was unreal seeing them do this for the first time in a long time. I’m proud of them,” MCC junior Parker Klein, a student who made the trip to watch his team, said. “I thought we had a good chance to win it, and our boys were going to get it done tonight. I feel like coming up here, we’d win anyways, so it was worth it.”

The last time MCC won a state tournament game, none of the players and coaches were alive. The seniors from that last state tournament win are now mostly in their early 40s. For a program that’s often been strong but in a loaded section, the win was a long time coming.

MCC’s last appearance in the state semifinals was played in the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, which was demolished in 2014 before being replaced by US Bank Stadium in 2016. While the location of the game has changed, the Rebels’ style of play hasn’t; the Rebels ran a double-wing offense with three running backs. Chris Johnson, a fullback for the Rebels’ 2000 state semifinal appearance, said that the team’s offense looks basically the same as it did back then with the exception of the way it disguises it more with its pre-snap formations. He emphasized the team’s ability to use misdirection to hide the ball and confuse the defense as key points for why it still works 25 years later.

“The group of kids that are playing right now, there’s a lot of speed in the backfield and the linemen are absolute units,” Johnson said. “You can’t run this double-wing style without having an absolutely stacked offensive line, and they have that. And that’s what we had when I was a senior… Our offensive line was the key to our success, and that’s why we had three tailbacks who had over 1,500 yards rushing on the season. That’s pretty rare to see that in high school, where you have three running backs with that many yards in a season, and it all starts up front. That’s exactly the way Slayton has been handling it this year.”

MCC continuing to find that success in its own style has resulted in plenty of community support, something the team truly values.

“I’m blessed to have a great coaching staff and a community that supports each other. Ultimately, that’s what it’s all about,” MCC head coach Patrick Freeman said.

One of the main differences this time around is how MCC got to this point. While the Rebels finished the regular season 4-4 before finding a rhythm near the postseason, squeaking its way into the playoffs, the Rebels have one nine straight games after an 0-2 start this year and look as competitive as anybody in Class A. Seeing the newspapers and radio talking about it all over the place is something that has brought an already football-driven area even closer together, Johnson said.

In many ways, the Rebels on the field are similar to the composition of the Slayton community in general. Rural communities’ teams may not be as flashy as the pro-style, pass-heavy offenses of the metro area, but the teams of southwest Minnesota tend to be stronger and more physical, Johnson said.

“It basically boils down to… trusting your neighbor,” Johnson said. “Every guy has to do his job or this offense won’t succeed. You have to trust your brothers that are playing on the field with you. If somebody starts doing a little more than they’re supposed to, it’s going to fail.”

Freeman and Johnson both said that MCC is a team that takes pride in its physicality. Springfield head coach Adam Meyer also noted that his team remembered the physicality that MCC plays with on the field.

“That’s what football is about, being physical. I love watching the hits, I love seeing the pancake blocks from the pulling guards and pulling tackles that they’ve been doing this year, and then the running backs basically breaking a tackle and seeing all that green in front of them,” Johnson said. “I think the key for the kids around here is that they want to make a mark. They want to make sure that you remember playing against us.”

While the Rebels have already made their mark with a season to remember, they’ll look to keep adding to local history today, when they compete for the chance to make the state championship for the first time in program history. With the way the Rebels are rolling, the goal could soon shift to two more wins rather than just one.