Photo by Samantha Davis: Minneota junior quarterback Tristen Sussner (5) throws a pass to a teammate while Kellen Bradley (34) locates a defender during the Section 4A Championship on Oct. 31 against Dawson-Boyd at Southwest Minnesota State University’s Mattke Field. The Vikings will take on Mahnomen/Waubun in the Class A semifinals today in Minneapolis at US Bank Stadium.

MINNEAPOLIS — One win away from reaching its fifth straight Class A state championship game while on a quest for a fourth consecutive title, the top-seeded and top-ranked Minneota football team will take on No. 2 and fourth-ranked Mahnomen/Waubun in the semifinals tomorrow at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis. Both teams enter the game 11-0 on the season.

Saturday will also be a battle between two top-5 Class A ranked teams, as Minneota has held the No. 1 spot all year while M/W was most recently tabbed No. 4 in the final regular season coaches poll.

“They [Minneota players] know that we’ve got to execute and we’ve got to perform, but I think they’re excited. I mean, this is one of the things that we’ve been talking about since the beginning of the season, is getting ourselves back in this position,” Minneota head coach Chad Johnston said. “I think they’re excited. I think we’re going to, hopefully, be well prepared and we’re ready to play.”

Both the Vikings and Thunderbirds’ football programs have plenty of state tournament experience, with Minneota looking to win its 11th overall championship during its 18th tournament run.

Mahnomen and Waubun combined teams in 2018, the same year the Thunderbirds won the state championship for the first time as a merged program, and has been in the tournament every year since 2021.

Prior to the two programs coming together however, Mahnomen had 26 state appearances with eight championships, while Waubun’s nine-player team had four state berths and one championship in 2007.

“This is a very historic program also, a lot of tradition in this football program in Mahnomen. We got to continue to do what we’ve done well all year. We’ve got to, obviously, execute on both sides of the ball, but defensively, I think is going to be key. They’ve [Mahnomen] been running option football for many, many years, and we don’t see a lot of it. So, we have to do a nice job of trying to contain that triple-headed monster,” Johnston said. “It’s gonna be key for us to control the line of scrimmage, both sides of the ball again.”

The Class A semifinals will kickoff at 9 a.m. on Saturday from US Bank Stadium, with tickets available to purchase on mshsl.org/tickets. Tickets are $16 for adults and $10 for students, and live state will also be available on the Minnesota State High School League website. A livestream can be found on NSPN.TV with a monthly subscription cost of $12.

Familiar territory for the Vikings

There has not been a Class A championship without Minneota playing in it since 2019, where the Vikings were 2021 runners-up to Mayer Lutheran and champions from thereafter. There was no tournament in 2020 due to the global pandemic.

The Vikings’ approach is no different this year with their built up championship experience, looking to continue finding success with their strong run game and offensive blocking with a tenacious defensive line, along with the leadership of junior quarterback Tristen Sussner who had 17 touchdowns and 1,140 passing yards over the regular season.

“They’re [Mahnomen] going to give us a little different look defensively than we’ve seen throughout the year. They run a little bit of a three-man front, almost a five-man front, and we have to be able to loosen them up a little bit,” Johnston said. “Tristen is going to be an important factor in that game. We have to be able to get some guys open, hopefully hit some key throws, and get them to stretch out that way vertically, too.”

The Vikings opened state play with a dominant 42-6 quarterfinal win over No. 4 Lester Prairie last Friday in Jordan behind four rushing touchdowns. They scored in every quarter, including a pair of touchdowns in the second and fourth, while the Bulldogs’ got their lone score in the third quarter.

In that matchup, Minneota had 308 rushing yards to Lester Prairie’s 68, led by senior running back Kellen Bradley’s 216 yards and one touchdown on 19 carries, who also had an interception.

Bradley is Minneota’s lead rusher, who finished the regular season with 774 rushing yards on 84 carries with 16 touchdowns. He also had another 113 receiving yards on eight catches.

Brock Fier, the team’s leading receiver, led the defense with 15 tackles in the quarterfinals, 13 assisted. He, alongside Kyson Arndt and Caleb Bottelberghe each had a sack as well. Fier finished the regular season with 462 receiving yards on 18 catches for five touchdowns.

The Vikings’ defense forced a trio of penalties for 30 yards against Lester Prairie last week.

Thunderbirds looking to break through

While on a five-year streak to the state tournament, the only team that has gotten in M/W’s way the past two years of reaching the championship has been Springfield, who did not make it to state this year.

No. 3 Murray County Central upset Springfield in the Section 3A championship game, and also took down No. 2 Fillmore Central in the state quarterfinals last Friday in Rochester, who will be playing in the state semifinals on Saturday following the Minneota-M/W game.

Springfield and Fillmore Central were also ranked No. 2 and No. 3 in Class A in the final coaches poll, between Minneota and M/W.

“Up front, obviously, we need to get some penetration. With the option [offense], everyone’s got to be able to do their job. Everyone’s got a responsibility. They [Mahnomen] do have the ability to throw the ball a little bit more this year than they have in years past. They’ve done a nice job of stretching out teams a little bit more this year,” Johnston said regarding what he expects of his defense on Saturday. “But again, our focus is that everyone [has] a key responsibility, and you got to trust your teammates to do their job, and you got to do your job.”

M/W defeated No. 3 Upsala/Swanville in the state quarterfinals in Becker last week 17-8, powered behind a Tanner Stech rushing touchdown and field goal, and a Blake McMullen passing touchdown to Zach Zima.

Stech’s 59-yard rushing touchdown came in the third quarter, as did the field goal. Zima’s 13-yard passing touchdown to McMullen opened up the scoring in the first quarter, while U/S’s lone touchdown came in the fourth with just over nine minutes remaining.

Additionally, senior Brody Lhotka rushed for 116 yards on 25 carries, while McMullen finished with another 112 yards on 21 attempts. Defensively, Lhotka led with nine tackles and Chase Stock followed with another eight. Zima also had an interception.

“They’ve got multiple weapons. Their quarterback [Blake McMullen] is a four-year starter, big quarterback [6-foot-5 and 220 pounds], so he’s definitely a guy that we got to contain. Fullback number 33 [Lhotka], is a big kid and big physical runner, and we got to make sure that we don’t bounce off him. We got to get to him, and we got to bring him down,” Johnston said. “They got multiple other guys that are just athletic and quick. They got a good mixture of everything.”

The Vikings and Thunderbirds have not met since the Class A state quarterfinals in 2021 on Nov. 12, where the Vikings came away with a 34-0 win.

The winner of Saturday will move on to the championship, looking to finish its perfect undefeated season. The game is slated for next Friday at 10 a.m. back in the US Bank Stadium.

“We just got to control the factors that we can,” Johnston said. “Mahnomen again is a great team. Well coached. They’re there [at state] historically almost every year. We just got to control the things that we can and, you know, do the things we’ve been doing all year.”