With their backs to the wall, Jaguars Football pitches a 15-0 shutout against Kimball, holds onto 5th place in Section 4A standings

The Jaguars football team improved to 2-5 overall and 2-4 in the Central Minnesota Conference with a shutout win over the visiting Kimball Area Cubs.

A 15-0 score after one quarter of play stood the rest of the game - the Cubs coughed up the ball five times on lost fumbles and the Jaguars also earned one interception.

Up next: a Tuesday night (Oct 20) trip to Huskers Territory to face Holdingford in the final game of the regular season. The Huskers lost 20-6 at Pierz on Tuesday night, falling to 4-3 overall and 4-2 in the Central Minnesota Conference.

Around the Central Minnesota Conference:
The Maple Lake Irish traveled to the two-year old stadium of Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted High School and came away with a big 27-6 win over the Lakers. The Irish improve to 4-3 overall and 4-2 in the CMC, while also edging HL-W-W in the Section 4AA standings. HL-W-W is 4-3 overall and 3-3 in the CMC.

Rockford continued its winless ways with a 55-7 loss on their home field to Class AA #2-ranked Eden Valley-Watkins. It set up a Central Minnesota Conference "Toilet Bowl" for next week, a rare game in which teams with zero conference wins will meet up to see who will spend the off-season smarting from sitting at the bottom of the CMC standings until 2010.

As stated earlier, Pierz defeated visiting Holdingford 20-6 to improve to 6-1 overall and 5-1 in the CMC. The Pioneers travel to Howard Lake next week with a shot at locking up second place in the final league standings.


Speaking of Section 4A...
Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City hosted a struggling 1-5 Benson Braves team and survived a scare, winning 28-26 to improve to 3-4 overall. They manage to hold onto the #3 spot in the Section 4A standings.

Results from other games involving Section 4A teams (section teams in italics):
-Lion's Gate/Bethany Academy 10, New Life Academy 6
-Providence Acad./Heritage 42, Lester Prairie/Holy Trinity 3
-West Lutheran 34, St. John's Prep 0
-St.Croix Lutheran 53, St.Bernard's 19
-Le Center 33, St.Agnes 0

A logjam exists between the second and sixth spots in the section standings, with only five points separating 2nd and 6th place! (For arguments sake, five points is earned by a win over a Class AA team, and six points is earned by beating a Class AAA or AAAA team.)

**Revised standings:
1st - St.Bernard's (32 points)
2nd - St.Agnes (20 points)
3rd - A-C-GC (19 points)
4th - Lester Prairie/Holy Trinity (18 points)
5th - B-B-E (16 points)
6th - West Lutheran (15 points)
7th - Lions Gate Academy (10 points)

Lester Prairie/Holy Trinity will most likely beat a 1-5 Class AA New Life Academy next week and finish with 23 section points. New Life Academy's only win this season is against St.John's Prep by a 33-14 score. A-C-GC will probably beat LP-GE to finish with 24 section points, and that would tie what St.Agnes will probably finish with, as they play Class A West Lutheran (3-4) in the final regular season game. West Lutheran does have a shot against St.Agnes, and if they did win they would finish with 19 section points - putting them ahead of the Jaguars if they lose at Holdingford. The Jaguars would fall to sixth place if that happens.

I haven't found out how the section handles tie-breakers. I recall that Section 5A used a coin flip to break a tie.

LP-GE does have a chance of beating visiting A-C-GC next week, which would be a huge gift to the Jaguars, providing the Jaguars beat Holdingford. The Jaguars would leapfrog A-C-GC to grab number four if that happens.

The bottom line is, the Jaguars must beat Holdingford and control their own destiny.

Ponder this: if the Jaguars had beaten WCA in Week 1 (a game they should've won) and then HL-W-W in Week 2 (a tough OT loss) - they would be 4-3 now and playing for an above-.500 record at Holdingford next week. It shows how little room for error exists being a Class A team in a mostly Class AA conference.

Also, even a 4-4 final record (with wins over WCA & HL-W-W) would give them 27 section points, nailing down the #2 seed as the season wraps up! Those two early losses hurt. Now it doesn't matter - the Jaguars need to beat Holdingford and get a winning streak going as section playoffs heat up later this month.

In a big Prairie South Conference matchup, Royalton invaded the Swanville football field to face the Upsala-Swanville Area Patriots. The Royals left town with a tough 7-6 loss, falling to 4-3 overall and 2-1 in the Prairie South. It leaves Class AA #5-ranked Osakis (6-0, 3-0 Prairie) as the only undefeated team left in the Prairie Conference. United North Central (5-2 overall) leads the Prairie North with a 4-0 record.

Area football results:
Melrose 29, Sauk Centre 15 (the Dutchmen win the classic border battle and the bragging rights that go with it)
Minnewaska Area 27, Paynesville Area 26 OT! (a tough loss on the home gridiron for the Bulldogs)
Albany 32, Foley 6 (a huge win for the Huskies in the West Central North Conference)
Alexandria 33, Little Falls 7
BOLD 41, Lac qui Parle Valley 0 (uuf da! BOLD is in playoff form)
Browerville 35, New York Mills 0
Chokio-Alberta/Herman-Norcross 14, Ashby 8
Dawson-Boyd 14, Adrian 6 (a big win for the Blackjacks)
Eagle Valley 30, Wheaton 6
Glencoe-Silver Lake 35, Watertown-Mayer 6
Montevideo 35, Long Prairie-Grey Eagle 6
New London-Spicer 47, St. Cloud Cathedral 0 (NL-S clinches share of WCCN title)
Osakis 39, Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg 6 (K-M-S is 0-4 in the Prairie South)
Rocori 20, Willmar 14 OT (tough loss for the Cardinals)
Yellow Medicine East 20, Morris Area 6

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