Section 1A football championship game

Tonight's game is a big game! The game I'm talking about is at Winona high school, where Rushford-Peterson and Fillmore Central are squaring off for the Section 1A championship. Why is this game important? It's HUGE because the winner of this game will face our beloved B-B-E Jaguars football team in the state tournament opener.

HALFTIME: No. 1-seeded and No. 3-ranked Rushford-Peterson 7, No. 2-seeded Fillmore Central 0. It's a dog fight. The combined records of these two teams is 19-1, and the lone loss was Fillmore Central losing 26-15 to Rushford-Peterson in the regular season Week Two.

Rushford-Peterson has 11 seniors on their team, while Fillmore Central has four seniors on their roster.

With 2:05 left in the third quarter, Rushford-Peterson is still ahead by just a 7-0 score. This is one hell of a football game. Wow! If you're unable to listen to it, you're missing an incredible knock-down, drawn-out battle between teams very familiar with one another.

FOURTH QUARTER UPDATE: with 1:57 left, Rushford-Peterson's junior 5'8" 160-pound linebacker Grady Hengel earned an interception to raise the odds that the Trojans will advance. Fillmore Central was charging down field and threatening to score. Hengel also scored Rushford-Peterson's lone touchdown of the game in the second quarter.

FINAL SCORE: Rushford-Peterson Trojans 7, Fillmore Central Falcons 0. Each team punted 7 times. The Trojans tallied 158 yards of offense, and the Falcons had 138 yards of offense. The Trojans had just 21 yards in the second half on 14 plays. They had 85 yards of rushing on 30 carries. Quarterback Malachi Bunke was 6-of-14 in passing for 73 yards and the one touchdown to Grady Hengel.

R-P rushing statistics: Hadyn Kahoun 13-34, Grady Hengel 4-28, Alex Ronnenberg 1-14, Malachi Bunke 11-6, Brady Gile 1-3.
R-P receiving statistics: Alex Ronnenberg 2-37, Justin Ruberg 2-9, Grady Hengel 1-26, Tommy Ekern 1-1.

The Jaguars will face an 11-0, No. 3-ranked Rushford-Peterson Trojans team in the Class 1A state quarterfinals next Friday, November 12 at Crown College with a 7 p.m. kickoff. The Trojans, who are the third-ranked team in the Class 1A state Top 10, averaged 41 points per game on offense coming into tonight's dog fight at Winona high school. Their offensive average going into state is now 37.6 points a game.

Spread the word on state!!!!

Now to return to the last blog post, Friday Night Lights XI, to add more content there.