Vikings 'slush' their way to playoff win

The statement, "Too many mistakes tonight," may have been an understatement.

Minneota, playing more like a team in its first game of the year, committed eight penalties for 65 yards — and that didn't please Coach Chad Johnston.

Despite, "shooting themselves in the foot" time after time, the Vikings got the senior leadership they needed from Logan Sussner and Blake Reiss and took a 28-7 win over Yellow Medicine East.

"We did not want this tonight," said Coach Johnston, who despite an obvious displeasure with Minneota's style of play, praised his two seniors. Addressing Sussner he said, "You played like we expect you to play."

Sussner had a tackle for loss, a sack and five solo tackles as he led a Viking defense that bent a little, but didn't break.

The coach also singled out Reiss, saying, "You ran your butt off, like you have been doing the last three games."

The penalty yards alone were not as damaging as the fact they usually negated Minneota progress and included a pair of "personal foul" penalties in the first quarter.

At playoff time, "This is not what we needed to do tonight," re-iterated the coach.

After an extremely sluggish first quarter, in which Yellow Medicine East gave them every opportunity to score, including losing a fumble recovered by Jackson Esping, Minneota could not get the offense rolling.

They finally scored 30 seconds into the second quarter when sophomore AJ Josephson took the ball on a 24-yard jaunt for a touchdown and freshman kicker Peyton Gillund smashed it through the goal posts for a 7-0 lead.

The Viking defense, led by linebacker Tucker Thooft stopped The Sting as Conner Sik got to quarterback Cody Dahlager on fourth down. Minneota took just three plays to score again. One was a 38-yard pass from Kade Lozinski to Reiss, who then ran it 15 yards to paydirt. Gillund hit the point after again, his 14th straight.  YME got a couple of sacks from Hunter Johnson to keep the Vikings from scoring again, but Thooft intercepted a Dahlager pass to stop a final YME threat. Minneota led 14-0 at the half.

The Vikings added a third touchdown after Sik and AJ Myhre combined to block a YME punt. They went 29 yards, with Josephson again running the ball over from six yards out. Gillund kicked the point again and it was 21-0.

In the fourth quarter The Sting used a 40-yard pass to Carter Sneller to set the ball up on the Minneota two yard line. Minneota's defenders just missed the ball and Sneller caught it. Angel Jimenez took it over for the touhdown with 3:36 to go.

Sussner scored the final touchdown on a 13-yard pass from Lozinski and Gillund kicked his 16th straight point after for the 28-7 lead.

Coach Johnston for his team to discover, "Accountability," saying, "Some of you haven't found it yet." He added, "We need to focus and be hungry."

Minneota will play Canby at 3 p.m. Friday at home in the Section 3A semi-finals. Canby beat Lakeview, 7-3 after trailing 3-0 at halftime.

NOTES:

•Running bck/linebacker Cole Sanow suited up but didn't play because of his ankle injury. He's hoping to play on Saturday.

•Injured Alex Saltzer started and played sparingly. He had one punt.

•Also injured an likely to play on Saturday is junior lineman Kaden Culver. He's missed both YME games.

SECTION 5A RESULTS:

BOLD 62, MACCRAY 14

Dawson-Boyd 62, Lac qui Parle Valley 14

Minnetoa 28, Yellow Medicine East 7

Canby 7, Lakeview 3

SECTION 3A

Springfield bye

Russell-Tyler-Ruthton 30, Adrian 7

Martin County West 51, Sleepy Eye 0

Wabasso 21, Murray County Central 14

Statistics:

YME               0    0   0   7   —   7
Minneota        0    14 7   7  —   28
First Quarter:
None
Second Quarter:
M-AJ Josephson 24 run. PAT-Peyton Gillund kick.
M-Blake Reiss 14 run. PAT-Gillund kick.
Third Quarter:
M-Josephson 6 run. PAT-Gillund kick.
Fourth Quarter:
YME-Angel Jimenez 1 run. PAT-Keaton Anderson kick.
M-Logan Sussner 13 pass from Kade Lozinski. PAT-Gillund kick.

Team Statistics
Minn                YME
14        First Downs    7
8-65        Penalties/yds    4-20
1-0        Fumbles/Lost    4-1
38-146    Rushes/yds    25-3
103        Passing yds    118
249        Total yds    121

Individual Statistics:
RUSHING (No., yds.) Minneota: Conner Sik 17-93; AJ Josephson 5-45; Blake Reiss 7-34; Zach Fier 1-3; A. Rybinski 2-1; Jonah Gruenes 1-1; Kade Lozinski 5-minus 31. YME: Angel Jimenez 10-11; Jaiden Jimenez 1-9; O. Galvan 2-3; Cody Dahlager 7-minus 16; others 5 for minus 4.
PASSING: (No., comp., int., yds.) Minneota-Lozinski 15-8-0-103; YME-Dahlager 24-8-1-38; Sneller 1-0-1-0.
RECEIVING: (No., yds.) Minneota-Reiss 3-58; Sussner 3-44; Alex Saltzer 1-4; Sik 1-minus 3. YME-Carter Sneller 3-80; L. Anderson 1-26; H. Johnson 2-10; N. Hildahl 1-6; A. Jimenez 1-minus 4.
KICKOFFS: (No., yds., avg.) Minneota: Gillund 5-195-39.0; YME-K. Anderson 2-19-8.5.
KICKOFF RETURNS: (No., yds.) Minneota 2-1; YME Sneller 1-56; J. Jimenez 2-8; N. Hildahl 2-7.
PUNTS: (No., yds., avg.) Minneota-Lozinski 3-100-33.3; Saltzer 1-36-36.0; YME Tyler Syring 5-140-28.0.
PUNT RETURNS: Minneota-Salterz 1-14; others 4-0; YME: 3-0.
TACKLES: (Solo, assists) Minneota-Sussner 5-0; AJ Myhre 3-3; Sik 2-0; Joseph Rybinski 2-2; Tucker Thooft 2-2; Josephson 1-2; Reiss 1-3; Anthony Rybinski 1-1; Grady Moorse 1-4; Josh Citterman 1-1; Cooper VanOverbeke 1-1; Tate Walerius and Beau Banish 1-0 each; Gruenes, Jackson Lacek 0-1 each; YME-A. Jimenez 7-2; H. Johnson 5-3; I. Jimenez 4-1; K. Andeerson 4-2; C. Fischer 4-1; Sneller 3-1; Galvan 3-9; Lien 3-0; J. Jimenez 2-2; Chapparo 2-0; Staab, Ohliger 1-0 each).
TACKLES FOR LOSS: Minneota-Citterman; YME- H. Johnson, Chapparo, Galvan.
SACKS: Minneota-Sussner 1; Sik 2; YME: H. Johnson 2, K. Anderson 1.
INTERCEPTIONS: Minneota-Thooft, VanOverbeke.
FUMBLE RECOVERIES: Minneota-Esping