Rebels Looking For State Title

Nov 11

Dwight Cadwell-NSO

The Moose Lake-Willow River Rebels are looking to make a run in this year’s state football Class AA tournament. The Section 7AA Rebel champions will square off on Thursday at 6:00 pm at the Fargodome in Fargo, North Dakota against the Hawley Nuggets. The Rebels enter the game with an 11-0 record, whereas Hawley comes in at 10-1 overall.

Coming off of an impressive 42-24 win over Rush City in the Section 7AA championship game last Thursday at Public School Stadium, the Rebels have confidence. Hawley, the Section 8AA champion, defeated Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton 26-7 last Friday at the Fargodome in North Dakota.

The Rebels will be making their fourth straight appearance and their sixth overall trip to the state football tournament. They also appeared in 1997 (as Moose Lake) and in 2000. Last season, the Rebels lost in the state semi-finals to the two-time defending state champion the Caledonia Warriors 44-13. Moose Lake-Willow River is looking to advance past the semi-final round for the first time.

The Hawley Warriors are returning for their fifth consecutive and 12th overall appearance in the state tournament. They lost in the semi-finals last year to Luverne 21-14. The Warriors have never won a state championship, but have been state runners up twice in 1996 & 1997. Hawley’s only loss on the season was to Barnesville, who downed the Warriors 33-16 and are in the state Class A football tournament.

Moose Lake-Willow River will rely on their dominating running game which features their three outstanding running backs Austin Jacobson, Shane Rehbein, and Michael Unzen. Offensively, the Rebels have battered their previous opponents, scoring an amazing 449 points.

The Rebels will need to control the line of scrimmage and play solid defense against an experienced Hawley team. Hawley can put points on the scoreboard also as they finished with 543 points this season, including a 2-0 forfeit win over Bagley. Taking the forfeit win away, the Nuggets average 54 points per game while giving up 88 points or a very impressive 7 points per game.

Northland Sports Online will have score updates tomorrow night from the Fargodome. A Rebels victory will put them back into the semi-finals at the Metrodome on Friday, November 20th at 5:45pm.

Dwight Cadwell can be reached at dwight@northlandsportsonline.com