Rebels To Face Familiar Foe In Semi-Finals

Nov 18

Dwight Cadwell-NSO

The Moose Lake-Willow River Rebels will be facing a familiar opponent on Friday afternoon in the state football semi-finals, the Luverne Cardinals. The Cardinals are another regular at the state football tournament, being the state Class AA runner-up for the past three seasons.

These two teams have met back in 2006 in state tournament play, with the Cardinals getting past the Rebels at 33-27.
The game saw both teams fighting back and forth. Moose Lake drove at the end of the fourth quarter and a pass from the 8-yard line fell incomplete, ending the Rebels season.

“That was a great game to be associated with,” head coach Dave Louzek told Northland Sports Online. “The win for them put them on the roll where they made it three straight years to the championship game.” Luverne fell in the state championship game that season to Triton by a final score of 70-21. The last two seasons Luverne has lost to Caledonia in the state AA championship game. In 2007, the Cardinals fell 14-7 and last season the Warriors hammered the Cardinals 47-7.

The Rebels are seeking to make it to their first ever state championship game on Friday. Head coach Louzek feels like “this will be a tough battle…They are trying to make it back to the championship game and clear that last hurdle and we are trying to do the same, making it to our first ever championship game.”

The Rebels will be entering the semi-final match with a 12-0 record and coming off a huge win last Thursday at the Fargodome in Fargo, North Dakota. The Cardinals shut out Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop 27-0 last Saturday at Gustavus Adolphus University in St. Paul to advance to the semi-finals once again. The win improves the Cardinals record to 10-2 on the season.

The Cardinals are the Section 3AA champions. They finished second in the Southwest conference behind Jackson County Central. Jackson County defeated Luverne in the regular season 20-7. However, the Cardinals responded in the section finals as the three-time state runner-up defeated the fourth ranked Huskies for the section championship.

The Rebels hope to utilize their dominating running game and solid defense. Michael Unzen will be a big factor once again Friday night as he led the Rebels last Thursday with 141 yards rushing. Hayden Hoffman finished with 80 yards passing on the night as well.

Friday’s winner will go on to face the winner of Eden Valley Watkins and Waterville-Elysian-Morristown. They play Saturday afternoon at the dome. Waterville-Elysian-Morristown defeated the two time state champions Caledonia Warriors in the state quarterfinal.

Dwight Cadwell can be reached at dwight@northlandsportsonline.com