The Minnewaska Area Laker football team had a great season this fall, going 6-4 overall and 5-2 in the sub-district.  The Lakers were 1-2 after losing to Morris Area (46-27), beating Sauk Centre (34-13) and losing a close game at Pierz (26-21).

Minnewaska then won three-straight over Howard Lake-WW on Homecoming (33-8), Rockford (21-19) and Montevideo (37-0) before losing a close game at home to Albany (21-0).

Minnewaska Area routed Melrose Area (56-14) to close out the regular-season and then beat NLS in the section semifinals (26-22) before having its season end with a 29-21 loss to Albany in the Section 6AAA championship game at Rocori High School.

Overall, the Lakers outscored their opponents 276-198 this year for an average margin of victory of 28-20.

The Lakers will lose 16 players to graduation from this year’s team, coached by Jared Lyle — Brady McCrory, Carter Meyer, Zach Gugisberg, Levi Johnson, Connor Frey, Josh Hippe, Owen Meulebroeck, Oliver Rieland, Lucas Tauber, Ty Koubsky, Drew Winter, Jordan Chakua, Lucky Hippe, Evan Friese, Noah Jensen and Kaiden Harvey.

Albany won this year’s Midstate NW White football sub-district with a 7-0 league mark, followed by Minnewaska, Pierz and HLWW at 5-2 each, Sauk Centre, Melrose and Rockford at 2-5 each and Montevideo at 0-7.

Albany beat Fergus Falls by one point in the state quarterfinals before losing to Stewartville in the semifinals, 33-20.

Postseason awards

Earning All-District honors for the Lakers this year were Kaiden  Harvey, Noah Jensen, Riley Dell, Asante Adams and Lucas Tauber, while earning All-District honorable mention were Carter Meyer, Levi Johnson and Evan Friese.

In addition, Kaiden Harvey was named the District Defensive Lineman of the Year and Zach Gugisberg was named the Kicker of the Year.

In team awards, Oliver Rieland won the Dan Wold Award and Owen Meulebroeck earned the Solem Award.

Finally, named to the All-District All-Academic team were Harvey, Johnson, Ty Koubsky, Meulebroeck, Carter Meyer, Tauber, Drew Winter, Marc Gruber, Jayda Kolstoe, Tyson Metz, AJ Svec, Caleb Kath, Miles Wildman and Gage Zenk.

Season statistics

Levi Johnson went 45-for-83 passing this year for 767 yards with eight touchdowns and seven interceptions.  Marc Gruber was 3-for-6 for another 32 yards.  Laker quarterbacks were also sacked 13 times this year for -95 yards while the Lakers recorded 12 sacks of their own for -78 yards.

Opposing teams were 74-for-167 passing for 856 yards with nine touchdowns and 13 interceptions.

Carter Meyer was the leading receiver with 11 catches for 148 yards and one touchdown, while Tristan O’Neill had nine receptions for 165 yards and three scores, Zach Gugisberg had eight for 145 and two touchdowns, Owen Meulebroeck had seven catches for 130 yards and two scores, Asante Adams had four for 64 yards, Luke Danielson had two for 37, Mile Wildman had two for 50 and Noah Jensen had two for 27 yards, while Kaiden Harvey and Kearri Dickens also had receptions for the Lakers this fall with Harvey’s catch also going for a touchdown.

The Lakers rushed 345 times this year for 2,141 net yards while opponents had  1,450 rushing yards on 366 carries.

Asante Adams, who led the Lakers in scoring with 11 rushing touchdowns, was the leading rusher with 705 yards on 94 carries, while Riley Dell also had 94 rushes for 627 net yards and seven scores, Kearri Dickens had 39 carries for 329 yards, Carter Meyer had 37 for 174, Miles Wildman had 13 for 121 and four touchdowns, Austyn Schuler had two for 70 yards, Levi Johnson had 42 for 63 and three touchdowns, Evan Armstrong had seven for 23 yards, Braylen Scharmer had two for 18, and Zach Gugisberg, Marc Gruber, Carter Huckle, Caleb Kath and Owen Meulebroeck also had at least one carry during the season.

The Lakers had three players punt this year including Connor Frey (22 for 29.7 yard average), Gugisberg (6-for-28.7) and Dell (4-for-30.5 average).

Gugisberg was also 24-for-30 on extra-points and 1-of-4 on field goals.

The top returners for the Lakers this year were Wildman (nine punts returned for 91 yards and eight kickoffs for 165 yards), Adams (two punts for 12 yards and eight kickoffs for 121 yards), Dickens (six kickoffs for 101 yards) and O’Neill (four punts for 19 yards).

Defensively, Wildman had four interceptions, Johnson and Scharmer both had two, and Meyer, Luke Danielson, Gugisberg, Dell and Josh Hippe each had one.

Danielson and Noah Jensen both had a team-high two fumble recoveries during the season, while Dickens, Adams, Meulebroeck, Evan Friese, Jensen and Harvey were among players recording sacks for the Lakers this year.