Speaking of Sports

By John Fragodt, Sports Reporter

I goofed up last week.  I intended to write a column about the great game last Friday night between the Lakers and Albany Huskies and about the exciting season for the Laker football team this year, but instead, I mistakingly put in a future column about looking ahead to the winter season and the upcoming winter sports schedule.

There will be time for that, but for now, it’s time to talk some more football.  What a season it was for the Lakers football team in 2024!

When I came here for the 2022 fall season, the Lakers had won one game the previous fall and then went winless in 2022 before picking up two victories last year in 2023.

This year, the Lakers not only went 6-4, but they had a chance to beat Pierz early in the season and also had a great chance to upset the Albany Huskies in the Section 6AAA championship game.

And what a game it was!  Minnewaska fell behind early 12-0, but took a 13-12 lead midway through the second quarter.  The score stayed that way through the end of the third quarter before Albany earned a big break with a safety and touchdown early in the fourth quarter for a 21-13 lead.

The Lakers didn’t falter a bit, driving down the field before Levi Johnson connected with Owen Meulebroeck for the Lakers’ third touchdown of the game and Riley Dell ran in from the three for the two-point conversion

Suddenly, the game was tied at 21-21.  Anyone watching the game could see these were two very-evenly matched teams and the outcome could be decided in overtime.  Well, the Lakers came up just short of sending the game into OT as Albany drove down the field and scored with just under a minute remaining to earn the 29-21 victory.

Despite going through the season undefeated so far, the Huskies were seeded fourth of four teams in the north half of the state in Class AAA.  Albany did beat top-seeded Fergus Falls by one point in the state quarterfinals this past weekend.

I’m not going to go into individual players,  but I have to mention the great seasons of Riley Dell, Noah Jensen, Levi Johnson, Carter Meyer, Kaiden Harvey, Owen Meulebroeck, Asante Adams, Kearri Dickens, Miles Wildman, Luke Danielson, Zach Gugisberg,  Lucas Tauber, Evan Friese and Ethan Jacobs, among others.  Some of those guys barely left the field during a game and believe me, they didn’t take any plays off; racing around the field and making play after play, block after block, tackle after tackle.  Yes, I was very impressed with the play of the Lakers this year.

•  For those of you who don’t know, I worked at the Swift County Monitor-News in Benson for 35 years and among my duties was covering the Benson football team (and also keeping stats).

The Braves had their share of football losses over the years.  In fact, the team lost 28-straight games in the early 1970s and then went 3-51 over a six-year span from 2013-2018, which also included 25-straight losses.

During that 3-51 streak over six years, the only victories for the Braves were against Yellow Medicine East.  The Braves have had a couple of decent seasons since then, but they have never completely turned around the football program.

The Lakers meanwhile, turned things completely around this year with their 6-4 record.  Although the team will lose a lot of great players, the cupboard is not bare, by any means, as a host of great players return for the Lakers next season and some very talented grades also move up.

•  Speaking of playoff games at home, the last playoff game at home for the Minnewaska Area football team before this season was during the 2020 season when the Lakers beat Melrose in the playoff opener 35-19 before losing to NLS in the next round, also at home, 26-7.

Prior to that, the Lakers hosted playoff games during the 2019 playoff opener against Montevideo (28-19 win), the 2018 playoff opener (33-13 win over Benson) and 2018 semifinals (21-7 victory over ACGC); the 2017 playoff opener against Benson (55-14 win) and 2017 semifinals vs. Holdingford (21-18 loss); the 2015 opener against Sauk Centre (20-7 win); the 2014 playoff opener versus Sauk Centre (38-22 victory); and the 2012 playoff quarterfinals against YME (42-6 win) and the 2012 semifinals vs. Paynesville (28-14) victory).

That gave Minnewaska a 9-2 record during home playoff games dating back to 2012 and through this year’s playoffs.  You then have to go back to 2003 before finding another home playoff game for Minnewaska Area.  Overall, from 1991 through 2011, the Minnewaska Area Lakers hosted 16 home playoff games, going 13-3 and the team went 9-2 in playoff games from 2012 on for a 22-5 home playoff record.  That’s what I’d call a big homefield advantage.

Digging a little deeper, the last state playoff game at home was in 1999 when the Lakers beat Kasson-Mantorville at home on Nov. 12, 1999 (14-6 win) before losing to DeLaSalle in the 1999 state semifinals at the Metrodome, 21-20.

Thanks Lakers for a great football season; it was a lot of fun!