Shanley Football Aims For First 11AA State Championship
Shanley Football Takes on Century Friday For the State Championship
FARGO– This season, the deacons finished with the regular season with the highest win percentage in 11AA with a 9-2 record. Coming into the playoffs as the 3 seed, the deacons lit up Minot in the round one with a statement 42-14 victory. Last weekend they faced what was statistically the best defense left in the tournament in Mandan but were able to battle back against the braves for a 38-27 victory. The Deacons have won four state championships in program history but a win Friday over Bismarck century would be their first ever 11AA state title. Meanwhile the Patriots have a chance to win their third state championship in just four years. The Deacons are hard at work preparing for one more opportunity to leave it all on the field with a chance to make program history.
“This team has been determined; like I tell everyone that when we lost that state semi final last year against Sheyenne .. when we got together that next Monday there was just a different of those kids coming back that they just didn’t want that feeling again and we knew we had a lot of good pieces coming back to this football team; they put in a great winter, their offseason is probably the best I’ve had in my coaching career. It propelled into the fall and obviously we just had a great season and whenever you make a run like this you gotta be lucky you know, we caught a lot of breaks throughout the season and stayed healthy but its just a determined group of kids that love the game of football,” said coach Troy Mattern.
“I mean we will put in a lot of work this offseason getting bigger stronger faster so we have to show this week especially that Shanley has made the big move up and we’re ready to play the big guys,” said junior linebacker and running back, Adam Leininger.
“The no huddle change has been great. It really elevated us and I feel like we can do a little bit of everything like screens, deep balls, and our run game is pretty good as well,” said wide receiver and cornerback, Viciri Hakim.
“It’s a big game so we just gotta come ready and so we just gotta come ready and play our game so, not trying to get the lights too bright or anything, just go out there and have fun. We mad it this far so not it’s just go out there and give it a hundred percent effort and see what happens,” said senior quarterback, Michael Rostberg.
