Fertile-Beltrami Eyes Their First Ever Football State Title Saturday

THE FALCONS WILL PLAY HILLS-BEAVER CREEK AT 10 A.M. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 23 AT U.S. BANK STADIUM IN MINNEAPOLIS.

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. (KVRR) –Fertile Beltrami is no stranger to the Minnesota high school football state tournament. They have made it in each of the last four years, but they still are in search of their first title. 

“We’ve been close a few times,” said head coach Brian Nelson. “Even in 11 man, we made to the semifinals in the state a few times, and in 2021 we made it to the nine-player championship game. So, it means a lot.”

The Falcons look to put their name in the history book Saturday as champs and bring pride back to the Fertile-Beltrami community.

“The community, you know, community of the players would just be something very special,” said Nelson.

“Oh, it’d be awesome,” added senior running back Isaiah Wright. “It’d be history, so, it’d be great. Just play our game, and should turn out fine.”

The Falcons are 12-0 on the season, and though all of their games were won by multiple scores, they overcame several obstacles. 

“Well, we went through some unbelievable adversity in the middle of the season,” said Nelson. “We lost both of our quarterbacks, and we had to scramble, put Bryer Strem at a quarterback, bring some other guys in, get some other guys ready to go, and that was in the middle of the season.” Nelson continued, “They overcame that adversity. We made it through the regular season undefeated, and then we started to get healthy. But unfortunately, then in the quarterfinals, we lost Joe Sorenson, so we’re very grateful that we made it through those adversities. Now we’re trying to overcome the Joe one now.”

Their opponent Saturday is Hills-Beaver Creek who is also undefeated at 12-0, presenting yet another challenge for this Falcons team. 

“They have a very dynamic quarterback and very powerful running back,” said Nelson. “We’re going to need to stop their running game. Then offensively, you know, we’re going to have to be able to drive the ball. We’re going to have to be happy with getting seven or eight yards sometimes on a play, because not every play is going to bust like it did last week. 

We’ve drilled that into our kids’ heads, and hopefully they understand that.”

The message to the team going into Saturday?

“Leave no doubt,” said Nelson. “We can’t afford a slow start. We need to come out ready to play, and I think if we do that, both offensively and defensively, we should be in the game the whole time.”

Fertile-Beltrami vs. Hills-Beaver Creek will kick off at 10 A.M. on Saturday, November 23.

The game will be played at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.