Hillcrest Lutheran Academy Defeats KCC; Fertile-Beltrami falls to Hills Beaver Creek
Fertile-Beltrami's season ends with a loss to Hills Beaver Creek; Hillcrest Lutheran Academy defeats Kittson County Central to advance.
MINNEAPOLIS (KVRR) – HIGLIGHTS:
In Minnesota 9-Player football, four teams entered Thursday’s State Semifinals with the goal of advancing to next Saturday’s Prep Bowl, but only two teams would attain that goal.
In the first semifinal, Fertile-Beltrami fell 30-14 to Hills Beaver Creek in a rematch of the 2024 Prep Bowl.
senior RB Creed Tollefson: “Favorite memories, I mean like…I played with some absolute amazing guys this year, last year and every year I’ve played with this program. It is a brotherhood. These are memories that are going to be with us for years to come. Whether its at the FargoDome, or playing at home or playing here…things we are never going to forget.”
Head Coach Brian Nelson: “What is special about this group of guys is we dropped our first two games. We lost Preston Hanson here in the first game – probably the first drive…mid way through the season we lost Caleb Sather and we were scrambling. Fosston game we lost a couple more guys and then got hit by the Flu bug…and you know what? They never quit. They came to practice they worked hard. We have a lot of guys that could go out – we were ready to go for backups. They came together at the end of the year. We went on an incredible run which I will never forget. I think quite a few people counted us out when we ended the season 6-3…we went on a four-game run and we ran into a very good team today. But you know what? I think they knew we were in the ball game. That is what I am going to remember about this group – their resilience and overcoming adversity – That is kind of special.”
In the second semifinal, it came down to the wire as Hillcrest Lutheran Academy held on for a 27-21 win over Kittson County Central.
Head Coach Korey Fry: “Like we were just talking about in the hallway, we like to make games interesting, so… It is a great win and everything, there are things we need to sure up, but overall a great win. When you are playing at this stage, it is survive and keep going and I think today we were able to do that.”
Senior QB Ethan Swedberg: “First off, I just want to say how proud I am of this team…No one was hanging their head when things were not going our way. We kept telling ourselves that we need to keep going – offense: this is the drive we need to go, even if the last drive did not go our way…we just looked to each other to keep the morale high.”
Senior WR Drew Fischer: “It feels good. You kind of dream of these moments when you are a kid and you just wait for them. The way things have played out, we are here now. It is a surreal feeling. I am excited and I am sure everyone is excited.”
Kittson County Central trailed 27-6, but rallied to within one score in the final quarter before falling just short.
Head coach Cory Waling: “Yeah. that is who these guys are. All year we have had games like this where things are going on and it is not great and find a way to make something happen. Today felt that way. To be honest, I had in my head…I looked up to the scoreboard with 5 minutes a 28-27..that was going to be the final score..I was very confident in that because these guys have done that all year – there are so many things they have done. Yeah..it has been amazing – they brought us on such an amazing ride.”
The 9-Player Prep Bowl is set: Hillcrest Lutheran Academy vs. Hills Beaver Creek Saturday, November 22 at 10 A.M. The game will be played at U.S. Bank Stadium.
