Photo by Jake McNeill Minneota’s Brody Larson, 12, throws a pass to Lucas Rybinski during the first half of the Section 5A Championship game against BOLD at Mattke Field in Marshall on Nov. 1. Minneota will take on Parkers Prairie in the Class A semifinals today at US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.

MINNEAPOLIS — For the fourth year in a row, the Minneota Vikings are heading to the state semifinals. While the Vikings have gone on to advance to the state finals in each of the last three, they still have work to do in order to do the same this year when they take on Parkers Prairie today at US Bank Stadium.

“It should be a little bit easier just from the standpoint of we’ve been here before,” Minneota head coach Chad Johnston said. “Most of them won’t get shell-shocked. Sometimes you take that field for the first time, it’s pretty amazing being on there. Sometimes it’s a distraction. But I think the fact that we’ve been here before should allow our kids to be nice and calm to start the game.”

As the No. 1 seed, the pressure and expectations are on Minneota. The Vikings are a perfect 11-0 on the season and have now won 31 consecutive games dating back to 2022. After being in each of the last three state championship matches and four of the last six, many people automatically pencil in any Minneota game as a Viking win at this point.

“That definitely is a challenge because you do hear people kind of talk that way. You even hear some of our fans, they kind of talk very confidently of us and I’m sure our kids probably hear that at times,” Johnston said. “But we’ve had a couple of games now, the last couple of games, where we didn’t really start real fast and maybe were a little slow during the first half. I think that’s been a little bit of an eye-opener to the kids that there’s a reason why you’re playing the games, nothing’s guaranteed. You’ve got to show up and you’ve got to be ready to play, and I think this group is motivated to be back in the championship game.”

Minneota was held to 7 first-half points in the section championship against BOLD and 13 in the state quarterfinals against Lester Prairie. Still, the Vikings overcame a 21-7 halftime deficit to beat BOLD 34-28 to claim their fifth consecutive section championship, and ran away with the game in the second half against Lester Prairie to claim a 41-0 victory over the fourth-seeded Bulldogs.

“It’s just a matter of recognizing what somebody’s going to do defensively,” Johnston said of his team’s slow starts. “You the season tape and everything and get an idea of what the basis of their defense is, but sometimes teams will turn around and throw some kind of wrinkle at you… sometimes it takes us a little bit of time just to recognize what they’re doing. The last couple of games, we talked about being slow. We marched down the field and did good things, then all of a sudden we just didn’t stay on people or weren’t recognizing some adjustment that teams were doing, so hopefully we recognize what they’re going to do defensively right away.”

Johnston added that his players have been picking up their assignments correctly and covering well, but he feels like they just need to be more physical.

Minneota has now been to the state tournament 17 times, eight of which have come since 2009. Six of the team’s nine state titles have also come in that same span.

Under the new format in which teams are seeded 1 through 4 in the North and 1 through 4 in the South, Minneota takes on the 4 seed out of the North, Parkers Prairie.

The Panthers had their struggles throughout the season, going on a three-game skid in September before closing the regular season at 5-3 with a dominant 57-0 win over Pine River-Backus. Despite the lopsided victory, the skid shook people’s faith in Prairie, particularly with a 46-8 loss to Pillager in the mix, sending them down to the third seed in the section tournament.

Still, Parkers Prairie dominated Ashby/Brandon-Evansville 62-6 in the section quarterfinals and avenged a regular-season loss to second-seeded Breckenridge with a 22-12 win in the section 6A semifinals. They capped off the run with a dominant 42-12 win over West Central at the Fargodome. The win gave the Panthers their second consecutive state tournament appearance and third in program history.

Despite the strong finish, Parkers Prairie still hadn’t proven itself yet and was given the No. 4 seed in the North side of the state tournament. Still, they performed when it mattered and dominated the undefeated, top-seeded Upsala/Swanville 33-0 in the state quarterfinals to set up the matchup with Minneota.

Ryan Meagher has been the staple of Minneota’s offensive gameplan for the last few years. After averaging 68 yards per game on the ground as a change-of-pace back behind Zack Fier as a sophomore, Meagher rushed for 158 per game with 40 rushing touchdowns as the feature back his junior season, and has averaged 140 yards per game with 32 rushing touchdowns through 11 games this season.

While there aren’t many teams in the state that can run the ball like the Vikings, Parkers Prairie has done its best behind the play of Mason Boesl so far this year. The 5-foot-10 senior has averaged 157 yards per game so far this year, sitting on a total of 1,882 yards on the ground with 28 touchdowns. He’s also punched in 14 2-point conversions on the ground for the Panthers.

“We’ve seen some very good backs recently and feel like we’ve seen one of the better one’s in BOLD’s [Hudson] Vosika, but the Boesl kid is a good kid and he runs well,” Johnston said. “I think more the thing Parkers Prairie does well is more misdirection. They’re a lot like us where they’re going to get a lot of misdirection and that kind of stuff, so we’ve got to be aware of where he’s at at all times. But more importantly, we’re kind of approaching this game similar to option football. Everyone’s got a responsibility, you’ve got to do your responsibility. You’ve got to trust your team to do theirs.”

Johnston added that avoiding giving up big plays is going to be a key focus for the team as they look to prevent Boesl from getting outside and breaking off large chunks.

As a team, Minneota has limited its opponents to just 38 rushing yards per game and four rushing touchdowns on the year. Kyson Arndt, Parker Bradley and Eli Gruenes have led the team with six, five and four sacks respectively while Kellen Bradley also leads the team with 69 tackles. Kellen Bradley’s eight tackles for loss also rank only behind Gruenes’ nine and Parker Bradley’s 11.

While it’s difficult to run the ball at the Vikings’ defensive front, the Panthers don’t have a lot of experience moving the ball through the air. They’ve averaged 42.5 passing yards per game with seven touchdowns and five interceptions. By contrast, Minneota’s offense has run the ball on 72% of its plays this year but still averaged 112 passing yards per game with 20 touchdowns and five interceptions.

While the Vikings have dealt with some injuries as of late, Johnston said he felt his team is overall as healthy as one can be this late in the season.

“You’ve got some ankle issues, you’ve got some sore bodies, that kind of stuff, but it’s typical when you make it to this time of year. It’s just a long season with a heavy toll on kids’ bodies,” Johnston said, adding that he feels he’s fortunate to be able to play the team’s depth often throughout the season to try to keep kids healthy.

Kickoff today at US Bank Stadium is set for 11:30 a.m. The winner of the Vikings-Panthers game will go on to take on the winner of the 9 a.m. matchup between No. 3S Springfield and No. 2N Mahnomen/Waubun. Minneota and Springfield have met in each of the last two state championship games.