11:15 - Things are winding down here at HQ… here’s the link to the metro scoreboard, and here’s the statewide scoreboard.

We’ll be back with a Very Special Wednesday Episode next week,  as most of the state gets an early jump on Week 8 (and then gets two days off of school for MEA weekend.)  It’s hard to believe, but playoffs start ten days from tomorrow.

I hope you’re getting excited; I know we are.

—————————————–

11:05 - Rounding out the Metro Top 5: Eden Prairie beat Bloomington Kennedy, 42-21, and Champlin Park beat Park Center, 46-0.

—————————————–

10:45 - I’ll give you one guess who scored three touchdowns on the ground for Edina.

Go ahead, guess. 

If it took you this long, you haven’t been paying attention: that’s three more scores for Anders Lee, giving him 28 touchdowns for the year, as Edina beat Stillwater 43-14.  Lee is also third in scoring in the Minnesota HS fall elite hockey league with 7 goals and 16 points in nine games, and is apparently having the best autumn of anybody, ever.

——————————————-

10:15 - Another final score that we mentioned briefly before: Lakeville South prevailed in overtime, 24-17 over Eagan. 

——————————————-

10:10 - Updating another score: Coon Rapids beat Osseo, 45-20, as Cardinals QB Blair Townsend threw two touchdowns and ran for three more.

Also, from the comments: Hutchinson 34, Shakopee 7.  Thanks to HutchLeaderGuy for that one.

——————————————–

10:00 - In tonight’s Jim Wacker memorial scoreline: Cretin-Derham Hall beat Park, 62-46.  There were only two punts for either team in that game, not surprisingly.  Park QB RC Kilgore tossed two touchdowns and ran for two as well, but Cretin signal-caller Mark Alt went one better, running for two of his own and throwing for three scores. 

(Somewhere, Cory Sauter’s rotator cuff has started to hurt, for no obvious reason…)

A final from the west metro: St. Michael-Albertville 29, Benilde-St. Margaret’s 12.  That’s a big road win for the Knights.

———————————————-

9:45 - Fulfilling a request from the comments: Le Sueur-Henderson beat Mayer Lutheran 12-0 tonight. This moves the Giants to 6-1 on the season, 5-1 in the Minnesota River conference.

———————————————–

9:40 - Two more finals:  Blaine held on for the win over Andover, 16-8…. and Wayzata ended up with an easy 70-0 win over Burnsville. Thanks again to huskydad for all of the updates on the Bengals and Huskies.

————————————————

9:30 - huskydad is keeping track of one of the best games in the metro tonight - Andover has pulled a touchdown back, and now trails Blaine only 16-8, with under three minutes to go… 

————————————————-

9:20 - St. Thomas Academy is victorious over North St. Paul, 50-7 - marking not only the Cadets’ fifth consecutive win, but their fifth consecutive game scoring at least 47 points.  STA has scored 287 points in its six wins - and had one strange blip on the radar, a 20-14 loss to Simley.   

————————————————–

9:15 - It’s a muddle in the Mississippi 8: Becker beats Rogers, 20-9, leaving both teams 5-1 in the conference, 6-1 overall.  Becker now has the inside track on the top seed in Class 4A, Section 5 - an important spot, given that the #1 seed has a first-round bye in that section.

Lakeville South and Eagan are headed to overtime: it’s 17-17 at the end of regulations.

One final: Rosemount wins it over Apple Valley, 24-7. 

—————————————————

9:10 - St. Michael-Albertville is smelling upset - they lead 22-12 with six minutes to go at Benilde-St. Margaret’s. 

—————————————————

9:05 - Another huskydad update: Things aren’t going well for the Huskies, as Blaine’s defense got a safety and then turned an interception into six points.  It’s Blaine 16, Andover 0, with one quarter to go… 

—————————————————-

9:00 - Score updates from around the metro: 

• Fourth quarter scores:
  • Lakeville South 17, Eagan 10
  • Maple Grove 21, Centennial 19
  • Rosemount 21, Apple Valley 7
  • St. Thomas Academy 43, North St. Paul 0
• Third quarter scores:
  • Blaine 9, Andover 0
  • Wayzata 62, Burnsville Blaze 0
  • Eastview 24, Lakeville North 7

——————————————————–

8:25 - Mr. Stensaas checks in: Coon Rapids leads Osseo 24-14 at halftime.

Elsewhere: at halftime, Rosemount leads Apple Valley 14-7.  Things aren’t going as well for the Lake Conference across town, where Wayzata is beating Burnsville 49-0 at the half.

——————————————————–

8:10 - St. Michael-Albertville leads Benilde-St. Margaret’s 15-6 at halftime in the Battle of the Hyphens.  I admit, the Red Knights pep band doesn’t look happy about this development:

In the comments, huskydad reports that Blaine leads Andover 7-0 at halftime.  (Keep those updates coming…)

——————————————

8:00 - Mr. Rand reports in: Becker is leading Rogers 13-7 at halftime.

Nevertheless, the traditions must go on: THIS IS THE TIME AT ROGERS WHEN WE DANCE!

(That’s the Rogers danceline, and their dads, at halftime of the game.)

Elsewhere: out in southwest Minnesota, several teams played last night, including Minneota, the top-ranked team in Class 1A, and Tracy-Milroy-Balaton, which is ranked fourth in Class 2A.  Minneota beat Murray County Central 52-0 to move to 7-0 on the year, and Tracy-Milroy-Balaton won 42-6 over Fulda, running its record to 7-0 as well.  This sets up a battle of undefeateds next Wednesday, as the two teams meet to decide the Little Sioux conference title.

——————————————

7:50  - The Minneapolis City conference got an early start today… and Ron Haggstrom has a report on what will likely be Friday’s best performance:

Elliott Mathieu is in a class of his own. The senior quarterback threw a state record eight touchdown passes, leading Southwest past South on Friday afternoon, 53-6. Six players shared the previous record of seven, including Joe Mauer of Cretin-Derham Hall against Eagan in 2000. Sean Borman of Hopkins threw seven touchdown passes earlier this season against Edina. Mathieu completed 26 of 41 passes for 452 yards. He has thrown 30 touchdown passes on the season, 25 short of the state mark (55) set by Liam O’Hagan of Breck in 2003. Junior Danny Kernan was on the receiving end of three of the scoring plays.

——————————————–

Mr. Millea was embedded with Minnetonka all week on their trip to Kansas City… and now I’m embedded once again at Star Tribune headquarters, where we’re set for another week’s worth of games.

David La Vaque is in the west metro, where 4-2 St. Michael-Albertville pays a non-conference visit to 5-1 Benilde-St. Margaret’s.  Brian Stensaas is covering the Osseo-Coon Rapids tilt in the Northwest Suburban; the 5-1 Orioles can stay on track for at least a share of the conference title with a win, while the 4-2 Cardinals need a victory to climb back into the race.

Michael Rand is in Rogers, where the home Royals, at 6-0 for the year, can clinch at least a share of the Mississippi 8 title - but they’ll have to beat 5-1 Becker, which will be no easy task.  Becker’s powered by delicious pork chops at home…

…can they go on the road and stay in the hunt for the title?

Hi again, everybody. I’m wide awake after a good morning’s nap. My ride-along with the Minnetonka football team to Kansas City was great (other than Rockhurst’s 38-7 victory). To read about the game from a KC viewpoint, CLICK HERE for a report in the Kansas City Star.

We got back to Minnetonka at 5:30 this morning. After getting some sleep, I finished writing a lengthy column about the trip for Sunday’s Star Tribune. Strib photographer Jennifer Simonson also went along, and she is working on a multimedia presentation about the trip. It should be terrific stuff.

The usual cast of Stribbers will be at games tonight, but I won’t be among them. After spending last weekend in Verndale and Brainerd, and now rolling to Kansas City and back, I’m driving to Chicago today for a weekend getaway. I’ve got tickets for the Michigan State-Northwestern game tomorrow. After that, no more travel for a while.

Eagan High won a promotion through Vitaminwater. The reward: Vikings running back Adrian Peterson is scheduled to be at the school tonight to give the football team a pep talk and to interact with fans before the Wildcats’ game with Lakeville South. A press release says Peterson will give a pep talk at 6:30 p.m., be on the field at 6:40 for photo ops, and then will lead the Eagan squad onto the field at 6:50. If anyone is at Eagan tonight, we would love to see any submitted photos from the apperance. Please send them to us at:

mrand@startribune.com

Thanks, and enjoy the evening wherever it takes you.

The Skippers have arrived here at Rockhurst High School, which is on the southern end of Kansas City. It’s a modern-looking school and the football stadium is first-rate. The home-side bleachers are very large, brick on the outside, with an elevator to the roomy press box, where I am now sitting.

It’s warm here, mid- to upper-70s, and sunny with a little bit of a breeze. The first words I heard from several players as they got off the busses was, “Oh, it’s warm.” We arrived a little ahead of schedule, so the Skippers are walking around, taking it easy. Most of them are on the field, which has articifial turf and a big blue Hawk in the middle … Rockhurst is the Hawklets.

I’m looking at a game-day schedule that’s posted up here in the press box. There will be tailgating for the Minnetonka parents, and Gates BBQ will deliver food for them … having been to KC several times and enjoying Gates on every trip, I plan to visit with the tailgaters at that point.

I’ll try to shoot a couple pregame photos and send them to M.Rand, who will post ‘em here.

Our fearless preps reporter, John Millea, is intrepidly moving toward Kansas City as part of an assignment to not only cover tonight’s game between Minnetonka and K.C. Rockhurst but also bring back a piece about what it’s like to travel with a high school team. That’s right, he’s embedded with the Skippers from start to finish. He filed the photo you see from Ames, Iowa, of Skippers coach Dave Nelson, his wife Maureen and Iowa State football coach Gene Chizik. Minnetonka had a walk-through at ISU’s indoor practice facility in preparation for tonight’s game. Kickoff is slated for 7 p.m., and the game is being televised nationally via Fox College Sports (and locally on FSN North). John had this to say via text message just a short while ago:

“We were watching Friday Night Lights on my bus. Now we’re in Bethany, Mo., eating Subway in a city park. Very relaxed atmosphere so far.”

Sounds like fun. It should be a great game and a great couple of stories for both the Friday and Sunday newspapers.