Sophomore starting QB's the charm for GSL

Fifteen weeks ago, a cloud of uncertainty was hanging over the Glencoe-Silver Lake football team. The Panthers needed a quarterback.

Matt Muenchow, a three-year starter who led Glencoe-Silver Lake to state championships in 2006 and 2007, disappointed the hardcore Panthers fans by accepting his diploma last spring. The candidates to replace him assembled for preseason workouts, and the battle was on.

It took a while to make a decision. In fact, a sophomore named Kyler Anderson didn't get the tap on the shoulder until a few days before the season opener against Hutchinson.

He was stepping into some big shoulder pads. Muenchow accounted for eight touchdowns in the past two Prep Bowls, throwing for six and running for two.

After the Panthers beat DeLaSalle 42-21 Saturday to win another Class 3A title at the Metrodome, Anderson talked about those uncertain days so many weeks ago.

"Before the season started everybody was saying, 'Who's going to be the quarterback? Who's going to replace Muenchow?' I just went out and played as hard as I could and won that spot."

The 6-1, 170-pound Anderson was workmanlike in the opener, a 20-7 victory. But he will not deny the nerves he felt.

"Butterflies were definitely there, but after I stepped on the field, I settled down," he said. "People say there's no pressure, but the players know there's pressure."

And now, after a 13-1 season that ended in the always-expected-at-GSL state championship, the kid can still admit that the nerves never really go away, especially when you're playing for a title.

"I kind of had flashbacks to the first game when we came out here today," he said.

He ran the offense like a veteran. He rushed 13 times for a team-high 135 yards and two touchdowns, while completing four of seven passes for 95 yards.

"A lot of people had skepticism, starting a sophomore," said Glencoe-Silver Lake coach Scott Tschimperle, himself a first-year head coach. "He earned it, and he comes up ready every game ready to play. He's a heady player and he makes plays."

Anderson certainly wasn't the only key for the Panthers. Tyler Lang and Mitchell Nowak each scored two touchdowns; the Panthers made every kickoff a short, high lob to keep the ball away from speedsters Donzell Bell and A.J. Barker, and the defense became 11 blocks of granite with the game on the line. DeLaSalle's first two drives of the fourth quarter reached the Panthers' 9- and 3-yard lines, but the Islanders were shoved backward both times.

"They're a big, physical team and they pack it in when you get down near the goal line," said DeLaSalle coach Dick Weinberger, whose team lost to the Panthers 56-20 in last year's Prep Bowl. "The bottom line is, we just didn't finish some drives. And shoot, we never really stopped them a whole lot, either."

One of the reasons for that was a young quarterback, once untested but now fully vested.

"We knew Kyler could do it, but we had to see it for ourselves," Lang said, thinking back to the preseason. "And he proved from the first game on that he could be a real productive player for us. He came up big, and he plays beyond his years."

Here's something to think about: The Panthers won't need to find another new quarterback until 2011.

John Millea • jmillea@startribune.com