Lakeville South wins, prepares for North (and a new future)

As football practice at Lakeville South ended Monday, a wager was made. Someone waved a dollar in the air and bet that stout lineman Ede Madolimov could not run a route and catch a pass. The ball was snapped, the 6-1, 265-pound Madolimov -- who is known as "the Russian" -- rumbled into the left flat, saw the pass coming and tucked it away like he was Jerry Rice.

Hoots and hollers ensued. And then the Cougars gathered around coach Larry Thompson. "You can't play North until we beat John Marshall," he told the boys. "Let's start that playoff run tomorrow."

Tomorrow came on Tuesday, when second-seeded South rolled past Rochester John Marshall 40-7 in the Class 5A, Section 1 quarterfinals at South. The score was 40-0 at halftime, and by then the Cougars were surely thinking ahead to Saturday's home section semifinal against third-seeded Lakeville North, which beat Farmington a couple miles up the road.

Lakeville South (7-2) extended its winning streak to five games. No. 7 seed John Marshall (1-8) had 39 players in uniform Tuesday, and their roster includes 18 juniors and 14 sophomores.

The outcome was predictable. South's Blair Riegel did the short-yardage work, running for touchdowns of 4, 1 and 6 yards. Dan Noehring went the distance, returning a punt 95 yards for a score and turning a short pass from Gavin Duecker into an 80-yard touchdown. Sophomore quarterback Mitch Leidner took over midway through the second quarter, and a pitch from Leidner to Noehring resulted in a 6-yard touchdown and the 40-donut halftime score.

Now comes North, which lost to South 27-14 in Week 3. Lakeville split into two high schools in 2005; Thompson, who is in his 31st season as a head coach, led Lakeville High to three pre-split state championships.

Five years after the split, another big change will arrive. The Lake Conference will disband in 2010 and the new South Suburban Conference will come to life. The South Suburban will consist of nine current Lake schools and Prior Lake from the Missota. Chaska and Chanhassen will depart the Lake for the Missota and Eden Prairie will join Edina, Hopkins, Minnetonka and Wayzata in the Classic Lake.

The South Suburban teams will have very short commutes. Lakeville South's longest drive, for example, will be only 12 1/2 miles to Rosemount. Cutting travel was a main reason the South Suburban was formed. The alternative was accepting the MSHSL's decision to add Edina, Hopkins, Minnetonka and Wayzata to the Lake, meaning round trips as long as 80 miles.

The biggest change will be no more Eden Prairie. But that's on Eden Prairie, according to Thompson.

"Eden Prairie made a choice to be a mega-school," Thompson said. "And we're not mega-schools. I could beat Eden Prairie or be right with them almost every year if I had one team. Now, [South and North are] both doing fine and more kids are playing. I look at what we would be if we had the six or seven best players from North. Wow. And that's what Eden Prairie is."

John Millea • jmillea@startribune.com