Lowest seed also biggest surprise

One of the early surprises of the football postseason is Armstrong, which didn't get its first victory until the last day of the regular season. The Falcons received the lowest seed in the Class 5A, Section 5 playoffs but blanked No. 3 seed Maple Grove 20-0 on Tuesday and will meet second-seeded Champlin Park in today's semifinals.

The only thing more surprising than Armstrong's surge is its first-year head coach. Ryan Bartlett is only 25 years old, but he is already in his seventh season as a high school coach.

After graduating from Irondale in 2002, he joined the Knights coaching staff while attending the University of St. Thomas. He was Irondale's offensive coordinator in 2007 and '08 before being hired at Armstrong in February.

Bartlett made a great first impression during the interview process, and the positives have continued.

"What he brought to the interviews was a vision, and he showed the qualities of a true leader," Armstrong athletic director Patti Weldon said. "He was focused, he believed in what he was saying and how he would get things accomplished. He had a year-to-year plan, and I had a feeling the kids would respond to him."

The Falcons were 6-30 in the previous four seasons, and that mark stood at 6-37 after seven games this year. Armstrong's 2009 schedule included Classic Lake Conference games against defending 5A state champ Wayzata, Minnetonka, Hopkins (all three are in the Star Tribune Metro Top 10) and Edina, plus nonconference losses to Rochester Century (now 7-1), Detroit Lakes and Orono.

The tide turned in Week 8 with a 44-25 victory over Grand Rapids, and the eye-opener came Tuesday at Maple Grove.

"I bet a lot of people are surprised," Bartlett said. "We are pretty excited. We told the guys at the beginning of the year that it doesn't really matter how we play at the beginning; what matters is how we play at the end. We needed to get better every week, and they kind of bought into that thinking."

The Falcons like to go to the air, with quarterback Erik Ruhland throwing a state-high 274 passes. He has completed 58.4 percent of those passes for 1,892 yards, which ranks No. 6 in the state. Prince Kanu has rushed for 660 yards, including 221 against Grand Rapids. Linebacker Enrico Barrozo leads the defense; he had two sacks, an interception and a fumble recovery against Maple Grove.

Bartlett said he could see good things happening as the season moved along. He called the Monday practice before the Grand Rapids game "the best practice of the year by far," and the Friday workout before the Falcons faced Maple Grove was equally good.

"You could see it during practice," he said. "You couldn't tell they were 0-7. They really worked hard, and they've seen it pay off."

• Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg senior Joel Bauman finished his career as the No. 2 rusher in state history with 7,395 yards. The record is held by Tyler Evans of McLeod West, who finished his career in 2001 with 7,503 yards. K-M-S, last year's Class 1A state champion, lost to Dawson-Boyd in Tuesday's Section 5 quarterfinals.

• Redwood Valley, which meets three-time defending 3A state champion Glencoe-Silver Lake today in the Section 3 playoffs, beat Montevideo 16-13 Tuesday on a school-record 40-yard field goal by foreign exchange student Lukas Vaeth. The Netherlands native had not attempted a field goal all season.