5A: Eden Prairie 38, Minnetonka 7

Do the math. Look at the scores. Check the rankings. No matter how you measure Class 5A football, Eden Prairie comes out on top.

The Eagles, who have been No. 1 in the Star Tribune Metro Top 10 all season, proved once again Friday night that they are the state's football elite. Eden Prairie's 38-7 victory over visiting Minnetonka in the Class 5A, Section 6 championship game was a hammer-and-tong statement of the Eagles' superiority.

Follow the logic: Minnetonka defeated then-unbeaten Wayzata 3-0 in overtime in the final week of the regular season. Eden Prairie blew out Minnetonka, ending the Skippers' seven-game winning streak. There can be no question that, with the state quarterfinals on tap next week, Eden Prairie -- the only undefeated team in 5A after Stillwater fell to Mounds View on Friday -- is the team to beat.

The Eagles will meet Wayzata at the Metrodome at 7 p.m. Friday.

Eden Prairie (10-0) is trying to win another in a long line of big-school state championships, adding to titles of 1996, 1997, 2000, 2002, 2006 and 2007. And the way the Eagles played against Minnetonka (8-3), they are primed.

"They beat us fair and square," Minnetonka coach Dave Nelson said. "They really played well in all phases. They looked awful good tonight. We really felt we were playing well and peaking at the right time, but my hat's off to [Eden Prairie]."

The Eagles' reputation is that they run a grind-it-out offense, and Eagles coach Mike Grant said, "We like having people think we grind it out. It's a good thing to have them think."

Gage Shaeffer ran for 145 yards and three touchdowns and Andrew Larson had 113 rushing yards, but there was no need for much grinding Friday.

The first explosion came on the fifth play of the game, when Shaeffer ran an inside counter and dashed around the left corner for 51 yards and a touchdown.

"We're definitely a grind-it-out team, but we kind of do the bend-until-they-break kind of deal," Shaeffer said.

While the Eagles defense was throttling the Minnetonka ground game -- the Skippers ran for a negative 7 yards in the first quarter and never got going -- the second big bang came early in the second quarter.

On Minnetonka's fourth punt of the night, Jordan Price made a handful of tacklers miss while zigging and sagging en route to a 55-yard return for a touchdown and a 14-0 lead. After Minnetonka lost a fumble, David Platner kicked a 29-yard field goal to make it a 17-0 game.

T.J. Fisher ran 28 yards for a touchdown on Eden Prairie's first possession of the second half. It was 24-0, and some of the fans began heading for home. Shaeffer added a 30-yard touchdown run early in the fourth quarter.

"I think our coaches really prepared them well; our scout team did a great job of getting them ready," Grant said. "It was a great team effort."

Footnote: The state cross-country championships will be today at St. Olaf College in Northfield. The top-ranked boys' and girls' teams in Class 2A are from, yup, Eden Prairie.

John Millea • jmillea@startribune.com