Minneapolis North has been pleasant surprise in 3A football

Minneapolis North has been one of the nice success stories of the high school football season. After winning just six games combined in the previous two seasons, the Polars are 9-2 and headed to the state tournament for the first time since 2003.

Declining enrollment forced North down to Class 3A this season, but the move seems to suit the school well. On their home field, the Polars defeated Holy Family 29-27 in the section final to earn their spot in the state quarterfinals at 3 p.m. Saturday against New London-Spicer at St. Cloud State.

"It meant a lot. The community came out and supported us," said coach Tony Patterson, who played for the Gophers. "We have great young men on our team, and we needed the community to back them."

An unsung hero in the victory over Holy Family was senior Justin Hutchinson. With North trailing 21-13 and momentum slipping away in the third quarter, Hutchinson left the game for a few plays after banging his knee on the ground but came back in for a critical third-down conversion. Hutchinson played the rest of the drive, which ended with a North touchdown and two-point conversion, and the rest of the game as well.

"He's our captain," Patterson said. "He's our middle linebacker and our center. That was huge."

Senior quarterback Jack McDevitt, who played with his left ankle heavily taped after injuring it on the first series of Eastview's 24-15 section final victory over Rosemount, hopes to be able to play in Saturday's Class 5A quarterfinal against Cretin-Derham Hall.

Eastview coach Kelly Sherwin said McDevitt didn't practice early in the week but hoped to work him back in.

"If we were in the NFL, we would list him as questionable," Sherwin said via e-mail. "But I believe he will be able to go on Saturday."

Eastview catches a break in that it gets an extra day for McDevitt to heal. All other Class 5A quarterfinals are Friday. Despite the injury, McDevitt passed for 215 yards while completing 10 of 14 passes against Rosemount.

• Centennial senior wide receiver Brian Sarvela is making quite an impact in his first season playing high school football. He leads all Cougars receivers in catches (38), yards (543) and touchdowns (five).

In two games against Blaine, he caught 17 passes for 213 yards and three touchdowns. His second touchdown against the Bengals in last week's Class 5A, Section 7 final came with 50 seconds remaining and completed the Cougars' 19-14 comeback victory.

• Four schools are making their state football tournament debuts: St. Bernard's (Class 1A), Pequot Lakes (3A), Waseca (3A) and Rogers (4A).