Eden Prairie dominates

Eden Prairie standout defensive tackle Tyson Reinke moonlighted as a blocking back on offense.

But he did his best work with his fellow linemen, corralling Wayzata throughout a 21-7 victory in Friday's Class 6A semifinal game at the Metrodome.

With the victory, No. 6 Eden Prairie (10-2) advances to play No. 4 Lakeville North (11-1) in the inaugural Class 6A Prep Bowl championship game next Friday night. This is the ninth consecutive Prep Bowl featuring either Wayzata or Eden Prairie. The Eagles are pursuing their eighth big-school state title since 1996.

The Eagles dominated the statistics Friday, outrushing No. 2 Wayzata 207 yards to 68 and holding the Trojans (9-2) scoreless for 47 minutes. It was a sharp contrast to Wayzata's 16-0 shutout on Oct. 17.

"It's just a drive we have as a team," Reinke said. "After that regular-season game, we said it would be a different story when we saw them again, and it was."

Eden Prairie's defense made two key second-half stops to keep Wayzata from making a comeback bid.

Jeff Borchardt's run gave Wayzata first-and-goal from the Eden Prairie 7-yard line. But the Eagles clamped down, including a tackle for loss on a double-handoff pass attempt. The end result was a missed 32-yard field goal.

"If we can get a score there, it's a ballgame," Wayzata coach Brad Anderson said. "We lost some momentum not scoring there, because it's not often Eden Prairie beats themselves."

Said Reinke: "As a defense, you just get more drive to play better when stuff like that happens. Those situations make us unite."

Taking the ball late in a scoreless first half, Eden Prairie's offense reeled off a 16-play drive -- 15 runs -- to go ahead 7-0 early in the second quarter. Dan Fisher, who missed the regular-season meeting with Wayzata, scored the first of his two 1-yard touchdown runs.

Meanwhile, Wayzata slowly but steadily lost the field position battle. A Wayzata punt was taken by Eden Prairie at the Trojans 47-yard line. The Eagles made it base camp for their next scoring expedition. Anthony Anderson picked up the final 31 yards on a pair of rushes and the Eagles went ahead 14-0 with 1:06 to play before halftime.