Rival finds there's just no escaping Glencoe-Silver Lake

Terry Turek is in his 24th season of coaching football with what's now LeSueur-Henderson High School. A year ago, he was talking before a regular-season game and mentioned that the Giants had lost in the sectional final to Glencoe-Silver Lake three times in the previous four years.

"Glencoe is out of our section this year," said Turek, making the Sign of the Cross in the process.

The Giants went unbeaten and made it through Class 3A, Section 2 and reached the state quarterfinals. The game was played at Eden Prairie and the opponent was Glencoe-Silver Lake.

Final: Glencoe 33-12, and the Panthers went from there to a second consecutive state title and the fourth in seven years.

LeSueur graduated the standouts of its high-powered offense. And then the Giants also lost Andrew Scott and Ryan Obele, their starting tackles, to injury.

"Big, talented tackles aren't easy to find in a school our size," Turek said.

"We've had a surprisingly good year when you consider what we lost to graduation and injury. These kids have played great for us."

Again, this earned the Giants a drive to Eden Prairie for the first round of the state tournament. And guess what team was waiting on Friday night?

Glencoe-Silver Lake, of course.

"We can't stay away from them," said Turek, as the Panthers poured forth for pregame warmups 60-some strong.

This was 45 minutes before the kickoff. There was an attempt to build optimism among assistants and others near the Giants' bench.

"Hey, Eden Prairie got beat, Totino Grace got beat, and so did Stephen-Argyle," one of the coaches said. "Maybe it's the year of the upset. Maybe it's Glencoe's turn."

Any apprehension Turek and the Giants were feeling against this familiar powerhouse of an opponent was realized in a hurry.

These have been a pair of teams that want to move the ball with an option running game. They don't like to throw, particularly when it is done from necessity.

The first necessity came for LeSueur on the game's third play --a third-and-8. Danny Endres' pass went directly to Tyler Lang, Glencoe's fabulous senior linebacker, for an interception.

The Panthers then moved 37 yards on 10 runs and Aaron Lueders scored the game's first touchdown on a 1-yard dive.

Lueders also scored the second touchdown, on a 17-yard run early in the second period. Sophomore quarterback Kyle Anderson went 63 yards on a counter option, breaking free of a pair of tackles near the Giants 30. That raised the lead to 21-0 and it kept getting uglier for the Giants.

The 28-0 halftime lead included no pass attempts for Glencoe-Silver Lake and no pass completions for LeSueur-Henderson.

The Giants, missing those big tackles for most of this fall, couldn't create room in Glencoe's defensive front -- and couldn't do anything to prevent Lang from thumping the running backs.

The Panthers received in the second half and moved quickly to a touchdown. Anderson even completed a 20-yard pass to Kaine Dummer. That was Glencoe's only throw of the game.

Lueders scored his third touchdown on a 21-yard run. A few minutes later, fullback Josh Kraby cut outside and went 59 yards for a touchdown. That made it 42-0, a touchdown more than Glencoe needed to invoke the running-time mercy rule in the fourth quarter.

The Panthers lost plenty of players from the two-time defending champions.

The final Friday was 42-6, and the Panthers now have won four playoff games by a combined 148-20.

The Panthers play in the Wright County Conference, which includes rugged Class 4A teams such as Orono and Waconia.

"You have a tough game in our conference every week, and that definitely gets us ready for the playoffs," Lang said. "I'm convinced that outside of 5A, the Wright County is the best conference in the state."