This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Schools

Holy Angels Football Prepares to Take On Undefeated Shakopee

While Richfield gets ready to play Classic Suburban Conference co-leader South St. Paul Friday.

The Games

Classic Suburban Conference: Spartans (1-4, 1-3) vs. South St. Paul (5-0, 4-0)

Missota Conference: Stars (5-0, 4-0) vs. Shakopee High School Sabers (5-0)

Both games begin at 7 p.m. Friday. Holy Angels will play at home, while Richfield is on the road again.

Find out what's happening in Richfieldwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Players to Watch

Corban Halbur—(Richfield quarterback)

  • Has completed 48 of 88 passes for 428 yards.

Devon Schilla-Robinson—(Richfield running back)

Find out what's happening in Richfieldwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

  • Has rushed for a team-best of 131 yards this season.

Holy Angels Offensive Line

  • Last week in its impressively had four players rush for 80 or more yards. The Stars rushed for 412 yards total, so their offensive line must have been doing something right.

Mikias Alipate—(Holy Angels running back)

  • Alipate rushed for 88 yards and a pair of touchdowns last week.

Will Pagel—(Holy Angels running back)

  • Pagel caught five passes for 75 yards, and also had 47 yards rushing and two touchdowns.

***

Spartans will win if ...

They can stop the Panthers’ strong rushing attack. South St. Paul has rushed the ball 248 times and thrown the ball just 19 times this season.

Packers will win if ...

They can keep doing what they have been doing. The Packers have outscored their opponents 198-7 this year and have not lost a regular season game since 2009.

Stars will win if …

They can take advantage of the home-field advantage, something they haven't done a great job of so far. Last week, the Stars were tied 7-7 at the half at home against Farmington, and coach Ray Betton said it wasn't the first time the Stars were less than sharp out of the gate at home. If Holy Angels isn't focused from the beginning, they could spend their evening playing catch-up with the Sabers, a tall order for any team.

Sabers will win if …

They can avoid giving up big plays. The Stars have dialed up a bunch of long-distance touchdowns this season, both through the air and on the ground. It's going to take a disciplined effort—linebackers keeping contain, defensive backs not getting fooled and everyone tackling well—to beat the Stars, but the defending league champion Sabres might be just the team to do it.

***

Playoff Picture for Holy Angels

The eighth-ranked Stars have a pair of powerhouse teams in their playoff path in St. Thomas Academy (5-0, ranked second) and South St. Paul (5-0, ranked third). But those are the only three teams in the section with winning records at this point, so a top-three seed is probably in Holy Angels' future.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?