Unbeaten Shakopee Stuns Holy Angels at Home

It was the game both teams expected: The football team’s speed on the perimeter against Shakopee’s smash-mouth running attack up the middle.

With presumably the Missota Conference championship hanging in the balance, Shakopee’s smash-mouth football won out.

Holy Angels lost a 10-7 battle with Shakopee on Friday night at StarDome in Richfield—a gritty four-quarter matchup in front of a packed house with unbeaten records on the line.

“It was exactly what we expected,” senior Will Pagel said. “We expected a hard-fought game like that. Obviously things didn’t go our way, but we’ve got to look forward to next week.”

After a scoreless first half, both teams looked poised to enter the fourth quarter knotted at 0-0 after trading unsuccessful offensive possessions.

But with 42 seconds remaining in the third, after driving to the 15-yardline, Shakopee’s Alexi Johnson kicked a 25-yard field goal to put the Sabers up 3-0.

After the Stars (5-1, 4-1 Missota Conference) turned the ball over on downs, Shakopee took the ball again and drove down to Holy Angels’ 18-yardline. The Sabers took advantage of the Stars’ attempt to stop its rushing attack, tossing a touchdown strike to take a 10-0 lead.

“That was the play we just added this week,” Hoffman said. “We knew it was going to work against them, because they always pursued to our sweep. We’d just throw it back because no one was going to be there.”

Holy Angels fought back, using a balanced drive of pass attempts and scrambles by quarterback Sam Keis to move the ball deep into Shakopee’s territory.

With 2:41 remaining in the game, Keis connected with senior wideout Kris Keding for a 10-yard score to cut the lead to 10-7.

But Shakopee (6-0, 5-0) recovered an onside kick attempt, ran out the clock and celebrated with their fans on the visitors’ sideline.

The Stars are now tied with Red Wing for second place in the Missota standings. Pagel said the team’s focus will be to learn how to battle back from this game, look ahead and try to collect two more wins before the section tournament.

The squad will travel to Northfield on Friday, Oct. 14, but the journey begins Saturday.

“Twenty-four hours, man,” Pagel said. “We’ve got 24 hours to think about this game, let it go, fix our mistakes. ... We’re going to go into the rest of the season strong and hopefully head into sections with two more wins.”