Trojans pick up two wins, advance to semifinals

The New Prague Trojans ended their regular season with a 30-17 win at Farmington, giving them a 2-6 regular season record (2-5 Missota).

The Trojans placed sixth in the Missota Conference. Shakopee won its second straight conference crown with a 7-0 record.

The win also clinched home-field advantage for the Trojans in the first round of the Section 1AAAA playoffs. New Prague drew the fourth seed and was scheduled to host No. 5-seed Winona Tuesday evening.

For the third straight week, New Prague's offense was clicking early and give the Trojans a lead. This time, however, New Prague was able to hang on to the lead, scoring a fourth quarter touchdown on a 75-yard pass from Kyle Stepka to Luke Tietz to clinch the win.

New Prague scored on its first three possessions of the game. Two of those scores were due in part to great field position.

After Farmington was penalized on the opening kick, they threw an interception to Zack Shetka on their first play from scrimmage. Three plays later, sophomore fullback Nathan Preston got the ball, bounced off a would-be tackler at the 20-yard line, spun and dashed into the end zone. A two-point conversion gave New Prague an 8-0 lead.

Farmington responded with an impressive drive, tieing the game on a 31-yard run.

Shetka returned the ensuing kick 66 yards deep into Farmington territory, and the Trojans marched it in, scoring on a 1-yard run by Dakota Cole. The two-point conversion failed, and the Trojans led 14-8.

After forcing a punt, the Trojans answered quickly, with Preston scoring on a 58-yard run with 38 seconds left in the first quarter. Shetka scored the two-point conversion to make it 22-8.

Farmington scored twice in the third quarter to get back in the game. A touchdown and a field goal cut the Trojans lead to 22-17

The Trojans answered with the Stepka touchdown pass to Tietz early in the fourth. Tietz had a step on the defender and had to reach back for the pass. He bobbled the ball at first, then tucked it in and ran the final 50 yards for the score.

With a two-score lead and Farmington forced to pass, the Trojans turned their defensive line loose. Chris Hanson and Jake Meyer both had sacks and the defensive line also had a number of hurries to disrupt Farmington's passing game. Joe Kneip intercepted a pass late in the contest to end one Farmington threat, and the Trojans stopped Farmington on several key third-down plays.

New Prague outgained the Tigers 349-294. The Trojans had 269 yards rushing, with Preston being the workhorse. Making just his second varsity start at running back, the sophomore averaged 9.3 yards per carry, gaining 170 yards on 19 carries. Shetka had 10 carries for 38 yards, while Jake Molitor had five carries for 27 yards, Kneip one for 18, Cole four for eight and Stepka eight for one yard.

Stepka was a perfect 2-for-2 passing. He had the 75-yard completion to Tietz and a 5-yard completion to Shetka.

Defensively, the Trojans were led by Hanson with 8.5 tackles and Shetka with 8. Meyer added 7.5.

Football

Missota Conference

Final conf. overall

Shakopee 7-0 8-0

Holy Angels 6-1 7-1

Chanhassen 4-3 4-4

Red Wing 4-3 5-3

Farmington 3-4 3-5

New Prague 2-5 2-6

Chaska 1-6 1-7

Northfield 1-6 2-6

Section 1AAAA

Through Oct. 20 record QRF

Faribault 5-3 57.8

Red Wing 5-3 54.8

Northfield 2-6 41.8

New Prague 2-6 39.7

Winona 1-7 33.8

Albert Lea 2-6 28.4

Austin 0-8 23.5

Trojans score early, often

to take win from Winhawks

After three straight games of smashmouth football, and facing a team that had good size on its defensive line, New Prague Coach Jim Benick decided it was time to try something different in their Section 1AAAA opening round game against Winona.

We just came off three big fullback games for us