Trojans will face familiar foe in section clash
New Prague gets rematch with Raiders
With the regular season and a big win over St.Cloud Tech in the rearview mirror, New Prague’s football team has turned its focus to the section playoffs.
Saturday, Oct. 28, 7 p.m., the No. 3-seeded Trojans will head to Northfield, the No. 2 seed, for the playoff opener and a chance to exact a measure of revenge against Northfield for a 22-19 loss Oct. 6 at NPHS. If New Prague defeats Northfield, the Trojans will face the winner of top-seeded Owatonna vs. the winner of Rochester Century/Rochester John Marshall. Century faced John Marshall Tuesday, Oct. 24. Details of the game were not available when The New Prague Times went to press.
The section championship will be played Friday, Nov. 3, 7 p.m., at the site of the higher seeded team.
“To defeat Northfield, the Trojans need to control the ball and the clock via the running game. The Trojans have demonstrated they can create, make the big play, but as the season has progressed, New Prague has developed a running game it feels will be vital in being successful Saturday,” said NPHS coach Jacob Norby.
“With that being said, the run game is going to be vital but working to get guys free down the field periodically will be vital in keeping their defense off-balance,” Norby said.
Defensively, the Trojans can’t allow Northfield to make big plays. The Raiders had a handful of big gains, especially late in the game, that helped them escape New Prague with the three-point win earlier this month.
“We will need to tackle better and find more success on third down,” Norby said. “We had a tough time stopping...
To see more on this story pick up the October 26, 2023 print edition of The New Prague Times.