Moose Lake-Willow River Falls To Pipestone 28-6 In State Semifinal
The Rebels of Moose Lake-Willow River took the field at US Bank Stadium on Friday with the hopes of being a Cinderella story of sorts in the 2A State Semifinal. After going 1-4 in their last 5 games of the regular season, the Rebels found some footing in the section playoffs, putting up three consecutive wins with a point margin in the double digits to advance to the state tournament.
The streak continued in the opening round of the state tournament, advancing past West Central 41-14 a week ago. Moose Lake-Willow River’s semifinal opponent, the Pipestone Area Arrows, entered the game at US Bank Stadium with only one loss on the season.
Trent Juhl rushed for a 4-yard Rebels touchdown to open the game, and the Arrows would take over from there. Pipestone put up 20 points in the second quarter, and went on to score a touchdown and conversion in the third quarter to make it 28-6.
The Rebels relied heavily on the run game, putting up 231 yards on the ground. Juhl rushed for 136 of those yards, including that 4-yard touchdown run in the opening quarter of the game. The Rebels offense attempted to go to the air in the later part of the game, but were unable to find much success, ending the game with only 70 yards of passing offense.