Blooming Prairie, NRHEG Host Familiar Foes for Football Playoff Openers

Bundle up as you head out to cheer on your favorite team with the start of the high school football playoffs Tuesday night. Strong northwest wind accompanying highs in the mid to upper 40's will make for a rude contrast to last Wednesday's final night of the regular season.

Blooming Prairie hosts Southland at 7PM on Kat Kountry 105FM. The Awesome Blossoms beat the Rebels 37-14 in week one of the season with a good balance of success running and throwing the ball. BP coach Chad Gimbel expects Southland to make adjustments and says his team will then need to make adjustments to counteract that.

NRHEG entertains LeSueur-Henderson, a team they just beat 24-10 on October 13. Panthers' coach Dan Stork says NRHEG benefited from some big plays and he knows the Giants will have extra incentive to win the Section 2AA rematch. The game is the No. 4 versus No. 5 seed. The winner goes to Maple River Saturday October 28. The defending section champ Eagles have a first-round bye Tuesday.

Medford will see a team that don't know too well when they travel to Blue Earth Area Tuesday for a 7PM kickoff. Tigers' coach Jerome Johannes says the Buccaneers are a big team, both in size and enrollment and went to the state AA tournament in 2015 and the AAA state tournament in 2014.

Triton hosts Winona Cotter at 7PM in Dodge Center in the Section 1AA quarterfinals Tuesday. Owatonna has a bye and awaits the winner of the quarterfinal game in Section 1-5A between Rochester JM and Austin for a Saturday semifinal at OHS at 7PM.