Cannon Falls runs near-perfect offense to claim section title over Goodhue

No Jack Shepersky, no problem.

Cannon Falls was without their top running back after he suffered a season-ending injury in practice this week. They also missed Max Reed due to illness. In comes junior TJ Kyra and senior Griffin Peterson to handle the heavy workload in the backfield. Kyra was an all-star, gaining at least a yard on all 29 of his carries and scoring three touchdowns.

Riding their running game with Kyra as the lead, top-seeded Cannon Falls made far less costly mistakes than No. 2 Goodhue in a 44-20 Section 4AA championship victory Friday night at Triton High School.

Cannon Falls offensive coordinator Tyler Quinlan said with Kyra running the ball "like a man possessed", they felt there wasn't much need to try anything else.

"He played really well for us as a ninth grader and got some run last year. Max Reed kind of took over in the middle of the season but got sick this week, so TJ took all the reps," Quinlan said. "He played really hard. He gave it up for his teammates and said I'm going to find a way to break an arm tackle and fall forward. We leaned on him. When he's running that hard, keep giving him the ball."

Loading the box and eventually going with one high safety, the Wildcats could not stop the Bombers. Even when they did and held them for 1 yard or no gain, the next two plays would be at least 12 yards combined.

In what became the game-clinching drive, the Bombers ran 22 plays before Kyra scored his third of the game. The Bombers were 7-for-7 on fourth down in the game. On this drive, they were 5-for-5. On each fourth-down conversion they faced no more than a yard. One of their five conversions was by half the length of the football.

"To be able to do that in high school football is pretty unbelievable to not have a mistake, a penalty, something to go backwards," Quinlan said.

Goodhue knew this time it would be no easy victory and certainly no lopsided victory like their two previous section championships. The Wildcats last defeated Randolph 40-0 to win the 4AA title after handedly defeating Fillmore Central 52-7 in the 1A title game.

It was as close as 14-12 with 3 minutes, 25 seconds to go in the second quarter following a touchdown run by Goodhue's Owen Roschen. Trey Schoenfelder scored with 1:58 left, then the Bombers added on. Schoenfelder came up with an interception on a deep pass, then the Bombers got down the field in time to score once more with 16.2 seconds left to lead 28-12.

Senior Ethan O'Reilly said it was a combination of not being able to get off the field and having too many turnovers on offense that compounded.

"We all thought we could play better than we did in the last game (against Cannon Falls)," O'Reilly said. "That first half we had too many turnovers, too many penalties on ourselves. We could have played a lot better that first half. Second half, they had that one long drive. That's a huge momentum killer when you're trying to get your own offense going."

Goodhue ran a total of 33 plays on offense. Cannon Falls ran the ball 80 times with one successful pass.

A muffed punt return by the Bombers which was recovered by the Wildcats and a fumble on the first possession of the second half seem like afterthoughts. Schoenfelder had two interceptions, and Lukas Olson stole a pass away from Alex Loos in the end zone for the third of four interceptions thrown by Goodhue.

The Wildcats have their season end in a section final, a game they've reached each of the final three seasons of Ethan O'Reilly's high school career.

"Getting to the section final three times and almost making it as a freshman, that's a huge accomplishment right there," he said. "Going to 'The Bank' last year, that was special as well. We were so close to making it this year."

Notes

Each team has had their share of recent success playing in a section final. Since 2020, Goodhue has reached a section final in three previous seasons, reaching the state tournament twice. Meanwhile, Cannon Falls had a streak of four years getting to a section final but hadn't since a 21-14 loss to Central in the 4AA final in 2024.

The Bombers last won a section championship in 2023 with a rousing 60-34 win over St. Agnes in 4AA. They won a much tighter game 24-18 over PEM in 1AAA the prior season.

Quotes

"Goodhue has been a very good program and us seniors wanted to uphold the state of what everyone thought Goodhue could be. I think we did that to our finest." - Ethan O'Reilly on what it has meant to the seniors to produce another winning season.

"They were changing their front and bringing nine guys. They are so talented and really good tacklers. You're probably never going to call a perfect game because you just don't quite know what they are going to do all the time. But we've talked about complementary football. If we have the ball, they don't and they can't score without the ball. We take pride in taking control of it." - Cannon Falls offensive coordinator Tyler Quinlan on how well the Bombers were able to consistently get down the field.