When the Seattle Sounders beat Minnesota United in the 2020 Western Conference final, it was a slow and painful death for the Loons, giving up two goals in the final minutes to lose 3-2.

In Saturday’s decisive Game 3 of their first-round series, Seattle scored two goals in the opening eight minutes, and Minnesota looked dead just after arrival.

The Loons rallied from a two-goal deficit, while going down to 10 men, with three unanswered goals.

While Seattle scored a late equalizer, it was Minnesota that delivered the final blow after 10 rounds of penalty kicks. In the final round, Loons goalkeeper Dayne St. Clair buried his PK, while Sounders ‘keeper Andrew Thomas put his off the cross bar, and Minnesota won 7-6 at Allianz Field.

The Loons will play the winner of the San Diego-Portland series in the Western Conference semifinals on Nov. 22 or 23.

The Loons edged Seattle 3-2 in PKs to capture Game 1 on Oct. 27, while Seattle rollicked to a 4-2 win in Game 2 on Monday.

On Saturday, Loons left wing back Anthony Markanich got his head on the end of a Joaquín Pereyra corner kick for United to take a 3-2 lead in the 71st minute. That lasted for 18 minutes until Jordan Morris scored off a Sounders corner kick in the 88th.

Down 2-0, Minnesota got a lifeline from an outstanding free kick goal from Joaquín Pereyra. The Argentine midfielder had a quiet start to the series, but he provided a stunning strike from 29 yards to make it 2-1 in the 19th minute.

The uphill climb grew steeper in the 41st minute when Joseph Rosales drew a head card for contact to Jesús Ferreira in the 41st minute. Rosales kicked out at a passing Ferreira and then got in his face, leaning out with his forehead, making contact with Ferreira, who went down to the turf.

Loons head coach Eric Ramsay screamed in reaction on the sideline as Minnesota went down to 10 men for the final 60 minutes.

Minnesota got its equalizing goal from Jefferson Díaz on a back-post header in the 62nd minute. The Colombian center back had not scored across 36 regular-season games since joining Minnesota in 2024.

Loons center backs Jefferson Diaz and Morris Duggan were woeful on the Sounders’ first-half goals. Diaz let himself get pulled wide by a Ferriera run, which opened up the space Albert Rusnak needed to score in the fifth minute.

Duggan then whiffed on a clearance attempt, and it bounced right to Danny Musovski to finish in the eighth minute.

After getting beat down the left side in Games 1 and 2, Ramsay switched from Anthony Markanich at wingback and Nico Romero at center back, going with Rosales and Duggan.

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Class 2A

Hawley defended its Class 2A title in dramatic fashion Saturday in St. Paul, rallying from a two-set deficit to top Chatfield in five sets: 20-25, 21-25, 25-17, 25-16, 15-8.

The champions responded as such when backed into a corner, dominating play over each of the final three sets. Katie Vetter had 15 kills to lead Hawley’s offense.

But Hawley’s greatest strength was simply playing a cleaner match than Chatfield, which tallied 10 attack errors in the third set, 12 in the fourth and six in the fifth.

New Life Academy placed third, topping Albany in four sets. Marisa Michaelis paced the Eagles with 18 kills, while Alexa Lilly added 14.

Class A

Top-seeded Mayer Lutheran won its second straight state title via a three-set sweep of Russell-Tyler-Ruthton, winning 25-17, 25-15, 25-23.

Mayer Lutheran has played in each of the last five Class A championship bouts, winning three of them.

Ada Hahn, Courtney Tuttle, Hallie Hunter and Izabelle Keaveny all finished with nine-plus kills for the champs.

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Brooks Borman provided a spark for St. Thomas Academy early in the second half, and he led a swarming defense that clinched the game in the final minute.

With 33 seconds left and Rochester Mayo 13 yards away from a potential game-tying score, Isaac Peterson took the handoff on 4th-and-1 and tried to go into the right side of the line. Borman and fellow inside linebacker Kristian Cercioglu were the first Cadets to meet the senior quarterback.

“We had an inside linebacker blitzing. I wrapped around, and we got enough guys to the ball and stopped him,” Borman said. “Seeing the ref call him short just got all the boys hyped.”

It only seems appropriate the defense had the game-deciding play because that side of the ball was the difference Saturday afternoon in a 21-14 Class 5A quarterfinal win.

“These are the ones you remember; you don’t remember the 40-point blowouts. It makes them a little more special and it puts our guys in a situation where they realize every play matters,” St. Thomas Academy coach Travis Walch said.

Borman provided another of those early in the second half, blocking a punt that was recovered at the Spartans’ 29-yard line. Three plays later, Dominic Baez broke multiple tackles en route to an 18-yard touchdown run and a 14-7 St. Thomas Academy lead.

Two drives that started in Rochester Mayo territory later in the quarter resulted in no insurance points. The Cadets went up 21-7 on a third when Baez scored from the 4 with 6 seconds left in the quarter, one play after a Grant Young interception.

St. Thomas Academy (11-0) entered the game averaging 35 points per game but struggled to consistently put together drives against a 6-5 Rochester Mayo squad that held the Cadets to a season-low 17 points in Week 2.

On an afternoon when the feel-like temperature was 28 degrees at kickoff, the Cadets went three-and-out on four of six first-half drives. The other two ended on an 11-yard touchdown reception by Todd Rogalski and a punt. St. Thomas Academy finished with just six first downs for the game.

“Our defense has won games for us this year, so has our special teams and offense,” said Walch, whose team next meets Spring Lake Park in a state semifinal at 2 p.m. Nov. 14 at U.S. Bank Stadium. The Panthers beat Alexandria 13-2 in overtime Saturday.

The Rochester Mayo offense largely revolves around throwing the football. Peterson threw for 179 yards, but the senior was repeatedly under heavy pressure.

“It was just about grit, winning a lot of one-on-one battles,” Young said. “Defense Coordinator (Joe) Ties is an incredible coach, and his schemes are super effective to get there.”

His team down by two scores, Max Durgin had the second of two fourth-quarter interceptions for the Spartans. A 3-yard Gavin Werneburg touchdown reception got Rochester Mayo within 21-14 with 3:26 left.

Another three-and-out by St. Thomas Academy followed by a short punt gave Rochester Mayo the ball on the Cadets’ 45 with 2:18 to play. Five completions moved the ball to the 13 before Peterson overthrew Werneburg on third down. Then came the game-sealing stop by Borman, Cercioglu and the Cadets.

“They had some big plays, but we just reset and just kept fighting,” Borman said.

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This started as one of those Five Takeaway stories, the most notable we learned from the news conference that officially started Derek Shelton’s tenure as manager of the Minnesota Twins on Tuesday.

After going back through all the quotes, it quickly became clear that while there were a few newsy items dropped here and there, there was only one real solid truth to take away from an hour of questions and answers, and it’s nothing we didn’t already know.

After dipping into the deep end of the free agent pool by signing players like Carlos Correa and Josh Donaldson, and getting only two brief playoff appearances out of it, the Twins are starting over. If it’s not a rebuild, as Shelton insisted this week, it’s only because the team you saw play out the string in August and September will be the same one you see next summer.

If the Twins get good anytime soon, it will be because those players got much better and the prospect pool — draft picks and the spoils of the trade deadline salary purge — is deep enough to pan out.

“I’m going to build off what happened in September. I really like what happened in September,” Shelton said. “You guys know, you cover the team — ultra aggressive on the bases, started to push the envelope a little bit. I think we have to continue on that.”

Got it.

Through Aug. 20 last season, the Twins had stolen 72 bases, an average of 0.56 a game. After that, they stole another 32, bringing that average up to 0.86.

They went 12-24 over those final 36 games.

It’s worth noting, of course, that the team had drastically changed overnight. The bullpen was decimated, and a lot of players were getting their first extended major league experience. It’s also worth noting that the position players left on that team will be the guys taking up the lion’s share of next season’s active roster.

Shelton and Falvey also were asked if they had been given the particulars on what the 2026 payroll will look like, and Shelton acknowledged that he spoke with Twins Executive Chair Joe Pohlad about it as part of his interview process.

“I won’t get into the depth of that,” Shelton said, “but I did appreciate how transparent Joe was with me.”

Said Falvey: “I don’t have any specifics around that (regarding) payroll, a payroll number.”

Got it.

The Twins started last season with a payroll of just under $130 million, according to Spotrac.com. Baseball-reference.com has that down to $50.9 million in guaranteed contracts next season.

None of the arbitration-eligible players have agreed to a salary yet, but there are only five, and none of them made more than Ryan Jeffers’ $4.5 million salary in 2025. And while the Twins will sign a few veterans this offseason — they need relievers and a catcher — they will likely be journeymen, maybe even waiver claims. It’s difficult to see this team spending close to $100 million on major league payroll in 2026.

Only five MLB teams operated with payrolls that small last season: the Pirates, A’s, Rays, Marlins and White Sox. All of them finished under .500 and out of the playoffs, and Miami finished closest to a playoff spot, four games out in the National League wild card standings.

It makes one wonder what Pablo López and Joe Ryan are doing on a team like this one, especially with MLB owners ready to pitch a salary cap when the Collective Bargaining Agreement expires after next season. López, Ryan and centerfielder Byron Buxton, are royalty in exile on this roster.

The Twins have a lot of promising young arms — they’ve acquired Simeon Woods Richardson, Mick Abel and Taj Bradley via trade and developed Zebby Mathews and David Festa from the system — and Lopez and Ryan would fetch some nice prospects for the pipeline while substantially trimming more payroll. Ryan is in line for a real contract — he’s arb-eligible after making $3 million last year — and Lopez is due roughly $44 million over the next two seasons.

“I’m just trying to continue to build a plan around the options that are available to us via trade, free agency or otherwise, that can find ways to augment the group,” Falvey said.

Shelton promised “better things ahead” for the club, but it won’t be next season.

And if there’s a 2027 season, it won’t be then, either. We all know it, but no one from the front office or ownership would put that into a declarative sentence this week. It’s been a year since fans have heard anything close to clarity on the issue.

“I have a business to run,” Pohlad said after the 2024 season, “and it comes with tough decisions.”

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