Down by three with 3:32 to play, Chanhassen had an opportunity for a championship drive. Across the line of scrimmage, the Spring Lake Park defense wanted to clinch the school’s first state title in a generation.

Advantage Panthers.

Spring Lake Park made two late defensive stops to beat Chanhassen 24-21 in the Class 5A Prep Bowl on Saturday at U.S. Bank Stadium. It was a true team effort that earned the school its second state football championship but first since 1991.

Pressure from Panthers’ defensive end Jamal Smith forced a third-down incompletion on the second-to-last drive for the Storm. On 4th-and-7 with 1:49 left, the senior Smith nearly got to the quarterback again, but his pressure was enough to force an incompletion.

Up 24-21, any Spring Lake Park celebrations turned out to be premature.

The Panthers subsequently went three-and-out, giving Chanhassen one last opportunity with 1:20 left. The Storm started from their 1-yard line where Calen Truckenbrod’s lofty punt was downed. Nine plays later, the Storm were at the Spring Lake Park 33 with 25 seconds remaining.

A fourth-down pass was intercepted by Cade Skelly and the 13-0 Panthers could celebrate — officially.

Spring Lake quarterback Nolan Roach ran for 162 yards and two scores, and tossed a touchdown. Lemari Brown finished with 58 powerful, between-the-tackles rushing yards and the defense forced four turnovers against a Storm squad averaging more than 32 points per game. Skelly had 15 tackles, eight solo.

Nathan Ramler was 27 of 47 for 240 yards for Chanhassen (11-2). Peyton Ramsey ran for 104 yards.

Down 24-14 late in the third quarter, Chanhassen put together a nine-play, 65-yard drive that ended with Ramsey scoring from the 10 on fourth down 1:24 into the fourth quarter.

Spring Lake Park led by seven at the break, and Sam Wolde’s 25-yard field goal capped a 15-play, 81-yard third-quarter drive to make it 24-14. The trek took 7:37.

A seesaw opening 24 minutes ended with Spring Lake Park holding a 21-14 lead thanks to a late 38-yard touchdown reception by Kaden Konkler and the Panther defense coming up big in the closing minute.

From the Panthers’ 5 with 1:07 left, the Storm lost a yard over the next two plays. Out of a timeout on third down and with 35 seconds left, Ramler dropped back but was pressured by Braden Hemquist. The lineman forced a fumble that was recovered by Isaac Olson.

A 38-yard Roach run gave the Panthers an early 7-0 lead, but Ramler’s 1-yard run evened the game less than three minutes later.

Three plays after Chase Warner recovered a fumble early in the second quarter, Roach scored from 53 yards away for a 14-7 Panthers lead. But, again, Chanhassen responded. This time it was a 16-yard fourth-down touchdown reception by Bush that capped a 12-play, 80-yard drive to tie the game.

Class 3A

Wide receiver/safety Colton Purcell threw a touchdown pass and tied a Prep Bowl record with three interceptions, and Annandale beat Waseca 17-7 in Class 3A for the school’s first football title.

Via a double-pass play, Purcell took a backwards throw from Michael Kovall and found Gabriel Westman behind the defense late in the third quarter. Westman’s 25-yard touchdown reception in the second quarter gave the Cardinals a 10-0 lead.

Kellen Klinger had a rushing touchdown for the Bluejays (12-1).

9-Player

Jamin Metzger threw for 238 yards and two touchdowns, and Hills-Beaver Creek routed Hillcrest Lutheran 46-22 for the 9-Player crown.

Brodie Metzger ran for 126 yards and had 99 receiving yards for the 13-0 Patriots, who outgained the Comets 481-258.

Ethan Swedberg threw two touchdown passes for Hillcrest Lutheran (12-1).

Related Articles

Saturday’s Prep Bowl state title game predictions

Prep Bowl: Chase Bjorgaard, Edina beat Moorhead for Class 6A title

Prep Bowl: Minneota, Orono, Jackson County Central win state championships

High School Football: How Spring Lake Park re-established its culture to reach the Prep Bowl

Girls hockey: ‘Out of this world’ start for Sarah Johnson has Mounds View/Irondale undefeated

Mercury Bischoff’s hat trick included a go-ahead power-play goal as Minnesota State Mankato finished a weekend sweep of No. 2 Minnesota with a 4-1 victory Saturday afternoon in Mankato.

Bischoff’s third goal was an empty netter with 1 minute, 48 seconds left that clinched the Mavericks’ first sweep against their WCHA rival since 2006.

Josefin Bouveng tied the game for the Gophers (12-4-0, 8-4-0) off an assist by Abbey Murphy in the first period, but Mavericks goalie Hailey Hansen made 27 saves as the Mavericks (8-7-1, 4-7-1) scored the next three goals, one from Whitney Tuttle to take a 3-1 lead into the third period.

The Mavericks won, 3-1, Friday night at Ridder Arena before completing the sweep at Mayo Clinic Event Center.

CHICAGO — The most memorable sound effect for Northwestern games at Ryan Field was a screeching Wildcat growl after big plays. Its repetition would get the sound stuck in your heads.

At Wrigley Field on Saturday, the public address announcer said “We are going to move! those! chains!” He said it ad nauseum as the Wildcats totaled 25 first downs in a 38-35 win.

The Gophers defense came into the game allowing 331 yards per game (38th in the nation), but allowed more yards of offense to a .500 Northwestern team (525 yards) than the U gave up to No. 1 Ohio State (474) and No. 7 Oregon (510). The Gophers also gave up 476 yards to Michigan State, which is winless in Big Ten play.

Given how glaring the breakdowns were Saturday, Fleck was asked about how new defensive coordinator Danny Collins has done in his first season at the helm.

“I look at three things,” Fleck said. “I look at the coaching. I look at personnel and then the scheme. Those are the three things that I evaluate every single week. I got to go back through the tape. …

“(But) I love what Danny is doing. I love how hard our defensive staff works. Part of it is you just got to make the plays that present themselves. Again, I think at times throughout the entire year, we’ve pressed here and there. We are pressing to go get the ball (and force a turnover). And the details matter.”

Collins called the Gophers’ defense Saturday from the sideline, a departure from doing so from the coaches’ booth high above the field. Fleck said that wasn’t a reaction to performances, but a decision based on not having great vantage points from a baseball press box.

Charging for long distance

Gophers kicker Brady Denaburg continues to struggle on field goals from 40 yards and longer this season.

Denaburg is 11 for 12 from inside 39 yards, but the transfer from Syracuse is 2 for 7 from beyond 40 with misses from 40 in the third quarter Saturday and 48 on the last play of the game.

“Keep kicking,” Fleck said. “Sometimes it goes through, sometimes it doesn’t. We got to execute way better. He’s made some really big kicks for us all year. I know he’ll respond to that.”

Briefly

With the new $800 million Ryan Field opening up next year, Wrigley Field plans to host games for other college programs. … Anthony Smith was credited for a sack on a Preston Stone intentional grounding Saturday. That gives Smith 10 1/2 sacks this season, becoming the first Gopher with double-digit sacks since Willie VanDeSteeg in 2008. … The Gophers turned to Tony Nelson at guard on Saturday, a rare change along the U’s offensive line that managed to run for 3.5 yards per carry.

Related Articles

Women’s hockey: Mavericks complete sweep of No. 2 Gophers

Struck out: Gophers cough up lead in 38-35 loss to Northwestern at Wrigley Field

Gophers to be without top tackler and key cornerback vs. Northwestern

Men’s basketball: Tommies win on buzzer-beating heave

Gophers center Robert Vaihola unlikely to play against San Francisco

The contrast is jarring. Against teams with losing records, Minnesota is 10-0 to open the season. Against winning teams? 0-6, the latest a mindboggling loss Friday in Phoenix.

Minnesota has one more cupcake on deck — a bout Monday in Sacramento against a Kings team the Wolves already have handled twice in this young season. And, this time, Sacramento will be without star big man Domantas Sabonis.

After that, the two only true potential laughers for the Wolves between now and Christmas are a pair of games at two-win New Orleans in early December.

That’s for the best for these Timberwolves. Yes, they’ve handled business against the League’s cellar dwellers — far more so than they have in other recent seasons. Minnesota is housing the NBA’s worst teams on a consistent basis. But little from those wins is translating to games against stiffer competition.

The ball pressure did. Minnesota was stiff enough defensively to force 28 turnovers Friday. At the same time, Phoenix took advantage of Minnesota’s propensity to overhelp and rotate poorly on that end, which allowed the Suns to generate a number of open looks. Phoenix shot 48% from the field, including 45% from distance.

That’s not a weakness that gets stressed by bad teams, which often struggle to even execute one action within a possession, let alone the two or three that can truly try a defense’s communication and effort.

On the other end, Minnesota’s ball movement — which has been excellent at times this season — dried up. The Wolves again resorted to the isolation-based attack that works great when the opponent doesn’t have defenders capable of keeping the ball in front of them, and quite poorly when they do.

The Wolves had just 18 assists on Friday, and only 39 potential assists — the lowest number across the NBA that evening.

Minnesota has mastered ball movement and quick decision making when there’s no opposing resistance, but quickly devolves into old, bad habits when the other team practices ball contain. That was evident against Portland and Phoenix, and in the second halves of each of its losses to Denver.

Those are problems that will require reps to remedy, and they can only come against teams that repeatedly test your deficiencies.

The Timberwolves should get those over the course of the next month, starting with Wednesday’s game in Oklahoma City — a must-win if Minnesota wants to reach the knockout round of the NBA Cup. Friday’s game against Phoenix will better prepare the Timberwolves for that affair.

It was clear Minnesota was a step slow in Friday’s first half. It took the Wolves 24 minutes of basketball to seemingly remember the effort and intention required to punch in the NBA’s upper-weight classes and muster it up themselves. Repeated looks at that standard should allow Minnesota more easily summon it at the outset of games.

Iron sharpens iron? Cupcakes certainly don’t.

Perhaps the Wolves will lose a few more games over the next month, but they’re also likely to emerge from it a team capable of more seriously contending in the West.

Related Articles

Leading by eight in the final minute, Wolves lose in Phoenix

Timberwolves player net ratings through 15 games: Jaylen Clark now No. 1 for Minnesota

Frederick: No, Anthony Edwards is not an MVP candidate. This week reminds us why

Jaden McDaniels’ iron-man streak comes to end

Is Timberwolves guard Jaylen Clark a … defensive superstar?