2017 Section 5AAAAA Football Preview

There's plenty of hope in New Hope for the Cooper Hawks as they have earned the top seed in the 2017 Section 5AAAAA Football tournament and look to clinch a state tournament berth for the first time since 1996.

The Hawks have gone through the regular season unbeaten at 8-0 that also included a double overtime win over the Irondale Knights in the regular season finale on October 18.  Cooper is led by quarterback Cameron King and is supported by an outstanding backfield duo of Nate Hill and Nascier Borden.  Borden, who stands 5'5" has helped the Hawks in a big way as he has 788 rushing yards this season that includes a season high of 244 against the Richfield Spartans.

Cooper gets the opening round bye and will face the winner of the Minneapolis Southwest Lakers -Spring Lake Park Panthers game.  Last season, the Panthers, under veteran head coach Jeff Schlieff, advanced to the Class AAAAA championship and lost to the Elk River Elks.  Spring Lake Park got off to an 0-3 start before they went 4-1 the rest of the way.  The Lakers head into section play with an identical 4-4 record.  They wrapped up the regular season with a 22-21 win over the SMB Wolfpack.  SMB is a co-op program that features students from St. Paul Academy, Minnehaha Academy and Blake.  Southwest is led by a pair of Marshalls, one with a first name of TK and the other the last name Hawkins.

Now to the lower bracket as the second seeded St. Louis Paek Orioles get a quarterfinal bye and await the winner of the third seeded Irondale Knights and the sixth seeded Park Center Pirates.  The Orioles are on a three game winning streak since they lost to the defending state Class AAAA champion Benilde-St. Margaret's Red Knights 48-20 on September 28.  St. Louis Park is led by senior quarterback Johnny Sorenson, who has outstanding mobility and can also pick up quite a bit of rushing yards as was the case against DeLaSalle on October 17.  He ran for 125 yards and reached the end zone twice.  The defense cannot afford to make mistakes.

The second quarterfinal game pits the sixth seeded Park Center Pirates and the third seeded Irondale Knights.  The two teams met on September 29 with the Knights pounding the Pirates 35-13.  Parker Freiberg has been the key to the Knight offense this season.  He has rushed for 1,093 yards and scored a total of 14 touchdowns.  The only game that Frieberg has not exceeded 100 yards was against North St. Paul on September 8 as he was held to 46 yards.

Last time the Knights and Orioles faced each other was October 13 with St. Louis Park winning 16-13 on a game winning field goal from Skyler Rudelius-Palmer.  Will there be a rematch on the 28th?  Game time is 1 PM.