Lakeville South Cougars win first-ever state title after undefeated season
LAKEVILLE, Minn. (BVM) — Although the Lakeville South Cougars may have been in a different situation than they had been in all season as they entered halftime of the MSHSL Class 6A football state championship, Cougars’ head coach Ben Burk still asked his team the same question he had asked them at every halftime this season.
“The first thing I ask them is, ‘What’s the score?’ For us it’s always 0-0, it doesn’t matter the circumstance,” Burk said.
It just so happened that for the first time all season, the score was actually 0-0 as Lakeville South entered the second half. Maple Grove and Lakeville had held each other to a scoreless first half.
The Cougars had averaged more than 20 points in the first half all season and it was the first time they had been held scoreless this year, but that did not phase them. As they entered the final half of the season, they knew what it would take to win.
“The most disciplined team wins, the most physical team wins and the team with the most heart wins,” Burk told BVM Sports earlier in the season. “Those are our mantras … our guys have bought into that for sure.”
All of that was needed in a game where neither team was going to let up. They had both made it to the state championship for a reason and a win at U.S. Bank Stadium was going to be earned, not given.
“That game was a little microcosm of our whole season,” Burk said. “We needed the discipline, we needed the physicality and then at the end, it took some heart.”
Maple Grove was the first to score in the second half via a 24-yard touchdown pass from Jacob Kilzer to Tanner Albeck halfway through the third quarter. However, Cougars answered back in the form of a 28-yard touchdown run by Camden Dean late in the third to tie the game at 7-7 as the teams approached the fourth quarter.
It was in the fourth that the Cougars were finally able to capitalize off a rare Maple Grove mistake, and an offense that had terrorized teams all season with big chunk plays got one when they needed it the most. Dean ripped off a 52-yard touchdown run to give Lakeville South a 13-7 lead late in the fourth quarter.
Maple Grove put together a nice drive in an attempt to tie the game but at the Cougars’ 26-yard line, they came up a yard short on 4th and 10. The Cougars’ defense made the play when it needed to and forced the turnover on downs to ensure a championship win.
“I saw that the heart of our team, and really the championship mindset, played out from the very beginning of that game all the way to the end,” Burk said.
The title win capped off a 13-0 season and gave Lakeville South its 21st straight win. The Cougars went undefeated last year but there was no postseason due to COVID. This year the boys came in hungry ready to take advantage of their chance to claim the state title.
“I thought the whole year, every week we got better,” Burk said. “We hit our peak when we needed to.”
That peak included an offense that averaged 327.8 rushing yards a game this season. Led by Dean and the 2021-22 Gatorade Minnesota Football Player of the Year Carson Hanson, the Cougars offense scored 66 touchdowns this year with 56 of those coming on the ground.
To match that offensive firepower, the Lakeville South defense held opponents to 112.7 rushing yards and just 62.9 passing yards while also creating 25 turnovers to go with their 34 sacks and 43 tackles for loss. With Zach Juckel leading the team in solo tackles (44), total tackles (128), tackles for loss (14) and sacks (8.5) while Hunter Webster had a team high four interceptions.
Their dominance this season on both sides of the ball is the reason that only a week after their state title, the Cougars were back in the weight room, training for next season.
“What got us to the state championship is a work ethic that is above and beyond what anybody else in the state is going to do,” Burk said. “That’s what we tell our kids and that’s what they have to believe in.”
It has already gotten them back-to-back undefeated seasons as well as a state championship and with the entire program from the middle schoolers on the feeder teams to the seniors believing in this process, Lakeville South has a very good chance to continue their success.
