MORRIS -- For the seventh straight season, Eden Valley-Watkins will be in the Section 5AA football championship game.
The Eagles won five titles -- in the last five years -- and won a state championship in 2005. Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City, now in Class A, was EVW's opponent the last three years.
Yellow Medicine East knows a little bit about the Eagles. The Sting lost to EVW in last year's section quarterfinals and fell to the Eagles in Class AA quarterfinals in 2004.
The teams meet for this year's Section 5AA title at 7 p.m. today at Big Cat Stadium in Morris.
The Sting (7-3) started slow out of the gates, but have won their last five games. During that stretch, YME has given up no more than seven points per game. Coach Mike Gaffaney said the defense's emergence had nothing to do with changing schemes.
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"One big thing for our defense is that we are finally healthy. We had a string of games where the flu bug hit us pretty hard and another stretch of games where we had some key players that had injuries," he wrote in an email. "We have been able to get players into positions where they are more comfortable."
The Sting defense will be challenged by Eden Valley-Watkins' prolific offense, which averages 43.7 points-per-game. The Eagles (10-0) are balanced. Tyler Geislinger has completed 67 percent of his passes for 1,269 yards. Ryan McCann leads the team in rushing with 1,187 yards on 161 carries. Ryan Tri has 35 catches for 658 yards.
"They (YME) have a very good defense," EVW coach Ray Tri wrote in an email. "We'll have to work for anything we get against them."
Gaffaney noted difficulties teams have had with the Eagles' offense.
"EV-W has a good mix of the pass and run. They will spread us out and pass, run reverses, misdirection and quick hitters," he wrote. "We will not change a lot at this time of the season as far as our defensive scheme. We will stress tackling, team defense and out hitting our opponent."
Offensively, the Sting will have to get more out of an offense that averages 18.6 points-per-game. Tyler Sand is the team's leading rusher with 561 yards and seven TDs. Bobby Lecy is 46-for-117 passing for 689 yards.
So today's final will have a familiar look to it, Eden Valley-Watkins, and something new, Yellow Medicine East. Both teams won't take anything beyond that for granted.
"It was a long, competitive rivalry with ACGC and there were some great games," Tri wrote. "But we knew at the beginning of the season that we'd be playing someone else if we got this far. YME is a very good, well balanced team and are playing well."
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"I'm sure playing in big games before is an advantage but our players play against good opponents each week. The kids have been having fun in practice and more importantly, we have been getting better each week," Gaffaney noted. "The seniors had only a few goals for this year and winning a section championship was one of them."
