Eagles win their third straight ahead of section playoffs

After Eden Prairie’s 42-13 dismantling of Woodbury on Thursday night, Eagles head coach Mike Grant gathered his team and gave them an all-important message:

“We’re good enough to beat anybody now,” Grant told his players.

That statement spoke volumes considering the journey the Eagles have experienced through their final game of the regular season.

After a 46-7 win at Rochester Mayo last week, the Eagles followed up with another dominating performance and now enter the section playoffs playing their best football of the season.

When asked what led him to that observation, Grant responded without hesitation.

“Because we beat Minnetonka and Minnetonka is one of the top two or three teams,” he said. “And we’re playing better. Our defense and offense are both playing better. So, yeah, we feel like we can beat anybody.”

The Eagles’ overtime upset of then-No. 3 Minnetonka at Aerie Stadium was the equivalent of a 1,000-watt light bulb switching on for the team.

The win had been preceded by losses to Edina and Shakopee, as well as a homecoming loss to Wayzata, which marked a crossroads for the team and their season.

“We knew that wasn’t the season that we wanted, so we worked hard and we won against Minnetonka in overtime,” Eagles running back Jeremy Fredericks said after the win on Thursday. “And you can tell the difference and shift in effort in practice, it’s very noticeable, and it paid off every single week since then.”

Ethan Sather, a leader along the offensive line as a junior, said the win over Minnetonka was not only a turning point but a catalyst for transforming the entire team dynamic, particularly in practices.

“It changed our whole team around. Just that win, it gave us confidence. We just locked in,” he said. “Since then, we’ve started doing ‘no-walk’ practices, everything’s on the jog and running, hustling, busting our butts out there. And it’s a whole attitude change we’ve had, and it’s really transformed our team.”

Balanced attack leads to victory

The Eagles dominated Woodbury from the start, rolling up 330 yards in total offense, with 233 yards rushing behind an offensive line that has grown more formidable with each game.

The Eden Prairie defense shut down the Royals, limiting their total output to 183 yards.

“It was a great game, both offense and defense,” Eagles running back Elijah Rumph said. “How we practice is how we play. So I am really proud of this team, and what we can accomplish.”

Rumph had a prolific night, rushing for 133 yards on 11 carries and four touchdowns, including scoring romps from 32 yards in the first quarter and 33 yards in the third quarter.

“We were crisp,” Grant said. “Elijah ran well, the offensive line blocked very well. And Woodbury is well coached, they take things away from you. So we had to adjust.”

Rumph leads the Eagles in rushing with 930 yards on 122 carries this season, scoring 10 touchdowns. He gives credit to the offensive line, which has come of age as the season has progressed.

“We have a young offensive line, and I’m just really proud of what they have accomplished,” he said. “They’re getting better every single week. Our entire O line that switched over from last year.”

Fredericks has also made the most of the Eagles’ offensive front, rushing for 77 yards on nine carries against the Royals and scoring on a run from 40 yards out in the second quarter to give the Eagles a 21-0 lead.

Fredericks followed up that touchdown with another on a 50-yard catch-and-run off a pass from Eagles quarterback Jackson Bakkum in the second quarter, giving Eden Prairie a 28-0 lead at halftime.

Bakkum was 6-for-9 passing for 97 yards and the touchdown to Fredericks, with no interceptions.

“We had a great game as a unit, our whole line is coming together,” Sather said. “Everyone’s playing good. Firing off on all cylinders is great.”

The Eden Prairie defense pitched a shutout for most of the game. Woodbury didn’t manage a touchdown until late in the third quarter.

Eagles linebacker Matthew Ivey led the Eagles with eight total tackles, four of them solo, including a forced fumble and subsequent recovery of the loose ball.

“I think it comes from practice. Absolutely, we’ve been really focused in practice,” Ivey said when asked about his team’s three-game win streak.

“It’s not that we weren’t focused at the start of the season, but we found a new level, just really 100% bringing that focus,” he added.

Ivey said the three defeats, and in particular the loss to Wayzata on Sept. 27, served as a wakeup call for the program, which has grown accustomed to playing football well into November.

“That really lights a fire under you,” he said. “We went to that Buffalo game (in the season opener on Aug. 29) and we won and we felt like we were on top of the world. And then the losses woke us up and made us refocus and play better and get better.”

The Eagles led the Royals 42-7 at the end of the third quarter, which, by league rule, requires the game be played under running time. As a result, the fourth quarter moved quickly.

Woodbury scored a late touchdown after the Eden Prairie starters left the game to give valuable minutes to reserve players.

The victory in the Eagles’ regular-season finale provided seniors on the squad with a memorable sendoff on senior night.

“It means a lot,” Ivey said afterward. “I love this game. I love football, so I think it means a lot to all of our seniors that we’re here to have that final game, have senior night here.

“And it was a great game to end it on.”

Focus on the playoffs

Eden Prairie finishes the regular season with a 5-3 record and move on to the postseason with their three-game win streak as momentum.

The Eagles will have a ready-made scouting report for their first game of the Class 6A section playoffs, as they face Woodbury for a second straight week to open postseason play.

“It’s the same preparation every week,” Grant said about the Eagles’ approach to the playoffs. “We’ve got to go back to fundamentals, play fundamentals, play great. One game at a time, four quarters at a time, really. And that’s a cliche, but it’s really true.

“If you look ahead, that’s when you get knocked off.”

Once the postseason begins, Grant uses a specific metric to measure the amount of football to be played from the start of the playoffs to a state championship. 

There are five wins needed to capture a state title. But at Eden Prairie, that challenge is marked by 20 quarters of football.

“We’re trying to break it down so it doesn’t seem like, ‘Oh, we got to win five games in a row,’” Grant explains. “That sounds like a lot. But if you go four quarters, can we win these four? Can we win the first two in that game? And can we win those two? Well, then you’re down to 18. And then you play two more well, you can get it down to eight or four pretty quick.”

The Eagles have put together 12 quarters of winning football to close out the regular season, lifting confidence for a young roster that has discovered what they are capable of accomplishing over the course of the season. 

The Eagles believe they are ready for 20 more quarters, starting with another win against Woodbury for the second week in a row on Friday night at Aerie Stadium.

“We’ve got some quarters to go, but we’ve just got to take one quarter at a time,” Sather said. “So we had to finish tonight, and now we’ve got first round of the playoffs to work on.”