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December 2, 2021
Let’s Play Football
www.letsplayfootballmn.com
Prep Bowl 6A: Lakeville South 13, Maple Grove 7
Lakeville South players celebrate after claiming their first 6A football title after beating Maple Grove 13-7 at U.S. Bank Stadium. The Cougars finished the season unbeaten at 13-0.
Cougars claw their way to 6A title by MALIK MITCHELL The Lakeville South Cougars played in their second Prep Bowl game and brought home their first 6A championship in program history. The Cougars have had seven State Tournament appearances. Head coach Ben Burk led his team to a championship victory after only being head coach for three seasons. “I just feel fortunate, I’m one piece of a huge operation. I love our players and the tenacity that they show and the work ethic that they have,” said Burk. “That comes from how they were raised and the community that we live in.” They finished their season going undefeated with a record of 13-0. There have been some ups and downs with losing in the 6A semifinals in 2019, and then last season leading the Cougars to a perfect 8-0 record but couldn’t compete for the championship due to COVID. They were named the “mythical” State champions by the Associated Press, but missed out on the U.S Bank Stadium experience. “It felt a lot better than last year
winning a real championship. Being able to celebrate with the guys and do it in front of the whole community is something I’ll never forget. There is nothing ‘mythical’ about this one” Quarterback Camden Dean said. Burk’s journey as a Cougar started out as a quarterbacks coach in 2012. He later moved up to offensive coordinator in 2017 and set the school’s record for rushing yards and points per game in each of his two full seasons as the play-caller. “It’s tough to break into the head coaching world when you haven’t been one before because there’s plenty of coaches that have head coaching experience,” said Burk. “So to me, it was just you have to be disciplined. You have to have a work ethic and work super hard and outwork everybody and your time will come.” The long road led him into receiving the 2020 Kare 11 All-Metro Coach of the Year, 2020 MFCA 6A Coach of the Year and 2020 Section 3AAAAAA Coach of the Year. Teams were unable to crack Lakeville South’s “Lake-Vinci Code” running out of a Power-T formation finishing the season with a total of
3,990 rushing yards. “It’s hard to replicate, being that we’re the only team in 6A that runs it. We’re physical,” said Burk. “So you have a week to prepare for that when you don’t ever see it and the ones that have seen it before usually do the best against it.” On defense, they had a total of 860 tackles, 33 sacks, 10 interceptions, and recovered 13 fumbles. This season, junior running back Carson Hansen has rushed for 2,012 yards and scored 23 touchdowns, averaging 154 yards a game. He also caught four touchdown passes. Camden Dean has passed for 649 yards and 9 touchdowns and ran for 567 yards for 16 touchdowns. Senior linebacker Zach Juckel has 128 tackles and 8 sacks on the season. Some seniors that are set to play at the collegiate level next year are tight end/outside linebacker Will Chlebecek, who is committed to St. Thomas University. Quarterback Camden Dean is committed to Minnesota State University, Mankato. Tight end Chase Androff is committed to Nebraska University and Tight end Jack Juckel has eight D1 offers and has not decided where he will be attending next fall.
Lakeville South quarterback Camden Dean celebrates as the Cougars took home the Class 6A title with a 13-7 win over Maple Grove
South’s defense steps up to shut down Maple Grove by MALIK MITCHELL After going undefeated last season without the chance to compete for the 6A Championship, the Lakeville South Cougars finally got closure after winning their first championship over Maple Grove 13-7. Lakeville South’s head coach Ben Burk said, “Maple Grove is a super well coached team and coach Lombardi had some good schemes for us that we had to overcome.” It was a battle from the start, both teams’ defenses prevented each other from scoring in the first quarter. Lakeville South’s dominant run game met their match failing to score time and time again. Maple Grove’s defense had cracked the code on Lakeville South’s Power-T run game that had been troublesome all season. However, Maple Grove’s dynamic offense failed to get a
score after a broken field goal attempt. Senior quarterback Camden Dean said, “Maple Grove was big up front and was very physical. It’s one of the only ways to stop our offense. You have to be bigger, stronger, faster than us to slow us down. They did a great job, but we made the big plays in the end.” In the second quarter, Maple Grove muffed a punt which led to a recovery by Lakeville South’s senior wide receiver/ defensive back Hunter Webster which put the Cougars in Maple Grove’s territory. Unfortunately, they couldn’t get things to work on offense and tried to kick a 35-yard field goal but missed the attempt. A couple drives later, Maple Grove had the same luck after driving down field to set up for a 52-yard field goal but ended up getting blocked with 11 seconds left in the second quarter. To start the third quarter, Maple Grove seemed to find some rhythm on
offense. Senior running back Derrick Jameson led the way down field after a couple good runs. Then out of nowhere junior quarterback Jacob Kilzer floated a pass to junior fullback Tanner Albeck for a 24-yard touchdown. That touchdown made it 7-0 with eight minutes left in the quarter. Refusing to back down, Lakeville South responded with senior quarterback Camden Dean making defenders miss off a quarterback run making it 7-7 to end the quarter. “We stayed confident in what we do and we deal with adversity better than anyone in the state. We come together during hard times and it gave us the edge last night” Dean said. Dean struck again with another quarterback run breaking a tackle and hitting the races for 52-yards to make it 13-7 after an extra point was missed with three minutes left in the 4th quarter. “The fact that we run our offense
the way that we do, he hasn’t been able to really show his talent on display like some other quarterbacks get,” said Coach Burk. “He’s just been a trooper and a leader that we needed him to be and willing to put the team first in that regard. For him to step up in that moment and execute I thought was just poetic for him and just shows his tenacity as a leader and you know he wants the big moment and he will do that when it matters.” Lakeville South kept Maple Grove off their heels after they failed to convert on a 4th-and-10, giving the ball to Lakeville South with 47 seconds left. They ran out the last seconds taking a knee to end the game with a final score of 13-7. “Winning the championship was a huge sigh of relief. Knowing that all our hard work and passion throughout the year had finally paid off. I love all these guys and no one deserved it more. No one can take this away from us” Dean said.
