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LAKE PARK – A 14-6 win over Lake Park-Audubon to close out the regular season enabled the Menahga football team to earn the No. 4 seed and host a first-round Section 6A playoff game.
The Braves, who ended the regular season with a 5-3 record, will open the playoffs by hosting No. 5 Breckenridge (5-3) on Tuesday (Oct. 25) at 6 p.m. The winner of that game advances to play either No. 1 New York Mills (7-1) or No. 8 Underwood (0-8) on Saturday (Oct. 29). In the other Section 6A playoff games, No. 2 Pine River-Backus hosted No. 7 Walker-Hackensack-Akeley and No. 3 Ottertail Central hosted No. 6 Lake Park-Audubon.
In the final regular-season game, Menahga carried a 6-0 lead into the half on Isaiah Usher’s 15-yard touchdown pass from Brock Berttunen in the second quarter.
Toby Isola’s 5-yard TD run and a conversion pushed the Braves’ lead to 14-0 in the third quarter.
LP-A concluded the scoring on an 88-yard TD pass in the fourth quarter.
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Menahga compiled 250 yards in offense. Berttunen completed 13 of 24 passes for 134 yards, Usher caught six passes for 78 yards and Isola rushed 13 times for 43 yards. Isola led the defense with 11 tackles.
In the other Week 8 games involving Section 6A teams, New York Mills topped Mahnomen/Waubun 26-21, Pine River-Backus edged Wadena-Deer Creek 21-17, Ottertail Central lost to Parkers Prairie 13-7, Breckenridge lost to Pelican Rapids 34-18, Walker-Hackensack-Akeley defeated Bagley 20-8 and Underwood lost to West Central Area 34-7. New York Mills improved to 7-1, Pine River-Backus improved to 6-2, OTC joined Menahga and Breckenridge at 5-3, LP-A joined W-H-A at 3-5, and Underwood fell to 0-8.
Red Lake fell to Polk County West in the other game involving Northwest South District teams. W-DC fell to 6-2, Bagley fell to 2-6 and Red Lake fell to 0-8 in district play.
Menahga 0 6 8 0…14
Lake Park-Audubon 0 0 0 6…6
MENAHGA SCORING
M–Usher 15 pass from Br. Berttunen (PAT failed)
M–Isola 5 run (PAT good)
MENAHGA OFFENSIVE STATISTICS
RUSHING: Isola 13-43, B. Hendrickson 12-31, Tolkkinen 6-24, Br. Berttunen 7-16, Hasbargen 1-2.
PASSING: Br. Berttunen 13-24-0 for 134 yards.
RECEIVING: Usher 6-78, L. Peterson 5-38, Tolkkinen 2-18.
KICKOFF RETURNS: B. Hendrickson 1-6.
MENAHGA DEFENSIVE STATISTICS
TACKLES (SOLO-ASSISTS): Isola 1-10, Pietila 1-7, S. Hendrickson 1-6, L. Peterson 1-4, Hasbargen 1-4, M. Peterson 0-5, Usher 1-2, Br. Berttunen 0-3, Bo. Berttunen 0-3, Tolkkinen 2-0, Sunstrom 1-0, Lusti 0-1, McGowan 0-1, Livingston 0-1.
INTERCEPTIONS: Tolkkinen 1.
QUARTERBACK SACKS: S. Hendrickson 1, Br. Berttunen 1.
TACKLES FOR LOSS: Usher 1, Isola 1, Pietila 1, S. Hendrickson 1, Sunstrom 1, Br. Berttunen 1, Lusti 1.
KICKOFFS: M. Peterson 3-107.
PUNTS: Sunstrom 1-39, Tolkkinen 1-35.
