With the Section 8-5A playoffs looming, the Brainerd Warriors will finish their regular season against the Sartell Sabres Thursday, Nov. 12, at Adamson Field.
The Sabres are riding a two-game winning streak with wins over Alexandria and most recently St. Cloud Tech.
“We were missing one of our seniors for the first three games,” Sartell head coach Scott Hentges said. “We just keep trying to get better regardless of who we are playing.”
Warriors head coach Jason Freed said Sartell will offer a different challenge defensively for them. Last week, Brainerd saw Moorhead throw seven touchdown passes in a 48-0 loss. Against Sartell, Freed is expecting more of a smashmouth attack.
“Sartell is definitely on the upswing right now,” Freed said. “They have a good group of kids. They are still a young team, and they seem to be trending in the right direction. They are going to be a bit of a different team then we’ve played. We’ve played a lot of spread teams and teams that try to attack you on the perimeter. Sartell is an old-school wing-T team that has a very good running back.”
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That running back is junior Ethan Torgrimson who is expected to carry a bulk of the load for Sartell’s offense.
“He’s been phenomenal this year,” Hentges said. “So definitely looking to get him the ball.”
Freed added: “I would say he is one of the best running backs in our district. He’s a bigger kid. He’s one of those kids who is going to run north and south. He’s done a nice job on their sweep. We have to focus on swarming him as much as we can and not allow him to have one-on-one matchups. When you play a team like Sartell the reads are the reads, so we have to trust what we are seeing and trusting the reads we are getting from their offense and play with confidence.”
When the two teams met last season, Brainerd narrowly edged the Sabres 30-26 in the regular season. They met again in the Section 8-5A opening round and the Warriors beat Sartell 34-6. Both games at Adamson Field.
“You can never base your success off what you did in the past,” Freed said. “Teams are different every year and players develop over offseasons. Obviously, Sartell’s kids have developed and really, really improved. For us, we are not going to dwell on what we did last year. We just have to focus on what we can do to be successful this year.”
Torgrimson didn’t play in the playoff game last season due to injury.
“Brainerd is Brainerd,” Hentges said. “They are always a good team. They are well coached. They are going to be ready to play, so we have to be ready to play too.”
In the Warriors' loss to Moorhead last Thursday, Isaiah Windorski saw most of the snaps at quarterback after starter Nathaniel Staehling left with an injury. Staehling will be a game-time decision Thursday.
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“Isaiah is a great young leader for our team,” Freed said. “He’s always been that way. He’s a pretty intelligent quarterback. He’s not as tall as Nathaniel, but he has a very good skill set. He can do some things in the passing game and he knows the ins and outs of our offense. If Isaiah has to take snaps this week, we are going to take advantage of what his strengths are.”
There is a possibility these two teams could meet in the Section 8-5A opening round Tuesday, Nov. 17. Neither coach wanted to look that far ahead.
“I am so one day at a time,” Hentges said. “There are just so many things that change. I’m worried about Thursday, then we will see Friday. Then we will worry about Tuesday. You’ve played everyone in the section, so that’s not unusual.”
Freed added: “We will just worry about what we need to worry about. We can’t be looking ahead. I would say most likely we will play either Alexandria or Sartell just by the looks of it. For us, we just have to worry about Sartell Thursday, close that chapter and game plan for Tuesday.”
Brainerd Warriors (1-3)
Offense
QB: 16-Nathaniel Staehling, 12-Isaiah Windorski
RB: 20-Caden Schoeppner, 45-Gabe Wagner, 38-Trevor Jechorak
WR: 7-Jacob Smith, 21-Brandt Patton, 14-Simon Foss, 2-Jed Klang, 8-Matt Huesmann, 15-Cole Beyer, 11-Ethan Windorski
TE: 88-Andrew Albright, 84-Mitchell Degen, 18-RJ Campbell
OL: 51-Ethan Strong, 58-Aden Crabb, 60-Dominik Waytashek, 57-Carter Springer, 66-Caden Jager, 67-Jacob Borgstrom, 72-Nolan Reynolds, 76-Elijah Hanson, 77-Elijah Rock
Defense
DL: 5-Andrew Thielke, 79-Chandler DeRosier, 74-Ryan Cook, 53-Grant Gardiepy, 54-Riley DeRosier, 42-Chase Bentler, 41-Eli Biggs, 55-Max Olson, 75-DeShawn Brown, 92-Delon Kosloski, 64-Dalton Barrett, 74-Cole Larkin
LB: 40-Forrest Gibson, 50-Jacob Holm, 25-Cam Langerman, 30-Kouper Seidl, 52-Brady Toensing, 60-Dylan Wgeishofski, 44-Dante Bernal, 56-Jonas Ewald
DB: 10-Harry Carlson, 21-Brandt Patton, 24-Jack Lundstrom, 22-Aden Extrand, 35-Aaron Stark, 82-Ethan Olson, 28-Zach Horn, 27-Dawon Piepho, 47-Alex Helmin, 26-Gavin Schwen, 23-Jaiden McLanahan, 31-Ethan Derosier
Special Teams
K: 17-Aiden Brown, 86-Jeremy Duff
P: 16-Nathaniel Staehling, 2-Jed Klang
Returners: 20-Caden Schoeppner, 21-Brandt Patton
Sartell Sabres (3-2)
Offense
QB: 9-Cole Hentges
RB: 29-Ethan Torgrimson, 5-Steven Brinkerhoff, 3-Parker Knutson
WR/TE: 13-Austin Henrichs, Carter Swenson
OL: 61-Kade Lewis, 59-Will Mahowald, Nick Kulus, Zach Zayas, 88-Blake Haus
Defense
DL: 88-Blake Haus, Zach Zayas
LB: 29-Ethan Torgrimson, Carter Swenson, 5-Steven Brinkerhoff, 61-Kalen Lewis, Will Budge
CB: 10-Eli Schlecht, 27-Carsen Gross
S: 3-Parker Knutson, 15-Alex Franke
Special Teams
K: 8-Lucas Smith
P: 29-Ethan Torgrimson
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Warriors Schedule
Regular Season
Oct. 9, at Cambridge-Isanti — canceled
Oct. 17, at St. Cloud Apollo 6 p.m. — won 35-30
Oct. 23, hosts Alexandria 7 p.m. — lost 49-14
Oct. 30, hosts Bemidji 7 p.m. — lost 35-13
Nov. 5, at Moorhead 7 p.m. — lost 48-0
Nov. 12, hosts Sartell 7 p.m.
Section 8-5A Playoffs
Nov. 17, opening round 7 p.m.
Nov. 21, semifinals 2 p.m.
Nov. 27, finals 7 p.m.
North Central Red Subdistrict
Subdistrict Records
Moorhead 5-0 (3-0), Bemidji 4-1 (2-0), Alexandria 2-3 (1-3), Sartell 3-2 (2-2), Brainerd 1-3 (0-3), Sauk Rapids 1-4 (1-0), St. Cloud Tech 0-3 (0-3)
Week Five Results results
Moorhead 48, Brainerd 0
Bemidji 27, Alexandria 14
Sartell 35, St. Cloud Tech 15
Rogers 51, Sauk Rapids 7
Week Six games
Sartell at Brainerd
Bemidji at Moorhead
St. Cloud Apollo at Alexandria
Elk River at St. Cloud Tech
Sauk Rapids at Delano
Team Stats
Brainerd
Rushing: 149-466
Passing: 28-70-5-138
Total Offense: 167-704
Opponents
Rushing: 139-707
Passing: 52-86-2-802
Total Offense: 225-1,509
Sartell at Brainerd
When: 7 p.m.
Where: at Brainerd High School
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Last result: Brainerd won 34-6 in the Section 8-5A opening round in 2019.
The series: Brd leads 19-6.
Twitter: @the_rad34
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