Mike Kraft/MDN Minot High celebrates a touchdown during the first half of a game against West Fargo Sheyenne earlier this season at Duane Carlson Stadium. The Magicians are seeking their first win of the season when they travel to play Fargo Shanley this week to close out their non-conference schedule.

It can be hard to be the eternal optimist when your team is just one of three winless programs in Class AAA through three games.

It can be hard to be the eternal optimist when two of your first three games were against ranked opponents and now the next opponent on the schedule is both undefeated and holds the No. 2 ranking in the state.

It can be hard to be the eternal optimist when your team is off to its worst start since 1997.

But why be an eternal pessimist when you can be an eternal optimist? And if there is a silver lining in Minot High’s 0-3 start to the season in which it held fourth-quarter leads in each of its last two games, it’s this: they have yet to play a game with any playoff implications attached to them.

That begins next week, so the Magicians would like to enter their West Region slate of games with a little bit of momentum. It will be a tall order, however, as the Magi travel to take on No. 2 Fargo Shanley on Friday, Sept. 19, in the final non-conference contest of the season.

“We’ve seen improvement week to week, but we want to go taste victory and that’s hard to do. The margin for victory is so thin,” Minot High coach Chauncy Hendershot said. “What we’re looking for here, we get to play a quality program like Shanley. What they’ve done over the course of their time in AAA is awesome. It’s a good opportunity to get on the road, get back out there and show improvement on our end. And the scoreboard will take care of itself as long as we focus on putting four quarters together, eliminate some of our self-defeating tendencies. We can’t have back-to-back mental mistakes. We need to take care of the football and just have fun.”

Shanley has jumped between Class AA and Class AAA for nearly two decades, but has called Class AAA home since 2023. The Deacons first dropped down to Class AA in 2009, but returned to Class AAA 10 years later in 2019, only to again head back to Class AA for the 2021 and 2022 campaigns. As a result, Minot High and Shanley have only played each other twice during the regular season since 2008, with the Magicians winning both games. The Deacons haven’t defeated the Magicians during the regular season since an 18-15 win on Sept. 5, 2008.

But the past is the past for both teams. The Magicians aren’t spending time licking their wounds from close losses the last two weeks and the Deacons aren’t concerned with outdated history, especially since they appear to have found their footing after a difficult season last year in which they finished 3-7. The year prior, they were playing in a state championship game against the Magicians. This season, they have already matched their win total from last year in seven fewer games.

Shanley has been on a bit of a revenge tour, having already avenged a pair of losses to teams they played last season. The Deacons dropped games to both Mandan, 41-26, and Bismarck High, 40-14, in 2024, but returned the favor this year, toppling the Braves, 27-9, and Demons, 39-21. The Magicians routed the Deacons last year to the tune of 41-7.

Shanley’s bread and butter offensively is to play uptempo. The Deacons are going to be one of the last teams to get penalized for delay of game. Hendershot said Shanley’s goal is to run a play every eight to 12 seconds, looking for quick screen plays, but also being willing to keep the ball on the ground if the defense is overplaying the pass. As a result, the Magicians know they will have to be in tip-top shape for the number of plays they are going to see on defense.

“It’s an emphasis every week,” Hendershot said. “We’re getting to Week 4 here. We are definitely in a situation with some of the injuries that we have where we’re a bit thin right now, so it’s something that is a point of emphasis for us. But what we’re looking for here as we get to the West Region part of the schedule is guys to be in game shape and our guys have done a lot of work in the offseason to get ready for that. We’re approaching Week 4. We expect them to be ready for four quarters.”

In terms of injuries, running back Blake Anderson spent the second half of last week’s game against West Fargo on the sideline sporting crutches after being injured late in the first half. He could only watch as the Magicians failed to put up any points in the second half. But Hendershot said Anderson would be fine long term and right now his availability for the matchup against Shanley is a game-time decision. Anderson is the team leader in rushing with 239 yards on 37 carries. He had accumulated 66 yards on seven carries with a touchdown against West Fargo before sustaining the injury. The rest of the team combined for 57 yards on 16 carries, with quarterback Ryder Sutton accounting for 49 of those yards.

The Deacons average 28.7 points per game with quarterback Jax Mattern leading the offense. Last season, he completed 202 of 362 passes for 1,920 yards and 16 touchdowns. Kai Zabel and Jake Kraft are his primary targets, combining for 66 receptions for 888 yards and 13 touchdowns a year ago. Shanley has two running backs that share the majority of the carries in Landon Mitchell and Corban Youngmark. Mitchell carried the ball 36 times for 159 yards and three touchdowns, while Youngmark amassed 274 yards and four touchdowns on 51 carries.

As for the Magicians, every game serves as an opportunity to build more experience for a team that entered the season with a wealth of inexperience.

“There’s still improvement to be made, but we’ve seen some good things though,” Hendershot said. “We want to get reps. We have a team across the board where the majority of our guys have inexperience at the varsity level. Get guys on a Friday night to compete and battle. One thing we’ve been really proud of is we’ve fought. Last Friday, second half we lost a little bit of rhythm, but our defense makes a stop at the goal line right at the end. That shows a lot of fight and heart. We’re able to get the ball back and have a chance. If we can use that and continue to play with that heart, things will start clicking, we’ll find our rhythm and good things are coming.”

The Magicians put up 303 yards of total offense last week, highlighted by a 55-yard touchdown pass from Sutton to Tariq Bell midway through the second quarter. Bell finished with four catches for 94 yards. Sutton completed 10 of 21 passes for 180 yards. Bell (152) and James Pollatta (111) both have over 100 yards receiving this season for the Magicians.

Despite the losses early in the season, the team isn’t lacking in confidence, according to Hendershot.

“Morale is good,” Hendershot said. “Obviously after Friday, everyone’s disappointed that we didn’t get it done. We expect to win a game like that and it’s kind of two weeks in a row where you can look at a series of plays that could shift the game one way or the other, but we came back, analyzed the film and are getting ready to get right back to work. Win or lose, we’re going to operate the same way. We understand the schedule as it stands and we embrace the challenge.”

Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m.