Mike Kraft/MDN Minot North quarterback Brayden Blikre and the Sentinels host Grand Forks Red River in a Class AA quarterfinal playoff game on Friday, Oct. 31. Minot North defeated the Roughriders earlier this season, 45-14.

Twelve teams began the Class AA season back in August with the goal of playing postseason football come Halloween night.

Nine games and nine weeks later, the regular season has concluded and the field has been trimmed to eight. Among those remaining is Minot North, which sat atop the Class AA West standings all season as well as the media rankings, finishing the regular season as one of two unbeaten teams along with Kindred in the East.

The Sentinels (9-0 overall, 5-0 WDA) won the WDA title for the second year in a row to earn the No. 1 seed and home-field advantage throughout the postseason. They welcome a familiar foe in the quarterfinal round in Grand Forks Red River – the No. 4 seed from the East Region – in a rematch of a Week 3 meeting earlier this season.

“Your season leads to this point, but we’ve told our kids that we’re 0-0 just the same as everyone else,” Minot North coach Jacob Holmen said. “It’s a brand-new start for every team. Teams that are alive, everyone’s got a shot at it. We’re approaching it no different than we have all year. You could say there’s a little more pressure on things, but we’ve played a lot of meaningful football games in our short time as a program. We’re counting on our guys that have been around and played some high-level football to be leaders for us in the locker room.”

Minot North is looking to make Sentinel Stadium a house of horrors once again for the Roughriders on Halloween night at 7 p.m. The Sentinels cruised past Red River in the regular season with a 45-14 victory on Sept. 12. Minot North led 21-6 at halftime and 42-14 after three quarters during that contest.

Outside of the amount of construction going on in the Minot area, a lot has changed in the seven weeks between matchups. The Roughriders (4-5, 2-3) have moved from a two-quarterback system, rotating between Matthew Dosch and Reese Walters to fully handing the keys to Dosch. Walters tossed the lone offensive touchdown against Minot North.

“Last time we played them they did a little two-QB system and they’ve gone with one kid now and he’s taken all the snaps and he’s a very talented runner,” Holmen said. “He’s a coach’s kid, so he knows the game of football well and can go make plays and kind of has a gunslinger mentality where he’s not afraid to make mistakes, which can be scary at times. We have to do a good job of containing him and handling him in the run game.”

The Sentinels may not look any different from a personnel standpoint, but they have continued to make improvements and build depth on both sides of the ball each week. They’ve gotten healthier as the season has progressed and expect to be as close to full strength as a team can be nine games into a season when they take the field on Friday.

History is on Minot North’s side, as the No. 1 seed from the West Region has won its quarterfinal matchup against the No. 4 seed from the East Region the last seven seasons in which the Class AA format involved taking the top four teams from each region. During that span, the West’s top seed has advanced to the Dakota Bowl four times, winning three titles. It was Bismarck St. Mary’s on all three occasions, winning in 2014, 2016 and 2020.

The last time the West’s top seed failed to advance to the semifinals was in 2012 when Bishop Ryan fell to Valley City, 24-14.

The Sentinels were one of those seven teams to advance out of the quarterfinal round as the No. 1 seed, knocking off Devils Lake last year. But they were not one of the four to advance to the Dakota Bowl, falling short in the semifinals with a 42-20 home loss to champion West Fargo Horace.

Holmen isn’t focused on looking ahead, as it’s not his personality.

“I don’t like to look ahead at all,” Holmen said. “I’m a day-by-day kind of guy. We’re treating it the same in our program. We don’t look ahead to things and we know that playoff football is hard. Winning games in the postseason is a challenge, but you want to be playing meaningful football games at the end of October and early November. That’s the challenge to our kids is to play November football and to do that we have to win a game on Friday.”

The Sentinels enter the postseason with all the momentum. They were one of two unbeaten teams in Class AA and won their games by an average of roughly 27 points per game. Red River – on the other hand – backed its way into the postseason on the heels of back-to-back losses to Fargo South and Grand Forks Central. Had it not been for an upset that saw Wahpeton win its first game of the season in its finale against Fargo South, the Roughriders’ loss to Grand Forks Central would have ended their season. Instead, they have new life and are hoping to duplicate what they did last season when they advanced to the Dakota Bowl.

“You’re familiar with them, which is helpful, but it’s really hard to beat teams twice when they know what you do and what worked against them last time,” Holmen said. “Red River’s coming in and they are a well-coached team. We have a lot of respect for their staff and what they do and they’ve gotten better as the year’s gone on. They have a lot of kids who have played at a high level. Last year their team was in the Dakota Bowl, so they know what it takes to be successful in the postseason.”

The Roughriders are no strangers to the postseason. This is their 25th appearance in the playoffs. They are 13-24 overall and 7-15 in the quarterfinal round.

Don’t expect Minot North to deviate from what’s made it successful throughout the regular season just because the two teams played each other earlier in the year. The Sentinels are still planning on being the team with the run-heavy offense and suffocating defense that led to them earning the No. 1 seed.

In their previous meeting, Minot North ran for 336 yards on 52 carries for a 6.5 yards per carry average. Cooper Chick led the way with 114 yards and two touchdowns. For the season, the Sentinels averaged 272 yards on the ground per game, having amassed a total of 2448 rushing yards and 35 touchdowns. Seventeen different players carried the ball at least once and nine had 10+ rushes. Chick was the team’s leading rusher with 712 yards, followed by Evan Berg (281), Cian Hannon (277) and Christian Deadmond (257). Seven different players rushed for more than 200 yards.

Holmen isn’t planning on limiting carries to certain players now that it’s the postseason. He believes all of them have proven to be reliable in the running game.

“I trust our guys,” Holmen said. “We’ve done a pretty good job of trying to build depth. We’re still building depth even this late in the season. We have a lot of guys that like to carry the ball and do a good job of it. As the course of the game goes on, guys get worn down, so trying to keep guys fresh and rotating them in and out is still important at this stage and if you trust them I don’t think it’s a bad thing to roll the dice with a handful of kids that have done what they have all year.”

Holmen also trusts his defense and his defensive coaching staff, and for good reason. The defensive side of the ball has been near impenetrable all season, limiting opponents to just 7.7 points per game. The last time out against the Roughriders, Minot North’s defense allowed eight points – Red River’s other touchdown came off an interception return – recorded four sacks and forced two turnovers.

For the season, the Sentinels have limited opponents to 231.7 yards per game – 130.2 in the air and 101.3 on the ground. They have picked off opposing quarterbacks 24 times, led by five from Josia Jaquinet, who had four interceptions in his first two games. Gunner Jost and Gavin Tobey each have three interceptions. In the trenches, Minot North has produced 15 sacks and Braxton Thompson leads the front unit with 5.5.

“Our defense is the best part of our team right now,” Holmen said. “They just do so many things so well and are so well-coached. The plan that coach Rudolph puts into effect and the rest of our defensive coaches put into play each week, it’s been pretty good so far and our kids have a lot of confidence on that side of the ball and hopefully it’s no different on Friday as to what they put out on the field.”

Holmen admits that the postseason comes with its fair share of nerves due to how thin the margin for error becomes. And it’s not just the players on the field that feel that pressure, but the coaching staff on the sideline as well. But Holmen would rather be feeling the pressure of coaching a playoff game on Halloween night than sitting at home passing out candy to trick-or-treaters.

“You still have to trust your preparation,” Holmen said. “We’ve preached all year on how hard you have to prepare to win football games and I don’t think it changes. Hopefully, the emphasis we’ve placed on that throughout the regular season can make it feel like it’s no different, but there’s butterflies there for sure where you know it’s win-or-go-home. There’s more added pressure, but pressure is a privilege.”