By Jake Schroer
Crow River News Sports
STMA defeated a previously unbeaten St. Cloud Tech team to advance to the section final on a gloomy Saturday afternoon in Albertville.
The Knights found themselves in a familiar setting; a Saturday game after a bye through the first round of the Section 6-5A playoffs. STMA took advantage of the extra rest, defeating the Tigers 31-7.
Mitch Bourgerie opened the scoring for the Knights by plunging into the end zone from a yard out for a 7-0 advantage.
Mitchell Kartes followed it up in the second quarter with a 41-yard score, and the Knights suddenly led by two touchdowns. After Marcus Krupke found Zach Sjelin for a six-yard touchdown pass, STMA looked unstoppable.
The Tigers got some momentum back with a Chris Backes touchdown pass, but the 21-7 advantage carried into halftime despite an interception toward the end of the half that gave Tech a chance at more points.
The second half saw the STMA defense lock down and not allow Tech to get going again. The Knights, however, put up ten more points to seal the deal on a third quarter field goal by Mitch Bourgerie and a fourth quarter full-steam-ahead touchdown run by Emmanuel Akundu where he carried several Tigers with him past the pylon.
Head coach Jared Essler said that his team looks forward to the next game and another crack at Elk River.
“We’ll enjoy this one for now, and try not to take for granted that we get the good fortune of playing in the section finals again,” Essler said.
“We just had an edge today. We knew that if you lose, you go home, so everyone knew that was the mentality we had to have,” Kartes said.
The Knights play top seed Elk River (9-0) in the Section 6-5A title game in Buffalo on Friday night.