1A Upsala-Swanville Area Upends 2A Maple Lake

UPSALA-- In what was the only 2 PM kickoff in the state on Friday, we made the trip an hour north to Upsala to watch a rising 1A squad in Upsala-Swanville Area take on 2A Maple Lake. It surely felt like both communities were in full force in attendance for this inter-class tilt. We recapped what we saw, which was lots of scoring, a lot of new names, and more as we had a sun soaked afternoon of Friday football, whcih I have to say, I surely liked the 2 PM kickoff.   First Quarter   USA   After 2026 wide receiver Brody Kircher had a deep reception which got the Patriots into the Maple Lake redzone, it was 2026 fullback Ethan Barthel that punched in from two yards out for the first of several rushing touchdowns of the afternoon. They constantly went for 2 point conversions all game long, and got a bunch of them including this one.   USA 8, Maple Lake 0, under five minutes left in the 1st quarter   USA   After a short lived offensive drive by Maple Lake, the Patriots got on the scoreboard yet again before the end of the first quarter. Ethan Barthel will again get credit for the touchdown, however he got it with use of his instincts recovering the fumble from his teammate in the end zone. Another good 2 point conversion   USA 16, Maple Lake 0, just over two minutes left in the 1st quarter   Second Quarter   USA   We had some new action in the Patriots end zone with thier third touchdown of the afternoon, as 2026 quarterback Frankie Meagher utilized his sound legs to his advantage for the 7-yard rushing touchdown.   USA 22, Maple Lake 0, just over 10 minutes left in first half   USA   We saw our first passing touchdown of the day and second total touchdown by 2026 quarterback Frankie Meagher as he found top USA 2026 WR target Brody Kircher. Brody also set up that scoring drive, by recording the interception near midfield.   USA 30 Maple Lake 0, halftime   Third Quarter   USA   With just a hair over 8 minutes left in the 3rd quarter, we saw more action from the fullback position as Ethan Barthel got his third rushing touchdown of the afternoon to put the Patriots up even more.   USA 38, Maple Lake 0   USA   We met a new name on the scoreboard for this touchdown as it was 2028 running back Evan Pipenhagen that easily found the big gaping holes that the Patriots offensive line had dished out all night.   USA 46, Maple Lake 0, nearly completed third quarter   Fourth Quarter   Maple Lake   The Irish struck for their only touchdown of the afternoon and it came on the next kickoff on special teams. 2026 Landon Salmela who was one of a few Irish players that you will see on my Big Dogs of the Game list tomorrow morning, took the kickoff for 80+ yards giving Maple Lake much needed life in this game.   USA 46, Maple Lake 8   USA   Even with going with their entire group of backups, the success that the Patriots had on offense was impressive for this second unit in their last scoring drive of the game. 2027 running back Jake Kremers set the bar high on their drive getting the most yards after contact on one play that we saw in the entire game, logging more than 40 rushing yards to get Patriots down to Maple Lake's 4-yard line. We then saw another quarterback run this time from 2029 William Schafer who ran it in on a bootleg from 4 yards out which made this one the final score in the end.   USA 52, Maple Lake 8. Final

UPSALA-- In what was the only 2 PM kickoff in the state on Friday, we made the trip an hour north to Upsala to watch a rising 1A squad in Upsala-Swanville Area take on 2A Maple Lake. It surely felt like both communities were in full force in attendance for this inter-class tilt. We recapped what we saw, which was lots of scoring, a lot of new names, and more as we had a sun soaked afternoon of Friday football, whcih I have to say, I surely liked the 2 PM kickoff.