WILLMAR — The pomp and circumstance around the Section 2AAAA football championship game was a stark contract to the game on the field.
There was loud music to kick off the game between top-seeded Willmar and second-seeded Marshall at a packed Hodapp Field. Fireworks were lit during the national anthem, after Willmar’s scoring plays and when the Cardinals walked off a 22-12 winner.
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On the field, exhausted, muddy players were getting hugs and support from everyone. No one was deterred by the dirty football players. The Cardinals claimed the section championship and the school’s first state berth since 2018 in a down-and-dirty battle with the visiting Tigers.
“This is better than I could have imagined,” senior defensive end Jackson Carlson said right after getting a giant hug from his mother Emily.
Jackson added, “It was tough. They’re a good team. Down at halftime, everybody was kind of down. We came out, we got a spark and after that, it just felt like we couldn’t be stopped.”
Willmar (10-0) will wait for the seeding meeting to take place on Saturday. Paired in the South part of the bracket with teams from Sections 1, 3 and 4, opening-round games are on Thursday. The 1...