Mountain Iron-Buhl coach takes on accusations that he showed too little mercy

Sitting at the microphone in the news conference following Mountain Iron-Buhl’s 26-20 loss Thursday to Hills-Beaver Creek at U.S. Bank Stadium, Rangers head coach Dan Zubich was asked if his team was prepared for a close game after a season of blowouts.

Zubich took the opportunity to address critics who had accused him during the season of running up the score on opponents. The Rangers averaged 66 points per game during the season, surpassing 90 once, 80 twice and 70 twice.

“It’s terrible,” he said. “You have guys that get taken out early and don’t play. Everybody’s like, ‘Oh, fire the coach. They run up the score, that’s all they do.’ ”

Zubich said his starters rarely played much in the second half.

“Our running back only carries it three times, the quarterback only twice,” he said. “You tell me how I ran up the score. I’m sick of hearing this whiny stuff. How do you get 91 points? Well, when you never get tackled, you can get 91 points. We play whole second halves running time and we still get it.”

Becker coach Dwight Lundeen talked about getting back to U.S. Bank Stadium after crushing losses in each of the past two years.

Last season, Becker lost to Rocori in the section playoffs after shutting out the Spartans in the regular season.

Two years ago, a last-minute two-point loss to Rocori did in the Bulldogs.

Lundeen, the only coach Becker has had in its 54 years of existence, was grateful to win a return trip to U.S. Bank Stadium. The Bulldogs defeated Marshall 28-7 in the Class 4A semifinals there Thursday.

“In the last two years, we’ve had two of the hardest losses in section finals that you can imagine. Losing after leading the whole way,” Lundeen said “We’ve lost three [regular season] games in four years and we haven’t won a state championship.”

Senior linebacker Landon Kujawa was a freshman on the last Becker team to reach the semifinals. He talked about playing there as his team’s destiny.

“Tradition is huge here,” Kujawa said. “Everyone wants to play for Dwight Lundeen. It’s the culture we all grew up with.

“Even as little kids, we’d come down, watch the state tournament, watch Dwight coach, watch all the players. That’s where we wanted to be.”

LeRoy-Ostrander/Lyle-Pacelli senior quarterback Camden Hungerholt was shaking his left hand on the sideline after running for a 42-yard touchdown to open the scoring in the Cardinals’ 60-33 loss to Fertile-Beltrami in the Nine-Player semifinals. It was nothing new.

“My left hand has been banged up all year,” Hungerholt said. “I just have to play through it.”

Hungerholt threw for three touchdowns and ran for a score, all in the first half. He completed 12 of 29 passes for 238 yards while running for 152 yards on 23 carries.

“We thought we had it this year,” said Hungerholt, who was a member of the Cardinals’ state championship team in 2021. “We thought we were going to do it [win a state title]. But we let it slip through our fingers.”

Hungerholt finished the season with 5,267 all-purpose yards. He rushed for 2,846 yards on 219 carries and scored 36 touchdowns while completing 127 of 240 passes for 2,421 yards and 34 touchdowns.

Fertile-Beltrami senior running back Isaiah Wright remembers 2021 all too well.

“I didn’t want to relive that day,” Wright said. “We got blown out.”

The Falcons got crushed by LeRoy-Ostrander/Lyle-Pacelli 58-8 for the Nine-Player state championship. Wright helped avenge that setback Thursday, rushing for 361 yards on 24 carries with seven touchdowns as Fertile-Beltrami rolled to a 60-33 triumph over the Cardinals.

“We marched down the field on our first possession to their 10-yard line, and threw an interception,” Falcons coach Brian Nelson said of that 2021 game. “It snowballed from there, and it didn’t get any better in the second half.”