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Totino-Grace, Eden Prairie, Rosemount, Blaine draw top seeds in 6A state tournament

By JIM PAULSEN, Star Tribune, 10/20/16, 12:44PM CDT

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The 32-team field begins play on Oct. 28 en route to the Prep Bowl, set for Nov. 25-26 at U.S. Bank Stadium. Teams in other classes begin section playoffs on Tuesday.


Totino-Grace running back Gayflor Flomo (4) shakes off a Blaine tackler Thomas Hinz (33) en route to a 26 yard TD reception during the first quarter at Blaine High during high school football action Friday, Sept. 30, 2016, in Blaine, MN.

Totino-Grace, Eden Prairie, Rosemount and Blaine drew the top seeds in the 32-team Class 6A football state tournament set to begin Oct. 28. Seedings and pairings were announced Thursday by the Minnesota State High School League after the completion of regular-season games Wednesday evening.

While it doesn’t reach the level of intrigue that accompanies the NCAA men’s basketball tournament selection show, the 6A bracket included at least one somewhat surprising result with the top seed given to Blaine.

Three of the four No. 1 seeds were expected: Totino-Grace (Section 4, 8-0), Eden Prairie (Section 6, 7-1), whose only loss was to Totino-Grace in the season opener, and Rosemount (Section 3, 7-1), which clinched a top seed with an overtime victory over Lakeville North Wednesday.

In Section 5, both Blaine and Maple Grove went into the coaches’ seeding meeting with 6-2 records. The difference? Maple Grove played in the West Metro South subdistrict while Blaine played in the West Metro North. Five of the other teams in Section 5 also played in the West Metro North and when the votes were tallied, Blaine was No. 1, Maple Grove No. 2.

Blaine coach Tom Develice said he thought the Bengals’ play in their two losses tipped the scales in their favor.

“We played Champlin Park so close and we played Totino-Grace so close and I think that had an influence,” he said. “We thought a No. 2 seed was realistic, so we’re pretty happy getting the No. 1 seed.”

Teams do not play within their sections in Class 6A, which is a straight 32-team bracket. Blaine will host Buffalo (No. 8, Section 6) in the first round, with the winner taking on the winner between Prior Lake (No. 4, Section 3) and Woodbury (No. 5, Section 4).

Maple Grove moves into Eden Prairie’s bracket and will host Roseville (No. 7, Section 4) in the first round.

Crimson coach Matt Lombardi said he’s not surprised that his team got the No. 2 seed.

“There might be a little provincialism there,” he said. “We play with a bunch of Lake Conference teams, so the teams doing the seeding never really saw us. It makes sense that they voted for the team they saw. Congratulations to Blaine. That’s how it worked out, we’re happy with it and we know Roseville will be a great test for us.”

Lombardi stressed that he’s not unhappy with the No. 2 seed, adding that some very good teams were seeded No. 2.

“The last four weeks, we’ve been playing darn good football,” he said. “There are some pretty good teams who are No. 2 seeds – Lakeville North, East Ridge, us – so we’re pretty excited. At the state tournament, you just have to beat the team in front of you.”

The 16 winners on Oct. 28 will play again on Nov. 4, with state tournament quarterfinals the following weekend. First round games for the Nine-Man through Class 5A fields begin on Tuesday.

This year’s semifinals and Prep Bowl, set for Nov. 25-26, will be held at U.S. Bank Stadium.

Click here to see the full bracket for Class 6A.

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