Former Orono football coach Jeff Weiland still teaches social studies at the high school.

But it was his lesson plan as first-year Holy Angels defensive coordinator that fueled the Stars’ 27-14 victory at Orono on Tuesday in a Class 4A, Section 5 quarterfinal.

The defense, rebuilt during the season after injuries sidelined six starters for various amounts of time, coalesced for the postseason.

“We had to rebrand ourselves with the new guys we had out there,” Holy Angels coach Jim Gunderson said. “We had the mindset that we were training for the playoffs.”

Gunderson praised Weiland for “dialing it up on defense. He had a little extra motivation.”

In the teams’ Oct. 11. meeting, Orono’s offense kept pulling away in a 35-21 victory. But the success wasn’t transferable. Holy Angels scored on each of its two first quarter drives Tuesday and built a 14-0 lead while the Spartans struggled.

“To be successful, we have to get the run game going and they were stopping everything we were trying to run up the middle,” Orono coach Joe McPherson said.

Meanwhile, the Holy Angels offense keep moving. Junior running back Emmett Johnson set the tone with a 21-yard rush on the Stars’ first play from scrimmage and continued to run hard all evening.

Holy Angels engineered a minor upset victory by leaving Orono with a 27-14 victory on Tuesday in the Class 4A, Section 5 quarterfinals.

The Stars (5-4) advance to play at 7 p.m. Saturday at No. 1 seed Benilde-St. Margaret’s (8-0). The Red Knights defeated Holy Angels 37-14 on Sept. 27.

Orono, which defeated the Stars 35-21 on Oct. 11, found previous success wasn’t transferable. No. 5 seed Holy Angels scored on each of its two first quarter drives and built a 14-0 lead.

Junior running back Emmett Johnson set the tone with a 20-yard rush on the Stars’ first play from scrimmage. Teammate Gavin Overholser finished the first drive with a 6-yard touchdown run.

Joe Longo scored from 1 yard out and doubled the lead with 11 seconds left in the first quarter.

No. 4 seed Orono (3-6) cut its deficit to 14-7 on a 22-yard pass from Teddy Deters to Noah Arneson with 1:11 to go before halftime.

That was enough time for Holy Angels, the section’s No. 5 seed, to score again. A long catch and run by Johnson set up a 15-yard touchdown pass from Theo Doran to William Ballard and the Stars led 20-7 at intermission.

Check back later for more on the game.