Photos: St. Michael-Albertville Captures First Ever Section 6-5A Championship

After his team's overtime loss to Rogers to close out the regular season, St. Michael-Albertville's first of the year, coach Jared Essler knew the message to send to his players. 

"We will," he said, "come back here. And we will win a Section Championship. I believe that. We believe in you guys. And we know you can get that done." 

He proved prophetic, as the Knights dominated a Rogers team in the rematch everyone wanted for the Section 6-5A crown and a trip to the state football tournament. 

"I think we felt pretty down after that last play [in the season finale] because we let one get away," said running back Chris Kartes. "But when he [Essler] said that, you could see us pick it up. We knew that, if we came back and played our style of game, we could walk out of here with a win. And that's what we did."

What the Knights did was bruise and bang an offense that averaged more than 10 points a quarter into a scoreless first half as the offense built a 7-0 lead. 

Then, after Nate Weber found a hole and scampered half the field to tie the game, the Knights answered with a pair of drives, including a Kartes touchdown, to build a 21-7 lead. 

"Our defense made the adjustments," Essler said. "I think getting a full week to prepare for what they could do was a big difference for us as coaches. We recognized some things tonight we didn't in the first matchup." 

St. Michael-Albertville will head to St. Cloud State University Thursday night to square off with Section 8-5A champion Sartell in the state quarterfinals. The winner plays on Mall of America Field at Metrodome the following week. 

"It's a good night for our team and for our program. We're just very proud of the guys," Essler said. "We're going to enjoy this."