Tonka football team has matinee

Minnetonka (6-1) has a football date with Maple Grove (7-0) in a matinee game at 1 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 17, at Einer Anderson Field.

Both teams have clinched No. 1 seeds for the playoffs - Minnetonka in the West Division of Class 6A and Maple Grove in the North Division. Some observers rank these teams first and second in the state, so they could meet eventually in the state semifinals or the Prep Bowl.

“Maple Grove is as good or better than last year,” Minnetonka head coach Mark Esch said. “Our approach for this week is the same - Win one play at a time.”

The Skippers buried Buffalo under an avalanche of rushing yards 40-7 Oct. 11 in Buffalo.

Star halfback Chase Conrad of Minnetonka was sick and missed the game, but his understudy, junior Quinton Restrepo, was ready to take over. He gained 53 yards on 12 carries with touchdown runs of 1, 4 and 14 yards.

Junior quarterback Caleb Francois had another big night, perhaps his best of the season. He amassed 153 rushing yards on 11 carries and completed seven of nine passes for 113 yards and a touchdown. Minnetonka’s alternate quarterback, Caden Gutzmer, was efficient, as well. He completed two of three passes for 62 yards. Tonka receivers Vinny May and Cody Braun each caught a touchdown pass and May had 137 receiving yards.

The Skippers took a team approach to defensive pursuit. No one on the team had more than seven tackles, but 19 boys made it onto the tackling stats sheet. Kirion Vogel and captains Caleb Taylor, Dylan Hudgens and Jack Yerhot each had seven tackles. AJ Fider added six, five of them unassisted. Defensive back Matt Marceau had four unassisted tackles among his five stops.

Malachi Boadi scored a touchdown on a 24-yard interception return in the fourth quarter.

An interesting sidelight to the Minnetonka-Maple Grove game is the presence of defensive coordinator Matt Lombardi on the Minnetonka sideline. Lombardi is the former head coach at Maple Grove and led the Crimson to the only state football championship in program history.

“It helps to have coach Lombardi on our side,” Esch said.

And it also helps to have quarterback Francois, one of the state’s leaders in total offense. “Caleb is awesome,” coach Esch said. “He is approaching 1,000 rushing yards and throwing the ball really well.”

Francois is in his second season as the starter after taking over early in the 2023 campaign when senior starter Milos Spasojevic went down with a season-ending injury.