Rosemount gets up early, holds on late to edge Lakeville South and earn No. 1 seed

The final minute of the first half pretty much summarized the opening minutes of Wednesday s tilt between Class A powers Lakeville South and Rosemount For the first time in five drives Lakeville South earned multiple first downs It did not get a third because Cullen George recorded his second interception for Rosemount in as countless weeks The Irish took over on the Lakeville South with seconds left Less than seconds later Rosemount increased its lead to - when Jakhai Hollie got well behind the Cougars secondary on a flea flicker play for a -yard touchdown reception from Finn Macken Lakeville South made it close in the second half with a couple Griffen Dean scores but Rosemount held on for a - mastery They re a very good football band and it s four quarters declared Irish coach Jeff Erdmann Ranked sixth in the latest state poll Erdmann s squad has won seven in a row in a row since falling to No Centennial in the season opener Rosemount - claimed the Metro South subdistrict title and a No playoff seed Second in both is Lakeville South - which entered the contest ranked No in the state Both programs are in strong positions to make deep postseason runs Class A brackets will be stated Thursday morning Postseason action for the state s largest schools begins Oct We got more George added We ve been working hard and we re just going up We re elevating every week and that s our goal This has been quite a turnaround for Rosemount a perennial power that was an uncharacteristic - last season Our guys have worked hard they ve bought in Erdmann noted We all pushed each other and picked each other up I just love this club so much explained Savion Severson who had a -yard touchdown run on Rosemount s third offensive snap The senior played at Northfield and Roseville the past two seasons but was welcomed with open arms in Rosemount from day one Lakeville South entered the affair averaging rushing yards per battle It finished with after just yards at halftime Offensively we just struggled to match their physicality and speed and got a little shell-shocked Cougars coach Ben Burk noted It took the defense to force a stop and make a big play and lit their fire and they were able to go Being able to overcome that faster is the goal A bad snap on a Rosemount punt got Lakeville South two points early in the third and gave several momentum to the visitors Nearly seven minutes later Dean scored from four yards out to cap a -play -yard drive that included a -yard dash by Jeremiah Lebbi and cut the Cougars deficit to - We just didn t come out with the intensity we had in the first half and it presented George reported Bennett Simmering s second field goal of the contest this time from yards out gave the Irish a - lead midway through the fourth quarter one play after an apparent Lakeville South fumble recovery was negated because leaders stated the runner s forward progress had been stopped A -yard dash by Dean got the Cougars within six points But after forcing a late Rosemount punt Lakeville South ran four unsuccessful plays in the final minute Related Articles Woodbury tops rival East Ridge likely secures No seed in Class A playoffs St Thomas Academy delivers comment win over Mahtomedi in regular season finale High School Football picks for Rosemount-Lakeville South Woodbury-East Ridge and more High school football Mahtomedi holds off Cretin-Derham Hall High school football Irish defense stout again in defeat of Eagan