There will be several who dress up in costume, then go out and collect candy. The football athletes at Blaine and Coon Rapids will dress up Friday, too, but instead of candy they will go out and try to collect a Section 7AAAAA championship.

In a high school football game for all the marbles, the No. 1 and 2 seeds of this post-season, pre-state tournament playoff, Blaine and Coon Rapids, will meet at 7 p.m. (at Blaine) to settle the season’s biggest local score.

Blaine beat Coon Rapids earlier this fall 28-14 in a Northwest Suburban contest and Blaine beat Coon Rapids last year in the first round of 7AAAAA play. But neither game has much meaning. Not now; not later.

“Last year was last year,” said Coon Rapids’ Jon Young. “We are different teams with different players, who do different things so that game does not mean much.

“This year we can [take into account the earlier game], but so many things have changed since (Week 3). We are playing better and so is Blaine.”

“You could see this one coming — a long time ago,”  said Blaine coach Shannon Gerrety. “Yes, we beat Coon Rapids back in September and [yes] we got some good breaks.

“We know Coon Rapids has fixed some things that went wrong back then; so have we. This should really be a slug-out, but that’s what you should expect every year: a championship slug-out between the No. 1 and 2 teams.”
Coon Rapids has not been to the state tournament for big-school teams since it won the class AA state title in 1983 — 25 years ago. I was  a moment that was revisited and celebrated by those involved in the current program earlier this fall.

Since Coon Rapids won that section championship and gone on to play in the state tournament, Blaine has won nine section titles, claimed one state championship (20 years ago in 1978) and has come close a few other times. Blaine, however, has just come out of a dark period in its storied football history, winning its first conference championship after a three-year drought.

“Where you finish and how you finish are the ways we measure success around here [in the Blaine program],” said Gerrety. “We have done well this fall. We brought in a new offense, worked at bringing our program back to the level we wanted to be at and now are at [the brink] of winning a very big championship.”

Indeed, Blaine has a new look with its spread offense, moving away from its traditional wing-T sets of decades past.

Senior quarterback James Peterson has been the main cog in making it work, rushing for 567 yards and a dozen touchdowns while passing for 1,899 yards and 16 touchdowns.  Coon Rapids, meantime — now in its second season with Young as the head coach — offers a spread offense, too. Its quarterback, senior Blair Townsend, meantime, makes it go at an even higher level. Through 10 games this season Townsend has passed for 2,074 yards and a record 29 touchdowns. He also rushed for 609 yards and eight more touchdowns.

“It will be like playing a mirror image of ourselves,” said Young of the Blaine offense, who said preparation this week for the game was going to be easy. “Really, there aren’t too many secrets the way our offenses are run.”

Blaine, which has put up some excellent defensive numbers throughout the season, ranking among the best not only in the conference, but also the metro, has taken a similar stance in its preparation.

 
Coon Rapids' quarterback Blair Townsend has passed for 29 touchdowns and nearly 2,100 yards in 10 games. He also has rushed for 609 yards and scored eight touchdowns.

As Gerrety noted, there will be big offensive plays countered by big defensive plays in this game.

“You can’t expect anything less,” he said.

So how is one team going to come out on top?

“The team that makes the fewest mistakes will win,” said Gerrety. “No doubt about it!”

“We had a couple of costly turnovers and even more costly penalties the first time we played [Blaine],” said Young. “That was the difference in the game. We will focus on no turnovers, no mistakes this time around.”

The end result:

This  should be one heckuva Halloween night game for all the marbles...