It’s Duluth against Edina this Saturday for the Minnesota Boys DI championship after both escaped very difficult semifinals last weekend.

Duluth (aka North Shore) held off Hopkins 21-12.

“It was not an easy match,” said Duluth Coach Andy Imig. “They were two well-matched teams. We basically retained the ball a little longer.”

Imig said his team has played well throughout the spring, but it wasn’t until the quarterfinal against Plymouth that he really started to think he had something special. 

“We had a man in the sin bin and they were right on out line,” said Imig. “We defended and defended and than got the ball back, brought it back upfield, and scored. The whole team was in on it, and that showed me something.”

So in the semis, it might have been more what was expected than anything else. Duluth defended doggedly, and held onto the ball - no silly offloads, loose forwards cleaning up possession.

“The team’s really coming together,” Imig said. 

With No. 8 Connor Rudd causing defenses all sorts of problems, and scampery fullback Jack Arbour eluding tacklers, they have a number of weapons. However, Duluth will be without one of those weapons, as starting flyhalf Charlie Hooghkirk is out with a suspected concussion. Matt Hinaus will step in at #10 and is expected to perform well, but it’s a change at a crucial time.

Edina knows all about crucial times, as they had a barnburner of a game against Minnetonka. Edina found themselves ruing missed scoring opportunities in the first half - including a knock-on in-goal - and as the teams continued to trade tries through the match, they would be forgiven for thinking it would all fritter away.

But, said Coach Chris Babiash, this team is too mentally tough to give up.

“The first team I coached at Edina was one of the most athletic I ever had, but they didn’t have the mental strength,” he said. “We were known for going undefeated in the regular season and then losing in the first round because the minute we went down by five points, we were out of it. But this team is mentally strong. Mentally, we’re tough to break.”

Minnetonka rode some big players to match Edina try-for-try, and with time winding down led 22-17 - thanks in large part to some excellent plays and three tries from No. 8 Jacob Dahl. In a game that USA attack coach Nate Osborn was watching (and was very complimentary of), Edina was able to make a break, with there backs trading passes among them the length of the field. Edina recycled and with every player getting involved in the movement, sent Kyle Fowlkes in under the posts. The conversion was good, and that was time, 24-22 Edina.

“We were more organized and we had a good system of play,” said Babiash. “They were probably more athletic and more aggressive. We had a plan to shut down some of their dangerous players, and it worked fairly well. But we just made sure they had to defend when going backwards - and it’s hard to defend when you’re going backwards - and we were mentally strong.”

So on to the final at Irondale Stadium in New Brighton, Minn. 

Last week Edina won the JV title 27-0 over Minnetonka, and Eagan won the Boys Plate 17-15 over South River. Southside took the Bowl 31-14 over North Suburban.

So on the Boys side, it’s just the top four to decide, with Minnetonka against Hopkins for 3rd, and, of course, Duluth against Edina for the championship. 

Notes: The results among all of these teams have been close. There have been seven games between two of the top four teams, with four games decided by three points or fewer, two by less than two tries, and only on, Duluth’s early-season 20-0 win over Minnetonka, more than that. The average winning margin is 7 points. Edina beat Duluth on May 9 28-26.