Despite being put in a very tough position in the Northern Lights playoffs, Winona State Coach Jeff Noe is philosophical about his teams 64-0 loss to Minnesota-Duluth in the final.

The playoffs in the conference were supposed to provide a two-game weekend for all four teams involved. Duluth was supposed to play MUS-Mankato, while Winona took on the very tough North Dakota State.

No one really expected Duluth to be beaten, but when Mankato forfeited on Saturday, the Fighting Penguins were able to go into Sunday’s final having rested on Saturday.

Meanwhile, Winona and ND State played a bruising semi that ended with Winona winning 20-19.

“We gave up a bunch of penalties early on to keep them in it and couldn’t pull away,” said Noe. “They played solid defense and we struggled to really get much momentum going and get the ball out quickly after breaking the line. It’s a credit to our experienced players that we didn’t get frustrated with the match and stayed calm.”  

NDSU scored a converted try at the end of the match to keep the tension up and make it a one-point game, but Winona stole the ball off the restart and kicked to touch to end it.

But the they had to turn around to play a rested Duluth team.

“It wasn’t ideal,” said Noe. “Only a handful of our starters saw more than 40 min [Sunday]. While it would be nice to get the bye week, coming off a back-to-back, we knew it would be a difficult task and we didn’t want to risk our health when we have a playoff spot.  We know we can stay with Duluth at times, but they are a great team that keeps working along until you make a mistake.  And once they see that slip in the defensive line, or missed tackle, they will flood to that area and make you pay.  Seeing them for the 3rd time this fall, we know what their strengths are and what they are trying to do.”  

So now Winona moves on to the national playoffs, and a date with a difficult Colorado School of Mines next weekend. We will see the full-on Winona team then.

“Duluth was hopefully a good lead-in for us in the playoffs; on the level we need to be at the whole time to pull off some upsets,” said Noe.

See full DII brackets here.