Hermantown football earned a massive comeback victory over North Branch last Friday to secure their first state tournament berth since 2018. Trailing 28-7 in the third quarter, the Hawks rallied scoring 28 unanswered points to win the Section 7AAAA championship 35-28.

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“We talked about a couple of our guys making some plays out there and then we could hopefully get some momentum back. And once we got some momentum and made a couple of plays, it just steamrolled. We started playing more aggressive, we started executing better. But it was that whole case of having some momentum. We needed some help, we got some luck, and then we got some execution and we just kept the ball rolling. It was serendipity,” head coach Mike Zagelmeyer said.

Hermantown’s final two touchdowns in that Section final, which tied the game 28-28 then gave them the 35-28 lead, were scored by steady senior quarterback Alex Schott and breakout sophomore running back Martin Sleen. Sleen has over 1,400 rushing yards and 22 touchdowns so far this season, while Schott has passed for over 1,300 yards and 16 touchdowns.

“I feel very blessed to be able to start out my career with the trip to State. I couldn’t ask for a better team. I have a lot of good players on this team who take football as seriously as I do. I think we all deserve this from all the work that we put in,” Sleen said.

“Don’t fully know what we’re going into, but we got film, we’ve been watching a lot of film. We’re putting in plays, we’re out here practicing in the rain, we’re just getting ready to go and getting ready to battle on Thursday,” Schott said.

The No. 2 Hawks’ Class AAAA state quarterfinal Thursday is at 6 p.m. against No. 3 Orono at Alexandria High School.