Just remember 2002 as the year of the Three Rivers Conference

The Star Tribune is celebrating 50 years of high school football state tournaments one day at a time for 50 days.

Year: 2002

"There were three big plays in the game. Fortunately, we had two and they had one." — Rushford-Peterson coach Jim Reinhardt about the Class 1A final

The year belonged to the Three Rivers Conference — three teams in the finals, three state championships. Plainview-Elgin-Millville, Kingsland and Rushford-Peterson each won thanks to their defensive units.

Plainview-Elgin-Millville rallied in the fourth quarter to beat Glencoe-Silver Lake 24-21 in Class 3A, Kingsland routed Norwood-Young America 35-7 in 2A, and Rushford-Peterson edged Mountain Lake/Butterfield-Odin 14-7 in 1A.

Defensive back Scott Mattke caused two fumbles that led to touchdowns, including the game-winner in the fourth quarter, as opportunistic Plainview-Elgin-Millville won a title in its first trip to the state tournament.

With Glencoe-Silver Lake leading 21-17 in the fourth quarter, Mattke yanked the ball away from running back Jesse Hardel and Clayton Kolb recovered. Two plays later, Mike Reiter connected with Michael Kasten on a 42-yard pass for the winning score.

"We do strip drills every week in practice," Bulldogs coach Bill Ihrke said. "Now when we do that, we can say that's what wins championships."

In Class 2A, Kingsland gave Mike Holzer a victory in his final game as a high school coach.

The Knights scored all five times they touched the ball in the first half to take a 35-0 lead. They scored so quickly that they ran only 14 plays and held the ball a mere 5 minutes, 10 seconds in the half.

"Everything was going our way," Holzer said. "I can't remember a half like that."

In Class 1A, Reid Anderson returned a punt 66 yards for a touchdown and Rushford-Peterson came up with a crucial fourth-quarter interception to outlast Mountain Lake/Butterfield-Odin for its first state crown

"Special teams are always huge," Rushford-Peterson coach Jim Reinhardt said.

In the three other finals:

Eden Prairie shut out its fourth consecutive opponent, blanking Champlin Park 21-0 in Class 5A.
Defensive lineman Mitch Salsberry had 10 tackles and three sacks as Mankato West stopped Mahtomedi 17-7 in Class 4A.
Verndale got enough pressure on Nicollet quarterback Tony Hulke to force an incomplete pass on a fourth down-and-three play at the Pirates 4-yard line with 22 seconds left to hold on for a 21-14 triumph in Nine-Man.