CALEDONIA — It has been 11 years since the Caledonia High School football team played Rushford-Peterson and 12 since the it made the trip Rushford, but both of those facts change tonight.
The Warriors kick off a new season on the road against the Trojans at 7 p.m. Friday and rekindle a strong rivalry that that was last contested when Caledonia won a 7-6 matchup on Sept. 5, 2014.
“It feels like old times,” Caledonia coach Carl Fruechte said. “We haven’t played each other in a long time, and it’s nice to have a game between two teams and towns that respect each other like we do.”
That will be set aside for a couple of hours as the Warriors and Trojans try to start a new season with a victory.
Caledonia does that with a mix of some significant returning experience and new faces in important spots after a 7-3 season that was ended by Chatfield in the MSHSL 1AA section championship game.
The Warriors’ success doesn’t need to explained with 10 state titles since 2007 and a 25-7 record over the past three seasons.
They have five returning all-conference players to surround a new sophomore quarterback as they tackle a new season.
Grant King takes over under center after the graduation of Ethan Stendahl, who has earned a spot this fall on the University of Minnesota football team’s travel roster as a freshman linebacker.
King was a consistent contributor for the Caledonia boys basketball team that qualified for the state tournament, so he has experienced pressure situations before.
“He’s very competitive and played up a level in basketball for many years,” Fruechte said. “He’s seen great competition all through youth competition, is coachable, and the seniors and juniors love him.”
He enters with plenty of experienced players around him to make him comfortable.
Senior Will Allen, who was Stendahl’s backup last year and played receiver, requested to play receiver and provides King was an experienced target after catching 23 passes for 263 yards and four touchdowns.
Senior running back Noah Schroeder is also experienced after rushing for 439 yards and six touchdowns on 87 carries.
Their effectiveness hinges on an offensive line that includes two sophomores who burst onto the scene as two-way freshman standouts. Both Cooper Allen and Max Schmitz were all-conference performers defensively, but they double on the offensive line.
“Cooper and Max, they aren’t sophomores,” Fruechte said with a chuckle. “Mentally, they are seniors and are very mature young men, and they get it from the mental side.
“If Max was at a big school, he’d probably be a starting running back, but we need to use him on the line.”
Fruechte talked about how the two are able to dissect a defense much like a quarterback does. That’s how he wants them to play — more an intellectual style than one he referred to as ‘caveman football.’
While all Caledonia athletes are raised on speed and strength training, coaches want to see more than pure physicality on the field.
Allen and Schmitz combined for 90 tackles, and each had four sacks last season.
Senior Jack Schmitz also returns as an all-conference defensive back who had 36 tackles and intercepted a pass last season.
