St. Clair/Loyola excited for start of season

ST. CLAIR, Minn. (KEYC) -The St. Clair/Loyola football team came close to advancing to the state tournament last year after playing in the section 2AA title game against a tough Blue Earth Area squad.

After losing some key pieces, the Spartans are hoping to reload and make another deep run in the section.

”We’re a family, we like to have fun, but we also like to win,” said Jacob Schimek, senior guard/linebacker.

The Spartans are fresh off an impressive 10-1 season in which the team posted some great numbers offensively.

St. Clair/Loyola scored 28 or more points in eight of the 11 contests, a recipe for success for many programs.

This year, some new faces will star for the Spartans, but a close knit senior class is optimistic this group can emulate 2022′s dominance, using the loss to the Buccaneers as motivation over the offseason.

“Personally it kind of fired me up. I don’t want to lose every game this year, it fires me up to do better than last year. I hope the same goes for everyone,” said Eli Goebel, senior guard/linebacker.

The Spartans feature an experienced offensive line, and plan to excel on the ground with some of the weapons on that side of the ball.

“I think we should have a good ground game, and our quarterback Dylan Blount. We’ll go out there and have fun,” said Lucas Loeffler, senior offensive tackle/defensive tackle.

St. Clair/Loyola will see how its retooled offense fares in week one against an unfamiliar foe, Norwood Young America.

This is the first time the Spartans co-op is set to take on the Raiders.

“Norwood’s a great team, I’m confident in our abilities to win as well. I’m confident in our abilities to go out and win,” said Loeffler.

“I think it’ll be a very big test. We haven’t seen much of them recently and we’re preparing a lot for it,” said Landon Froehlich, senior offensive tackle/defensive tackle.

The Spartans look to start the season out strong and the team returns to Mankato for its home opener against Mayer Lutheran in week 2 up on top of the hill.

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