Hayfield Boys Back to Defend Class A State Basketball Title

The #1 rated, #1 Section 1A seed Hayfield Vikings continued to impress defensively in a 53-42 win over the Goodhue Wildcats in Rochester Thursday night.  The Wildcats were the #3 seed in the Section and ranked #16 in the final Minnesota Basketball News poll of top teams in Class A.

Once Hayfield got a double digit lead in the second half they milked some clock to secure the victory.  Goodhue was put in a position to have to foul and the Vikings were able to knock down 11 of 16 second half free throws.

Game totals from the charity stripe were 8 of 13 for Goodhue, 14 of 20 for Hayfield.

Wildcats senior post 6'4 Dayne Wojcik was held to two second half baskets finishing the game with 17 points.  Hayfield did a masterful job of doubling down on him to make him work for his shots and they concentrated on boxing him out on the rebounds also.

Vikings sophomore post Zander Jacobson had another big game. He unofficially posted a double-double with 12 points, 10 rebounds before fouling out with 6:50 to go in the game.

For his efforts KDHL awarded Jacobson with the Cashwise Foods and Pharmacy of Owatonna Delivery of the Game for delivering the huge performance against a player who dominated other teams inside during the Section Tournament.

Junior 5'11 Ethan Pack paced Hayfield with 17 points on 4 three point baskets and 5 of 8 free throws.

Junior 6'2 Isaac Matti scored 11 of his 13 points in the second half  and was a perfect 6 for 6 from the free throw line.

Senior 6'0 Easton Fritcher ended the game with 9 points.

Goodhue junior 6'6 Will Opsahl had 15 points.  The Wildcats end their season with a 23-7 record while Hayfield is now 29-2 and goes to the Twin Cities to defend their 2021 State Class A title.

The Section 1 Class 2A title game was one for the ages with the Plainview-Elgin-Millville Bulldogs leading most of regulation only to see Caledonia's Eli King score 7 points in 11 seconds under a minute to go to force the game into overtime.

In 3 overtimes The Warriors prevailed 72-61 to repeat as Section 1 Class 2A Champions.  They were runnerup at state last year.

The Section 1 Class 3A title game features top seed Austin and #3 Winona at 8:00 p.m. Friday, March 18, 2022 in the Rochester Mayo Civic Center Arena.

Section 1 Class 4A Championship will be 6:00 p.m. in the Arena with top seed Farmington and #2 seed Owatonna squaring off.

Winners also punch their tickets to state next week with KDHL Radio providing baseline to basline coverage of the Minnesota Boys State High School Basketball Tournament for the 72nd year.

Let's see if we can help.