On Friday and Saturday, the remaining five state championships were played at the DakotaDome in Vermillion to wrap up the 2025 football season.
On Friday, the Wall Eagles started the day doing exactly what the Wall Eagles did all year. A team who won all but two games by 50 points or more, won 60-6 over Howard to be the 9A state champions as the Tigers had no chance to stop the inevitable Eagles. With no 50 point mercy rule, the game continued until the final seconds ticked off the clock, but Wall had the game in hand by halftime. The Eagles scored just 20 seconds into the game and led 26-0 before the Tigers scored. Wall had a 47-6 lead at the break. Jace Mohr ran for 211 yards and three touchdowns to win the Joe Robbie MVP as he had over 130 more yards than the whole Howard team.
In the 11B game, the St. Thomas More Cavaliers would win their first ever state championship beating the Elk Point-Jefferson Huskies 48-38 in a wild game. A back-and-forth game would have a lead change in the third quarter as Elk Point-Jefferson trailed until early third when the Huskies would make it 30-27 before the Cavaliers would retake the lead for good late in the third adding on in the the fourth. Broeden Sales would catch a 90 yard pass from back Kain McLeod to seal the win for the Cavs as quarterback Noah Wald was named the Joe Robbie MVP throwing for 203 yards and three touchdowns while also rushing for 34 yards.
On Saturday, both games were the closest of the weekend which started with the closest game of the state championships. Sioux Falls Christian would comeback and beat the Lennox Orioles 28-24. The undefeated Sioux Falls Christian Chargers found themselves down 17-0 in the first quarter including a 32 yard field goal. But the Chargers started to come back, scoring twice to make it 17-14 at the break. Lennox would go back up by 10, but the Chargers would get two more touchdowns thrown by Cooper Strande and Canyon Prins to take its first lead with six minutes remaining in the game to hold on for the 11A state championship. Prins would be the MVP of the game with 15 yards running and 40 yards receiving along with the 45 yard touchdown pass.
Closing out the state championships, Brandon Valley would score with just under six minutes remaining in the game to win the 11AAA game 34-27 over the Lincoln Patriots. The game was so even there was just two yards between the two teams as Brandon Valley outgained Lincoln 418-416. Levi Veskrna had three rushing touchdowns, but it was Briggs Knutson from five yards out to give the Lynx the lead back as both teams traded touchdowns throughout the entire game. Veskerna ran for 260 yards to be the MVP while Brandon Valley had just 77 yards passing as Knutson went 8-10. The Patriots threw for 244 yards while Brody Schafer also ran for 138 yards as he was a part of all but 34 yards of the 416 yards for the Patriots.
It wraps up another football season with now volleyball, the last fall sport for the year, remaining. The volleyball state tournament begins in Rapid City on Thursday.
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