SHERBURN — The Maple River defense stifled the Martin County West run game to end the Mavericks’ winning streak.

MCW entered its non-district matchup with the Eagles on a four-game winning streak, but the Eagles had a four-win streak of their own to contend for.

Maple River walked off the Sherburn football field with a 21-7 win Wednesday night. The Eagles finish the regular season with a record of 6-2, while the Mavericks finish at 5-3. Both teams wait on today’s seedings to find out Tuesday’s first-round matchups.

“We’re extremely happy with the regular season,” MCW head coach Tom Elliott said. “Considering the last couple of years this program has been fighting through to change the culture, these boys earned all these wins. They’ve cut their teeth the last couple of years against really tough competition and to be 5-3 going into the playoffs and hopefully waiting on a top 2 seed, we’re excited.”

The Eagles held the Mavericks to only 58 yards on 28 carries, while Maple River totaled 202 yards on the ground on 39 attempts.

The teams went into halftime tied at seven, but in the second half, the Eagles started moving.

Boden Simon took a receiver sweep 37 yards on the first play of the second half before Joe Bennett carried the ball 10 yards up the middle for a touchdown to break the tie.

Maple River forced MCW to punt on its next drive, then drove down the field on a nine-play, 60-yard drive.

Boden ran receiver sweeps to collect 31 of the 60 yards on three plays, while quarterback Caden Ochsendorf ran the ball six times for 40 yards because of three false start penalties.

After an injury to main running back Wyatt Simon in the first half, the Maple River ground game transitioned to mostly receiver sweeps and quarterback draws. Simon was taken off the field on a stretcher with a right leg injury.

The Mavericks had chances to score late.

Quarterback Wyatt Geistfeld totaled 53 yards on a drive that started at the Mavericks’ 32 with under 6 minutes remaining, but a tipped pass turned into an interception for Maple River’s Michael Whitehead on the goaline to end the scoring chance.

Geistfeld tried to get the offense going again after Connor Simmonds recovered an Eagle fumble at the Mavericks’ 40.

Geistfeld completed a short pass to Miles Fitzgerald, who barreled through multiple defenders on his way to a 30-yard reception. But after a spike, Geistfeld ran for nine yards, but his next two passes fell incomplete causing a turnover on downs.

Elliott said not taking advantage of big opportunites sank the Mavericks.

“We had some missed opportunities,” Elliott said. “They gave us some short fields … when you get short fields like that, especially against a team like that, you have to take advantage. … They’re a good football team, they have a lot of good athletes and they made a couple more plays than we did.”

The Eagles got the scoring started on their first drive of the game.

Wyatt Simon carried the ball for a 3-yard touchdown to cap a 11-play 64-yard drive, highlighted by a Ochsendorf pass to Connor Doering for 23 yards.

MCW got on the scoreboard when Geistfeld found Raine Stade in the end zone for a 12-yard touchdown, after connecting with Connor Simmonds for a twisting, turning, 30-yard pass.

MCW had a chance to go ahead after the ensuing kickoff was muffed and Seth Ringnell was able to fall on it, but the Maple River defense held the Mavericks to a field goal attempt, which ended wide left.

Ochsendorf led the Eagles with 21 carries for 83 yards, while Boden Simon had 10 totes for 84. Landon Fox made all three extra point kicks.

Geistfeld completed 6 of 16 passes for 90 yards for the Mavericks, while carrying the ball seven times for 30 yards. Connor Simmonds caught three passes for 40 yards, Stade made three receptions for 39 and a touchdown. Alec Weir made the extra-point attempt for the Mavericks.

Elliott said the Mavericks need to take better advantage of opportunites to get a statement win in the opening round of the section 3A playoffs Tuesday.

“We definitely have to execute a lot better offensively than we did tonight,” Elliott said. “We came out flat at the start of both halves and we can’t allow that to happen. That’s on me, I have to have the guys ready. We put together a pretty good four quarters, but we need to put together a much better four quarters for the playoffs. Now it’s win or go home.”

M. River 7 0 14 0 — 21

MCW 0 7 0 0 — 7

Scoring Plays

1st Quarter

MR–Wyatt Simon 10 run (Landon Fox kick), 4:39.

2nd Quarter

MCW–Raine Stade 12 pass from Wyatt Geistfeld (Alec Weir kick), 10:59.

3rd Quarter

MR–Joe Bennett 10 run (Fox kick), 11:00.

MR–Caden Ochsendorf 4 run (Fox kick), 1:08.

4th Quarter

No scoring.

TEAM STATISTICS

First downs: MCW 8, MR 10. Rushing: MCW 25-58; MR 39-202. Passing: MCW 11-26-1-150; MR 2-7-1-30. Fumbles-lost: MCW 1-0; MR 2-2. Penalties: MCW 4-20; MR 9-60.

INDIVIDUAL STATS

Offense: Rushing: Ochsendorf (MR) 21-83; Boden Simon (MR) 10-84; Geistfeld (MCW) 7-30. Passing: Geistfeld 11-25-1-150. Receiving: Connor Simmonds 3-40; Stade 3-39.

Defense: Interceptions: Derek Dunlop (MCW); Michael Whitehead (MR). Fumbles recoveries: Connor Simmonds (MCW); Seth Ringnell (MCW).

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Blue Earth Area 18, Redwood Valley 6 — The Bucs held the Class AA No. 6-ranked Cardinals to only 100 yards of total offense during a 12-point South Central White District win Wednesday night in Redwood Falls.

Bucs’ running back Koby Nagel continued his torrid scoring ways with two touchdowns, both coming in the second quarter.

With 4:45 left before the half, Nagel ran for a 1-yard score. Then with only 21 seconds left, Nagel delivered six more points on a 6-yard run.

Quarterback Gavin Storbeck threw for an insurance touchdown in the third quarter, completing a 30-yard scoring pass to Caelan Sanders with 2:13 left in the third quarter.

Redwood Valley took the lead in the first quarter when quarterback Bryant Haas completed a 31-yard pass to Alex Lang.

Storbeck completed 21 of 25 passes for 172 yards and a touchdown, while Nagel carried the ball 26 times for 107 yards to lead the BEA ground game.

Sanders garnered six passes for 68 yards, Cameron Anderson caught eight passes for 68 yards and Nagel made five receptions for 23 yards.

Blue Earth Area (6-2) awaits today’s seedings to find out who it will play in Tuesday’s first round of the Section 2AA playoffs.

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Edgerton/Ellsworth 56, Granada-Huntley-East Chain/Truman 36 — The Flying Dutchmen ran through the Jaguar defense for 634 yards on the ground in regular-season 9-Man football action Wednesday night in Edgerton.

Quarterback Owen Wolter accounted for three touchdowns for the Jaguars while running back Carter Spear was involved with three.

The Jaguars took an early lead in the first quarter when Wolter hit Spear for a 60-yard score through the air, then Wolter connected with Matt Heckman for a 74-yard TD.

Spear ran in a 1-yard score in the first quarter and a 15-yard tote in the second. Wolter later ran into the end zone for a 22-yard carry in the third quarter.

Edgerton/Ellsworth carried the ball 66 times for its 634-yard total.

Wolter completed 11 of 21 passes for 231 yards and two touchdowns for the Jaguars, while rushing 19 times for 156 yards.

Spear carried the ball nine times for 74 yards to complement his six catches for 90 yards. Matt Heckman caught one pass for 74 yards and six points.

Spear led the Jaguar defense with 23 tackles, while teammate Bryant Berhow supplied 13 more stops.

The Jaguars await today’s seedings to find out who they will play in Tuesday’s first round of the Section 3, 9-Man playoffs.