Minnesota State University – Mankato and Winona State University have had a long rivalry in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference. With a 4-7 history, this past weekend’s matchup had all 2,571 fans in attendance on the edge of their seats at Blakeslee Stadium.  

Also referred to as the purple river rivalry since both schools have purple as a school color, Mankato and Winona State have both sat in the regional rankings since the first one of the 2022 season in late October.

Last year, the Warriors took a win at Maxwell Field for the final game of the season against Mankato. This was also Coach Tom Sawyer’s last game of his career, making for a big final win.  

Going into week 11 of the season, the Warriors sat #25 in Division II and 8-2 for the season so far and undefeated at home. 

This put Winona State in a good spot going into this week, with a guaranteed playoff spot if the Warriors won and still a possible playoff spot if the team lost.  

“I feel like just every day for the next two weeks is going to be my favorite day, my best day,” Jaylen Schleicher said after the game against Augustana University. “So, I’m excited to see what’s to come.” 

This year, it was a road game on a snowy Saturday afternoon. The cold air was a mere 26 degrees with thirteen mph winds at the start of the game, but the fans still showed up for a packed stadium on both sides. 

The Mavericks started off hot with three touchdowns in the first quarter. With two more in the second quarter, the score was 31-0 going into the locker room at halftime.  

On the first Winona State possession of the third quarter, first-year quarterback Kyle Haas had a complete pass to Darryl Williams for 24 yards.  

Haas finished the game with a 16-completion percentage, an interception and 153 passing yards while his confidant Trevor Paulsen had a touchdown later in the quarter and 79 passing yards. 

Overall, the pair went 21 for 43 with 232 yards in the air 

Shortly after Haas and Williams’ play, running back Ty Gavin scored a touchdown for the first Warrior score of the game. Along with the touchdown, Gavin led the rush with 24 yards. 

To finish off the scoring effort, Paulsen passed the ball 57 yards to tight end Jaylen Schleicher to move the scoreboard to 38-13, a slightly closer game than barely six minutes earlier during halftime.  

“Certainly, losing games isn’t as fun as winning games for sure.” Coach Bergstrom said. “But sometimes the result makes you not see some of the stuff you should see.” 

Bergstrom’s first season has been quite an exciting one. The Burnsville native was a linebacker at Gustavus Aldolphus College, where he was inducted into the hall of fame in 2017. After coaching at Shakopee High School, St. Cloud State University, Crown College, his alma mater, Minnetonka High School and Augustana University, he came to Winona State from South Dakota State University.  

Bergstrom took over for Coach of 25 years, Tom Sawyer. 

Tears were flowing after the game, even though they returned home as co-NSIC south champions. It still was not the NSIC south champions that they were hoping for when the team got on the bus that morning.  

The Warriors had the night to dwell before the NCAA DII Selection Showing at 4:30 p.m. on Sunday afternoon, which shows which teams made the playoffs.  

Winona State is headed to playoffs next week. 

And the crowd went wild with excitement.  

“Hearing Winona State announced really felt like all of our hard work paid off,” Defensive Lineman Darius Manuel said. Manuel himself had four total tackles on Saturday to add to the 58 from his previous years as well.   

Next week, the Warriors head to Bemidji at Chet Anderson Stadium for redemption after losing to the Beavers 34-24 at the beginning of the season.   

Bemidji is 9-2 overall, only losing to Augustana University and Mankato so far this season. Whoever wins this game progresses to play the #1 seed, Angelo State University, who are 11-0.   

However, the Warriors have an upper hand as they won against Augustana 24-7.

“I’m excited,” Clay Schueffner said about the upcoming game. “But I’m still mad about Saturday.”  

Schueffner racked up 18 tackles on Saturday for a season high, but a hard loss against a rival is never easy to get over in a single night.  

This is the first time that the Warriors have been in the playoffs since 2017, where they lost against Texas A&M Commerce 20-6 at home. 

The first time in school history that Winona State made NCAA DII playoffs was 2001 where they fell against North Dakota, who they faced in three playoff games before the Bison became a Division I team in 2008.  

This is only the eighth time the team will be in the playoffs, and only having made past the first round once, back in 2003 when the team faced Emporia State after seeing them in the Mineral Water Bowl the year prior. 

The Warriors ultimately fell against North Dakota once again, in the second round of the playoffs that year with a final score of 36-29, a close battle until the end.  

All post-season appearances have been under Head Coach Tom Sawyer and three of the appearances have been under Athletic Director Eric Schoh. 

Most recently, Winona State headed to the Mineral Water Bowl in 2019 to face University of Nebraska-Kearney where they ultimately fell 50-33.  

This year’s playoffs in Region Four, comprised of the NSIC, Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) and the Lone Star Conference (LSC), is made up of four teams from the NSIC, as predicted. 

Those teams include Bemidji and Winona State of course, as well as Mankato seed 3 and Wayne State. The other teams are Angelo State (LSC) seed 1, Colorado School of Mines (RMAC) seed 2 and Colorado State University Pueblo (RMAC).  

With that, the Bemidji-Winona State game kicks off playoffs on Saturday Nov. 19 at 1 p.m. 

Stay tuned for the digital edition of The Winonan next week and on KQAL 89.5 30 minutes before the game and during the game. 

Also check out the stories on last year’s win against Mankato and this year’s lose against Bemidji on The Winonan’s website at winonan.org.