Football arrives two days early this week due to education conventions and the resulting four-day weekend in high school schedules.
Wednesday night's action represents the final round of regular-season action. On the line are conference championships and section tournament seedings.
Games to watch:
• In the Hiawatha Valley League's Gold Division, Lake City has clinched at least a tie for the championship. Zumbrota-Mazeppa — tied with Triton for second place — plays the Tigers in Lake City and could share the title with an upset victory.
• In the Three Rivers Conference North Division, Lewiston-Altura and Plainview-Elgin-Millville share the lead and square off at 7 p.m. on P-E-M's home field.
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Two area teams ranked No. 1 in the state polls have clinched division titles and need only to win games in which they are heavy favorites to claim the undisputed championships.
In the Three Rivers South, 7-0 Caledonia — No. 1 in the state Class AA poll — plays at 1-6 Kingsland.
In the HVL Blue, Lourdes — also 7-0 and ranked first in the AAA state poll — has a road game with 2-5 La Crescent.
Spring Grove, ranked No. 3 in the state Nine-Man poll, is in a similar situation after taking the sole lead in the Southeast Conference race with last week's 22-20 showdown win over Grand Meadow. The Lions, 7-0 overall, play at Mabel-Canton (3-4) in their game Wednesday night.
For Rochester fans, the big game is in the Big Nine Conference. Mayo sustained its first conference loss of the season last Friday — 27-21 to John Marshall — but still has a chance to share the conference championship when it plays on the road against league-leading Owatonna. The Huskies are 7-0 and ranked third in the state Class AAAAA poll but at 6-0 in Big Nine games are only a game ahead of Mayo and Faribault, which are each 5-1.
