When the football teams from Southland and Fillmore Central met late last season both were undefeated, but that was a long time ago.
This season both the Southland Rebels and Fillmore Central Falcons come into Wednesday night's regular season finale with losing records. Southland is 3-4 overall, 1-3 in the Three Rivers Conference, South Division. Fillmore Central is 2-5 overall, 1-3 TRC South.
Last week, the Rebels lost 38-6 to the Caledonia Warriors at home. Fillmore Central lost 33-21 to Rushford-Peterson on the road. The Falcons and Rebels split in two meetings last year. Fillmore Central won in the regular season, then Southland won in the Section 1A semifinals.
Falcons quarterback Brandon Breitspecher was able to move his team through the air last week, but also was intercepted three times. The Falcons had 139 yards passing in the road loss.
Finishing off drives with points has been a problem for the Rebels in their last two losses. Southland didn't score any points in a road loss to R-P and then, last week only managed one touchdown in the home loss. The Rebels had nearly 200 yards rushing, but couldn't finish the drives.
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Injuries have plagued the Rebels all season and a sore ankle hampered quarterback Decker Bendtsen's passing attempts. Bendtsen gave up a pick six for the second week in a row. The biggest pass play was a halfback toss from Nick Schmitz to Bendtsen that went for 39 yards.
The offense has been able to move the ball at times, but penalties and turnovers have repeatedly killed potential scoring drives. The Rebels had four fumbles lost in last week's game, so they must hang on to the ball in order to get a win.
This game could have implications on the section seedings with the winner getting a likely fifth seed or maybe even a first round home game as the fourth seed. The loser will be the sixth seed in the section or lower and have a tough opening game.
