Page 22 Fall Football Preview • Thursday, August 28, 2025 sailor. mnsun. com
BENILDE ST. MARGARET’ S RED KNIGHTS
Flipping the script with a strong defense is the plan
JASON OLSON jason. olson @ apgecm. com
Benilde-St. Margaret’ s will have an eclectic mix of opponents this season, including a third meeting at Holy Angels in week 2 on Sept. 5, after opening at the St. Louis Park campus against Stewartville Aug. 28. Stewartville is two-time reigning Class AAA state champion( 14-0 in 2024 and 2023).
The Tigers are 38-1 over the last three years, with the lone blemish coming in the Class AAAA state quarterfinal loss to Hutchinson, 60-22, in 2022.
The Red Knights will embark on a season-long road trip, traveling to Marshall on Oct. 15.
Year two with head coach Brad Anderson at the helm means the flow of the offseason was better this year because everyone was part of the program last season.
“ The coaching staff knows how to work together better, and the other part of that was the first time working together last year, and everything tends to get better each year,” Anderson said. He added that feel like it takes five years to get everything moving as well as it should.
BSM went 4-6, including three losses by one score, as a sign that they didn’ t give up. Anderson’ s first takeaway from last season was how the team didn’ t give up, despite some challenging games.
“ I saw kids who wanted to be good and have high aspirations. We had several good athletes in the program last
( SUN PHOTO BY JASON OLSON)
Captains include Rob Shull, Milo Dungan, Peyton Meyers and Dylan Warner
year, and we had some Division I recruits as well. This year, we have at least two more Division I kids and a couple others who will go on to play college football, which is nice to have.”
Highly recruited offensive tackle Dajohn Yarborough was one of the highest-rated juniors in the state, playing at 6-foot-4, 310 pounds as a sophomore last season. He is transferring to a school in Arizona, but has college offers to play at many of the top programs in the country, including Alabama and Minnesota.
“ The bottom line is we are getting kids here who are good talent who want to be good, and it’ s our job to provide a setting for those kids to grow,” Anderson said, who didn’ t learn Yarborough’ s decision until July 28, when he signed with an agent.
BSM has three starters back on each side of the ball, including quarterback Peyton Meyers, who is a senior captain. Meyers broke his wrist early last season, completing 62.1 percent of his passes for 570 yards with three touchdowns and three interceptions.
He worked on timing after missing more reads, which boils down to figuring out the timing so his feet and eyes work together to complete more passes downfield.
“ Gotta get the ball out quick,” he said.
Out of necessity, since-graduated Luke Guggenberger filled in to complete 27-of-43 passes for 439 yards and two touchdowns without throwing a pass in a game previously.
“ Luke moved from tight end to quarterback, having never played quarterback in his life, and while he’ s a baseball pitcher, throwing a football is quite a bit different from throwing a baseball,” Anderson said.“ But, he was such a good leader, we wanted to have someone in that position who was
See BSM | PAGE 26
QUICK HITS
Head Coach
Brad Anderson Second Season
Last Year’ s Record: 4-6
Key Returning Players
Coach Brad Anderson, now in his second season at Benilde-St. Margaret’ s, lost his two leading receivers, Luke Guggenberger and Khalif Brown to graduation.
Senior quarterback Peyton Meyers was injured part of last season, but still completed 54 passes for three touchdowns.
Jailyn Garibaldi and Rob Shull are defensive stoppers for the Red Knights. In the secondary, Garibaldi had 32 tackles and two interceptions.
Linebacker Shull, who plays running back on offense, sparked the defense with 57 tackles.
Schedule
Aug. 28 Stewartville Sept. 5 at Holy Angels Sept. 12 DeLaSalle Sept. 19 at SMB( Blake) Sept. 26 Richfield Oct. 3 at Columbia Heights 6 p. m. Oct. 10 Jefferson Oct. 15 at Marshall
Game times 7 p. m. unless otherwise noted