Page 12 Fall Football Preview, August 28, 2026 sunthisweek. com
Wanting to play with Class 6A heavy hitters
by Mike Shaughnessy SUN THISWEEK DAKOTA COUNTY TRIBUNE
Nothing against Roseville, Park of Cottage Grove, Coon Rapids and Hopkins, but Eastview would like to reach the point where those schools are no longer the Lighting’ s district football rivals.
Those five schools currently make up the Metro Maroon district, one of five districts in Class 6A, the enrollment division for the state’ s largest high schools.
Twenty-seven other Class 6A schools are grouped in Metro North, South, East and West quadrants, with many of the schools closest to Eastview in the South( Moorhead, the only nonmetro school in Class 6A, is assigned to the Metro West).
The purpose of district football is to give teams as many games as possible against programs of similar sizes and competitive levels. And the Metro Maroon has a purpose, too – giving its five members a chance for more competitive games while they try to build toward joining one of the“ directional” Metro districts.
Eastview will have games against Metro South schools Farmington, Rosemount and Eagan before launching into the Metro Maroon portion of its schedule. The Lightning’ s opener is at home against Farmington on Sept. 3.
“ Big boys, big bodies, right?” Eastview head coach Wade Buckley said of the Metro South schools the Lightning will face this year.“ Their whole strategy is to try to run the ball down your throat. There’ s only so much you can scheme up. You just have to be tough. We feel like the Metro South is the greatest( district) in the state. You have to bring your lunch pail.”
The Lightning want to be in the Metro South
Veteran line expected to power Eastview offense
someday, but for the time being they don’ t resent being in the Maroon.“ The purpose of the Maroon is developmental, to play some games where we can get a foothold against competitive teams. But we’ d like to think that we’ re close” to moving up, Buckley said.
Eastview is looking for its first winning season in varsity football since 2018. The Lightning had significant
Schedule
Games on Fridays unless noted Sept. 3( Thur.): Farmington, 6 p. m. Sept. 11: at Rosemount, 7 p. m. Sept. 18: Eagan, 6 p. m. Sept. 25: at Roseville, 7 p. m. Oct. 2: at Coon Rapids, 6 p. m. Oct. 9: Hopkins, 6 p. m. Oct. 14( Wed.): at Eden Prairie, 7 p. m. Oct. 23: Park of Cottage Grove, 6 p. m.
Eastview
graduation losses after last season, when they went 2-7, but they think they have pieces in place to come back stronger.
They also believe teamwork will be a strong suit.“ Everybody just respects each
other,” senior linebacker Josh Cohen said.“ If somebody makes a call or an audible, it doesn’ t matter if it was a junior or senior because everybody knows what’ s right, and they go off of that. Everybody’ s doing their job.”
It hasn’ t always been easy for the Lightning to move the ball, but that could change with an offensive line that boasts experience and size. That group includes seniors Ben Lieffort, Joe Woodruff and Matthew Kral, all of whom had varsity snaps last year. The cornerstone could be 6-foot-8, 285-pound junior Owen Bauer, who’ s drawing Division I attention. He has game-day visits lined up this fall at Iowa State and defending national champion Indiana, among others.
“ He’ s someone who will make a big difference in our run game,” Buckley said of Bauer.“ Ben, Matt and Joe are aggressive and hard workers.”
“ All our guys up front are very talented,” Bauer said.“ We can do whatever. We can punch our opponents in the face and we can give our quarterback time to pass.”
Most of the rushing and receiving leaders from last year graduated, as did the starting quarterback. Senior Theo Schwendinger is expected to take over at quarterback and said he’ s thankful to have veteran linemen in front of him.
“ We have a bunch of big guys up front – love them all,” Schwendinger said.“ They’ re going to give us
Photo by Mike Shaughnessy
Eastview football players are hard at work during practice Aug. 20. The Lightning’ s first regular-season game is Sept. 3 at home against Farmington. See Lightning, 15
Photo by Mike Shaughnessy
Theo Schwendinger, the favorite to be Eastview’ s starting quarterback, escapes pressure during a drill at the Lightning’ s Aug. 20 practice.