The Prescott Cardinals punched their ticket to the state tournament with back-to-back wins this week, first against three-seed and conference rival Somerset in Hudson by a score of 55-50, and then again on Saturday in Eau Claire against the Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau Red Hawks 63-48.

It was a pair of blowouts for the Prescott team that is state bound for the first time in a half dozen years.

The song remained the same in game one versus Somerset, a team the Cardinals had already beaten twice this season, but the game was more touch and go than Cardinal fans were probably comfortable with.

Prescott had a double-digit lead in the midst of the first period. Somerset climbed back, as would become a theme in this game, but the Cardinals held a two-point lead going into the half at 28-26.

The second period was almost a carbon copy of the first. Prescott went on a big run and looked like they had the game put away, but the Spartans found a way to do what they needed to do when they needed to do it and put themselves in a position to steal the victory. Fortunately for the Cardinals, although they weren’t quite as effective as they would’ve liked to have been from the line, they got the ones they needed to get.

The game came down to the bitter end, with Somerset controlling the clock and fouling themselves into position. The real nails in the coffin came at the hands of Kobe Russell who, with the game on the line and the final seconds running off the clock in a one-score game, drained multiple free throws with the entire auditorium on its feet and every Spartan supporter screaming at the tops of their lungs to try to distract him.

This made it a two-score game with less than 30 seconds to go, and Prescott held on to take the 55-50 victory and moved on to the sectional final game in Eau Claire.

Dallas Wallin did what he does, leading the Cardinals to a victory with 18 total points including eight rebounds and going 6-7 from the line. Russell and Mason Schommer also scored double digit points for the red birds, each with 10. Russell completed the double-double with a game leading 11 rebounds and was tied for the team lead with four assists.

Game two was much easier from a heartrate standpoint as the Cardinals made quick work of the Red Hawks.

Prescott jumped out to a four-point lead, and Russell added on two more with a combination steal and fastbreak. As the period progressed, the red birds climbed to a 14-4 advantage, and Barrett Temmers added on three more from the top of the arc.

At their peak, the Cardinals were up 27-10, but Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau went on a run at the end of the period to tighten things up somewhat, and Prescott went into the half up 31-22.

The Red Hawks’ surge continued into the second period when they almost tied it up at 31-29, nearly overcoming a 17-point deficit. Temmers once again drained a shot from downtown to give Prescott some breathing room. Seconds later, he got a block which set up Max Monteith for another deep shot, and suddenly Prescott was back in business with an eight-point lead.

They would work that lead out to a 41-31 advantage, when Wallin hit one from a long stride off the arc to give them a 13-point cushion. Prescott ultimately won the game by 15 at 63-48.

With this win, the Cardinals advance to the state tournament for the first time since they won it all on a last second buzzer beater by Peter Brookshaw in 2018, being one of the most famous shots in tournament history.

To date, that’s their only state title, but Assistant Coach Pat Ptacek told Head Coach Nick Johnson at the beginning of the season, “This team is going to state.” Coach Johnson said they had a lot of work ahead of them before that could happen, and that’s what they did, putting in work each and every day since.

“I’m just so happy for our kids. We have a special group of kids that work so hard. As a coach, you preach and preach defense, and when you win a game like this because of it, it's just amazing,” Johnson said. “It really is great to go back to the Kohl Center again. We've been so fortunate, and our kids executed our game plan perfectly. They’ve been amazing.”

Schommer says they went back to the basics of playing their game in the second half when the Red Hawks came back.

 “We just went back to our principles. We knew they were going to make a run. We knew it was going to be a fight, and we threw a big punch in the second half. It got physical out there, and that’s how we play. I do love that,” Schommer said. “We’re just going to keep rolling from here. This is a great feeling. You want to savor it, but we’re not done yet.”

Wallin is proud of what they’ve accomplished thus far and says this is the culmination of everything they’ve been working for.

“Honestly, I can’t really describe what I’m thinking right now. We came out strong, and we knew they were going to throw a punch right back. We just kept working hard, playing like we know we can play,” Wallin said. “We have all the faith in the world in our coaches and our guys, and we knew we could do this. This was the goal from day one, and here we are.”

The next stop for the 21-6 sectional champion Prescott Cardinals is a trip to Madison for the state tournament where they enter as the four-seed and take on the one-seed, 27-1 St. Thomas More Chancellors in the first round. Tip off for that game is at 1:35 p.m. Thursday at Kohl’s Center. Should they prove victorious, they will play the winner of (28-0) Kiel and (26-2) Lakeside Lutheran for a chance to secure their second ever state title.