FORT TOTTEN — Four Winds came so close to drastically improving its playoff chances.
But the Indians couldn’t hold on to what would have been an upset win over Cavalier, letting a 24-0 halftime lead get away in a 34-24 loss last Friday. While the defeat was a hit to Four Winds’ playoff hopes, it’s not the end for the Indians.
Here are the nine-man, Region 2 standings entering Friday.
Region 2 standings
- New Rockford-Sheyenne/Maddock (6-0)
- Cavalier (5-1)
- Four Winds (4-2)
- North Prairie (4-2)
- North Border (3-3)
- St. John (3-3)
- Larimore (2-4)
- North Star (2-4)
- Midway/Minto (1-5)
- Nelson County (0-6)
The top four teams will make the playoffs.
Until Friday, the Indians’ season had followed the same progression as last year, when they went 6-3 and got into the playoffs as the No. 4 seed from the region. They’d gone 4-1, with wins over Larimore, North Star, Midway/Minto and Nelson County. The lone loss was to North Border.
North Border, however, is having a down year. The Eagles were 7-2 in the regular season last year. They’re 3-3 this year. They required a comeback to beat Four Winds 54-34 this season after winning 54-14 in that matchup last year.
In 2025, Four Winds was able to beat Cavalier, 42-24. But the Tornadoes are having a resurgent year, already equaling last season’s win total. Friday’s result was the first that went a different way than last year for Four Winds.
Had the Indians beaten Cavalier, they’d be sitting pretty. In that case, they’d be able to afford a loss to North Prairie — a team that defeated them 56-30 last year — and still make the playoffs. Assuming they took care of business against St. John, they’d be in line for no worse than another 6-3 regular season.
But after not being able to close the book against Cavalier, Four Winds will now need to beat North Prairie to keep its playoff hopes strong. Technically, the Indians won’t be eliminated if they lose to the Cougars. But if they can’t beat North Prairie, then they’d likely have to beat New Rockford-Sheyenne/Maddock — the two-time defending state champion, winner of 31 consecutive games.
Four Winds almost received some massive help from Larimore on Sept. 18. The Polar Bears had a sizable lead on North Border — a team that may steal a playoff spot from Four Winds — but North Border came back to win, 48-44.
North Border did, though, take a surprising loss the following week, getting blasted 44-0 by St. John. That keeps Four Winds in front of North Border in the standings, for now.
“We kind of lucked out,” Four Winds co-head coach Mark Bishop said.
Coming up, the Eagles have North Star and Nelson County — two matchups where they’re likely considered the favorite, though there are no guarantees after the way things went against St. John. If North Border does win those two games, and then loses to Cavalier to finish the season, the Eagles would finish 5-4.
If the Indians lose to North Prairie and NR-S/M but beat St. John, they’d also finish 5-4. But North Border has the tiebreaker over Four Winds, so the Indians would be the odd man out. NR-S/M, Cavalier, North Prairie and North Border would make it into the playoffs over them.
So that’s why this game against North Prairie on Friday holds extra importance. If the Indians can win it, they’ll pretty much just be a win over St. John away from securing a playoff spot. They’d be in line to go 6-3 again. And then, barring a North Border win over Cavalier, the Indians would be ahead of the Eagles at the end of the regular season.
The Four Winds coaches and players are aware of this. They’ve been paying attention to how the standings are shaping up.
“You’re looking at the way things are falling. You assume Cavalier’s probably gonna beat North Border to finish that season,” Bishop said. “So as long as you can win two of these next three, you should be in the playoffs.”
The North Prairie Cougars won’t be an easy team to beat. As mentioned, Four Winds lost to them last year. The Cougars have blown out North Border, Larimore, Nelson County and North Star — though they lost to Cavalier, 52-48.
“North Prairie and Cavalier was a dogfight, and so hopefully we can go up there and give just as much of a dogfight as we did in the first half of this one [against Cavalier],” Four Winds co-head coach Travis Mertens said. “And we’ll see what happens up there.”
North Prairie is led by star quarterback Jonathan Mears. He’s dealt with injury issues lately — causing him to miss the second half of the Cougars’ loss to NR-S/M — but the Indians still expect to face him on Friday night.
“Good running quarterback that you’ve got to be able to slow down,” Mertens said. “He’s a lot of their offense. He makes them go. So we’re gonna have to do a better job at containing the quarterback again.”
Four Winds had issues with a running quarterback on Friday. Cavalier’s Jack Gunderson ran for 258 yards unofficially and scored five touchdowns, all in the second half. The Indians’ coaches said their defensive ends weren’t prepared for Cavalier’s zone read. In order to beat North Prairie, they’ll have to adjust much more quickly to what the Cougars throw at them.
The Indians are in the gauntlet of their schedule. They have Cavalier, North Prairie and NR-S/M in a four-week span. And they can’t overlook St. John, a team they beat 22-14 last year and that just dismantled the preseason No. 5 in North Border. In fact, the Woodchucks have recorded two consecutive shutout victories, having beaten Midway/Minto 36-0 the week prior.
If the Indians want to make the playoffs for the third consecutive year, they’re going to have to earn it.
“We’re a team where we want to take pride, we want to earn a playoff spot. We don’t want to limp in or anything like that,” Mertens said. “Bishop said it earlier this week, and I said it again in the pregame speech. If we want to consider ourselves a good team, we need to beat a good team. And not that we haven’t beaten good teams, but you want to be more consistent against these teams that are perennial region playoff teams.
“So we’re close. I would say we’re close. We can put at least a half together where we can be one of the better teams in our region, and hopefully the state. But until we prove it to ourselves, we’re not gonna prove it to anybody else.”
Four Winds and North Prairie are set to kick off at 7 p.m. in Rolette on Friday.
Remaining regular-season games for Four Winds football
Oct. 2: Four Winds @ North Prairie in Rolette, 7 p.m.
Oct. 8: Four Winds vs. St. John in Fort Totten, 7 p.m.
Oct. 16: Four Winds vs. New Rockford-Sheyenne/Maddock in Fort Totten, 7 p.m.