By Matt Gade

605 Sports

WALL — A year ago, the Wall Eagles were left devastated, falling to Wolsey-Wessington 30-28 in the Class 9A semifinals in Wall. 

On Friday night, the Wall Eagles left no doubt that they belonged in the DakotaDome next Friday.

The No. 1-seeded Eagles defeated Philip 56-6 Friday night to improve to 11-0.

“We had that tough loss, losing last year in the semis. We just played tonight with the chip on our shoulder, and we weren't gonna let it happen again,” senior Jace Mohr said. “Last year, we kind of shot ourselves in the foot. I don't think they were the better team. We just got beat that night. But you know, we came out tonight and threw the first punch and never let up all game. We're gonna make sure that we got back there tonight.”

Wall head coach Lex Heathershaw said Friday night’s win was a mark of all the hard work the Eagles have put in, not just during the season but since they were young, buying into what he was preaching. 

“Honestly, he's trained us mentally to know that if we're going to win the dome, we got to lift in the off-season, we have to do all the right things to prepare us for the dome,” senior Younger Amiotte said of coach Heathershaw. “Every year we go into the season thinking ‘Dome bound,’ we're going to the dome. We're gonna make it. And I feel like everything that he's done has just been amazing for this whole Eagle group.”

The Eagles’ win Friday night was the ninth 50-point-plus victory for the Eagles. The Eagles defeated Philip 54-6 in Week 1, and Castlewood forfeited late in the third quarter, down 41-0.

Heathershaw said the Eagles’ starting defense has only given up two touchdowns on the season. With the other scores coming against their number twos.

“That's not a discredit to our number twos. They've done their job, but our defense has absolutely played phenomenally,” Heathershaw said. “And to be honest, I didn't really know where our defense was going to be at when the year started, because we did lose some good seniors last year from our defensive side of the ball. So some guys really stepped up and have really played big for us on the defensive end.”

One of those who have stepped up this season is Amiotte, who has missed out on a lot of his high school playing career due to injuries. Now the senior Eagle is finally healthy this season.

Amiotte’s success this year recently earned him the Great Plains Conference defensive MVP while teammate Mohr was the offensive MVP.

“Playing a full season, it's, I don't know. I've just every year, I've been getting hurt, and this year, just everything's clicking. We're finding all cylinders,” Amiotte said. “It just feels amazing.”

The Eagles will face the Tigers from Howard, the defending Class 9A state champions, after they defeated Alcester-Hudson 18-12.

Wall's Jace Mohr fights for extra yards while carrying the ball through the Philip defense during the first quarter of a Class 9A state playoff game on Friday in Wall. (Matt Gade/605 Sports)

For coach Heathershaw, he said the Eagles just focus on what they can control and it’s been paying off.

“A while ago, someone asked me, ‘Why are we as good as we are?’ And I couldn't answer it,” Heathershaw said. “Then this week, we answered it with our guys, and it's our mentality. 

“Our mentality is we don't care who walks onto the field. We have the same mentality week in, week out. We have a king of the jungle mentality is kind of what we call it. We want to be the king of 9A this year. So hopefully we can continue to keep rolling, continue to keep fighting, and hopefully put up a good performance in the Dome this coming week.”

A similar sentiment was echoed by Mohr.

“We believe in him (coach Heathershaw), he believes in us,” Mohr said. “I think that's kind of just why we're so good, it's just that connection that we have with him. He pushes us every day, and that's how we get to where we are today.”

The Class 9A state championship game will be Friday, Nov. 14 at 10 a.m. (CT) at the DakotaDome in Vermillion.