Lakeville South’s offense is tough enough to stop without the opposition giving the Cougars some help.

Three first-half St. Michael-Albertville turnovers were quickly converted into Lakeville South touchdowns as South routed STMA 40-14 in the state Class 6A football semifinals Friday at U.S. Bank Stadium.

The victory sends the Cougars to the Prep Bowl for the second time in school history and the first time since 2006. Lakeville South will play Maple Grove, a 35-3 winner over Eden Prairie on Thursday, in the Class 6A championship game at 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 26, also at U.S. Bank Stadium.

After recovering fumbles in STMA territory in the first half, on each occasion the Cougars needed no more than two plays to score. They reached the end zone on two of their first three snaps.

South (11-0) led 40-0 in the third quarter before the Knights (6-5) scored twice in the fourth.

The Cougars were not expecting a blowout, especially considering that in 2020 they had to rally in the fourth quarter to beat St. Michael-Albertville 14-13 to preserve an undefeated season.

“We went out there today thinking it was going to be a dogfight,” senior linebacker Zach Juckel said. “Last year it came down to the last play and we were thinking they would want to get revenge.”

The Cougars’ Carson Hansen rushed for 201 yards and three touchdowns and caught a touchdown pass from Camden Dean. Chase Andorff also caught a touchdown pass in the first half and Ian Segna ran for a touchdown in the second half.

Owen McCloud, Hunter Webster and Samuel Delmont had the first-half fumble recoveries that set up South touchdown.