MANHATTAN — The Manhattan football team will head into the 2024 season hoping to stick to a similar formula as last year — roll through the regular season, seize the Southern B crown and then storm through the playoffs en route to a championship berth.
"Coming into this year we're all just so hungry," said senior running back George Stenberg. "You saw what happened last year. We know that we can make it back to that level. But it's going to take a lot of hard work. And we're willing to put in the work. We want to finish what we didn't finish last year."
And what happened last year is still a vivid memory to Stenberg. The Tigers hosted Florence-Carlton in last season's State B championship and demonstrated their mettle against the two-time defending champs, ultimately pushing the Falcons to overtime.
Florence scored in the first OT period, and Manhattan then drove to the 1-yard line to set up third and goal. Stenberg received the handoff but was stonewalled by the Falcons' defense just shy of the goal line. Florence then jarred the ball loose and recovered it for a championship-sealing turnover.
The Falcons emerged as Class B's first-ever program to complete a three-peat, and Stenberg was left with a lot to chew on in the offseason.
"To this day I think I made it in," said Stenberg. "But I fumbled it. I should have never let go of the ball."
The Tigers dropped just two games in 2023, both in overtime — a 7-6 non-conference road defeat to Missoula Loyola in Week 2, and then the final loss to Florence.
The heartbreak of that championship conclusion has also been on the mind of Manhattan's sixth-year head coach Wes Kragt, who took over a team that had struggled to find postseason success and helped transform it into a program that will be gunning for it's third championship berth in five years after the Tigers claimed their first-ever state title in 2020.
"We were there," said Kragt. "We were a couple plays away from having a shot at it."
But he also noted that his team won't need to look far for motivation as the Tigers get set to open their season at Huntley Project, where Kragt was part of the Red Devils' 2008 team that completed a perfect season.
"Unfortunately it didn't work out for us," said Kragt. " But new year, new team. All it did was motivate our kids to work even harder. And we're excited for the new season."
The Tigers will be leaning on the senior experience of players like Stenberg, who as an all-state selection last year, and quarterback Michael Stewart. But Manhattan also has a lot of underclassmen on its roster that will be expected to step up and make plays as the Tigers set out on what they hope is a redemption tour that leads back to the championship.
"We have some guys coming back with experience, but we also got some holes to fill," said Kragt. "And we expect our younger kids to step up and fill those and see how we do."
