GRAND MEADOW — The Grand Meadow football team has one final hurdle to clear, and it may be its biggest one yet.

The Superlarks will aim for their second straight Class nine man state football title when they take on Edgerton-Ellsworth in the Prep Bowl at TCF Bank Stadium in Minneapolis Friday at 10 a.m. It is the third straight state title game appearance for the Superlarks (13-0 overall) and they’re hoping to finish off the season on a high note.

The Flying Dutchmen (12-1 overall) are coming off a 20-13 win over Norman County East/Ulen Hitterdal and they beat Nicollet 58-18 in the state quarterfinals.

“They don’t have any weaknesses that I can see. They look like the best team we’ve seen,” GM head coach Gary Sloan said. “They spread the ball out and they can throw too.”

The Flying Dutchmen have three running backs that can carry the ball, they use seven different formations and they also have a potent passing attack. The Superlark defense has been in control of GM’s last three games as it has shut out Spring Grove, Underwood and Kittson County Central.

Sloan hopes his defense can play well on Friday against an Edgerton-Ellsworth team that likes to get off to quick starts.

“They do a lot of outside stuff [on offense] and we think that fits into what we do pretty well. They might try to use our speed against us with some counters,” Sloan said.

Sloan is hoping that GM’s offense can control the pace and he feels that his team may be able to produce some big plays if the Larks practice paitience.

“We’ve talked about withstanding the early onslaught,” Sloan said. “We want to keep the ball away from them with our offense. They run a seven man front and hopefully we can get some big plays against them.”

One advantage the Superlarks will have on Friday is a strong group of leaders. GM has five seniors that have been two-way starters for the last two seasons and they have been the winningest senior class in school history. That group includes Blake Olson, Landon Jacobson, Wyatt Richardson, Jordan Miland and Cody Ojulu.

“They’ve been a tremendous asset to our program,” Sloan said. “Ever since we won [last year], the kids have been talking about repeating and that’s been hard to do in nine man football lately.”

Follow @RockyHulneADH on twitter for updates of Friday’s game.