After rising the ranks to number one in the 9-man football poll, an overtime loss to New Rockford-Sheyenne-Maddock in week three sent the Cougars out of the rankings.

Since then, North Prairie has put together big wins over North Border, Lamoure-Litchville-Marion, and North Star to get to 6-1 on the season. That early season loss hasn’t knocked the confidence of this experienced roster.

“I think that the conversations we’re having with the guys in the huddle and in the game at halftime feel like we’re just having some real high IQ football conversations,” says Head Coach Josh Keller. “Where they’re understanding of what we want from them, and they’ve done a really nice job of rallying around each other.”

“Just kind of going about the day the same,” says senior Nate Tastad. “Just doing everything that we’ve been doing. It was a close game that we lost. It’s not some drastic problem. We’re fine and we’re adjusting and we’ll be good.”