Rice Lake makes its annual trip to Minnesota for the Breakdown event and this year’s opponent will be Minnetonka. 

Rice Lake was 21-5 a year ago and they will be playing their first game of the season this Saturday against the Skippers.  Tonka will come into the game likely at 2-1 after having beat Rosemount, losing by 25 to Apple Valley, and they are expected to defeat Benilde-St. Margaret’s this evening. 

Rice Lake is led by Henry Ellenson who is a McDonald’s All American level talent ranked as a five star prospect listed 17th in the nation by Rivals.com (he’s headed to Marquette).  Rice Lake will have the best player in the game but they will have to defend the several scoring options around the Minnetonka perimeter.

Henry Ellenson, RIce Lake vs. Evan Altenburg, Minnetonka

Henry is 6-foot-10 and 230 pounds of explosive skill where as Altenburg is a MIAC/NAIA level player who will give up three inches and about 45 pounds but he will compete hard against the Rice Lake superstar.

Why Rice Lake will win:  Because Ellenson is a superstar that nobody will be able to stop.   His teammates have been learning to play around him for three seasons and they will improve on their 21-5 record.

Why Minnetonka will win:  If you ranked the best players in this game, Tonka would have seven or eight of the top ten.  Justin Moes, Amar Miller, and Seth Coatta are All-Lake level players joined by Cedric Boone, Pete Weiss, and Burt Hedstrom making an excellent group that Rice Lake won’t be able to defend around the arc.