The St. Cloud Tech girls flag football team expected to make the sport's inaugural state tournament last year.

However, the Tigers were upset by Elk River in the district tournament. Tech head coach Jon Benson said his team used that as motivation during the off-season. The Tigers are 9-0 this season and knocked off Monticello 21-13 in the District 1 championship game on Sunday, May 31, to qualify for this year's state tournament.

Tech enters as the No. 8 seed. The Tigers get No. 9 Park of Cottage Grove (8-1) in a first-round game at noon on Monday, June 8, at the Minnesota Vikings' TCO Stadium in Eagan. The Vikings have sponsored the state-wide flag football league for the past two springs.

The pressure was just trying to get to state. Now that they've done that, they can just go out there and play loose.

The biggest obstacle for the Tigers is the unknown. Tech hasn't played any of the teams in the state tournament field. In addition, there isn't much — or any — video available to study what their opponents run offensively.

If we do a few things right, we can beat anybody.

One of the reasons Tech has a right to be confident is because of the play of senior standout Reese Ruska, who helped lead the St. Cloud Crush girls hockey team to the Class A state tournament in February and also is a standout soccer and track and field athlete.

On the flag football field, she leads the Tigers in rushing, receiving and defensively. Ruska has 19 carries for 313 yards and five touchdowns. She has 55 catches for 875 yards and 15 touchdowns.

On defense, she has 18 interceptions, including three returned for touchdowns.

All games on Monday, June 8, at TCO Stadium in Eagan

Semifinal games will be played at 5 p.m. The championship game will follow at 6.