The rivalry between Lakeville North and Lakeville South has been a must-see spectacle for years now. The entire city seemingly shows out to view the annual affair.

Part of that is because of the stature both programs have as top-tier programs in Class 6A — Lakeville North entered Friday as the No. 2 ranked team in the state, and Lakeville South No. 8. But just as much of a draw is the tendency between the two squads to produce an instant classic whenever they take the field together.

Friday was no exception.

Only this time — for the first time in six meetings — Lakeville North emerged victorious. The Panthers snapped a five-game losing skid to their crosstown rival via a 35-31 win at Lakeville South.

Panthers quarterback Riley Grossman starred, going 16 for 22 for 253 yards and three scores. He was the conductor of a Lakeville North offense that was able to move the ball better than it’d been able to in recent matchups against the Cougars.

And that was the separator this time around.

Because in the past, Lakeville North’s offense either couldn’t produce anything of note, or couldn’t do enough to overcome a couple big plays that went the way of Lakeville South.

And there were again a couple big plays that went the way of the Cougars on Friday.

Such as a 97-yard punt return from Bo Bokman — Lakeville South’s hero from last year’s game — who acted as though he was going to let a rolling Panthers’ punt die inside the Cougars’ 5-yard-line, only to then pick it up and streak down the sidelines for a score to trim Lakeville South’s deficit to 14-7 after Grossman connected on a pair of scoring strikes to Ayden Forsgren early in the game.

The Panthers (3-0) still led by seven near the end of the first half. Lakeville South had the ball at the Panthers’ 2-yard-line, and was stopped short on multiple occasions. The second of which came with 15 seconds to play in the half, as Connor Cade was deemed to have been stopped at the 1-foot line. The Cougars didn’t have any timeouts, and it took ample time for the pile to unfurl.

By the time Cade and Co. were on their feet and racing to get set to run another play, the clock was nearing triple zeroes. It looked like the clock was set to expire when the ball was snapped and the Cougars were called for a false start with what the officials said was one second remaining on the clock. That was a saving grace for Lakeville South because, much to Panthers coach Brian Vossen’s dismay, the penalty gifted the Cougars a snap. Unlike at higher levels, there is no 10-second runoff in high school football.

The Cougars (1-2) took advantage of their good fortune, with Gaven Dean hitting Coltin Smith on a fade to the corner of the end zone for a 6-yard scoring strike on the final play of the half to knot the game at 14-14.

A snap over Grossman’s head on a punt attempt early in the third quarter gave Lakeville South good field position, which led to a field goal to make it 17-14 Cougars. The two teams then traded touchdowns, with Panthers’ running back Sam Ripplinger scoring from 30 yards out for his second score of the game to put Lakeville North up with seven minutes to play.

Lakeville South answered, hitting a 30-yard strike from Dean to Cade with 2 minutes, 19 seconds to play. But Grossman had one final rebuttal, marching down the field and giving the Panthers the victory.

Lakeville North’s final score came on a Grossman pass to Reece Hunt from 10 yards out with 16 ticks remaining, just one play after a pass interference call wiped away what would’ve been a game-sealing interception for the Cougars.

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