The Jaguars kneel at halftime at their high school athletic complex Tuesday night after building a first-quarter lead of 21-7, and halftime lead of 33-7, over the fifth-seeded Ortonville Trojans to open up Section 5A playoffs.Our talented, hard-hitting Jaguar football team is 1-0 to start the playoffs for only the fifth time in school history, and the first time since 2003. The Jaguars hammered on a poor fifth-seeded Ortonville Trojans team tonight and won by a final score of 53-19. They built leads of 21-7, 33-7, and 41-7, before an evenly-played fourth quarter took place and our Jaguars came out on top.
In the process, the Jaguars set a new school record for points scored in a playoff game, topping their previous record set in 1997 when they blew out Kimball 41-8 in their Section 5AA opener.
It is also the most points scored by ANY Jaguar football team since 1988, when the very first Jaguars football team beat Brandon-Evansville 68-12. (No, that is not a mis-print.)
The ENTIRE community from Jaguar country needs to be in Murdock at 3:00pm on Saturday afternoon, October 28th, to cheer our Jaguars on to victory and earn a trip to the Section 5A Final.
The Jaguars have won a second-round football playoff game only once before in school history, in 1997, when they finished as Section 5AA runners-up. This very well could be the year they win again in the semi-final round, as they take on a 7-2 Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg Fightings Saints team out of the Prairie (South) Conference.
From other games in Section 5A, Wabasso made a big statement with their quarterfinal win tonight over 7th- seeded Renville County West, pounding the Jaguars into the ground at the Wabasso football field 65-0. (Ouch!) At Murdock, the number-one seeded K-M-S Fighting Saints barely got past 8th-seeded Upsala-Swanville Area 19-6. Third-seeded Dawson-Boyd earned a shutout at the Dawson football field against Royalton, winning 22-0.
In games involving Central Minnesota Conference teams, Pierz (9-0) won 48-8 in their Section 4AA opener, showing they are again looking at returning to the state tournament for the third straight season.
In Section 5AA, fourth-seeded Maple Lake (5-4) beat Norwood-Young-America in a thriller, 28-26 in overtime. As mentioned before, our Jaguars (3-6) won 53-19. Defending Class 2A champions and top-seeded Eden Valley-Watkins (8-1) hosted Kimball (2-7) and beat the Cubs 41-20. Second-seeded Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted (7-2) hosted Paynesville (3-6) and beat the Bulldogs badly by a score of 43-14.
That makes five (so far) CMC teams to win playoff openers, all five having high seeds and hosting tonight's game. It shows just how elite the Central Minnesota Conference is. Winning is the only thing that counts in playoffs, and CMC teams went 5-1 in playoff openers (and the lone loss by Kimball was to fellow CMC member Eden Valley-Watkins). Holdingford and Rockford, both good teams who would win many games in other conferences, both missed playoffs in their respective sections (5AA and 4AAA), thanks mostly to the tough schedule that comes with being a CMC member.
Here is what was in the West Central Tribune about tonight's game:
BBE 53, Ortonville 19
Austin Kampsen ran for 135 yards and three touchdowns as Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa pounded Ortonville 53-19 in Belgrade. Mike Zenzen and Scott Simonson also rushed for touchdowns. Sophomore quarterback Jackson Illies plunged for another score and threw 15 yards to Pat Roelike in the third quarter to extend the Jaguars’ lead to 41-7. Chad Starr added a 47-yard kickoff return for six points in the fourth quarter.
The defense was led by Simonson with nine tackles and Zenzen and Ryan Weller with eight each. Donovan Johnson and Brent Gregory each had a sack.