Friday Night Lights Part VIII - On Wednesday - Jaguars Square Record at 4-4 With 28-15 Win over Holdingford, Lock Up Home Playoff Game in Section 5A

The Jaguars football team met a handful of rare benchmarks for the B-B-E football program, by beating Holdingford 27-15 tonight in the final game of the regular season. It was also Parents' Night. Noteworthy: (1- Earning a home playoff game, 2- finishing with a winning conference record, 3- winning three regular season home games, 4- finishing in third place in the conference, 5- Scoring the 2nd-most regular season points in B-B-E history) Tonight was a must-win situation for the Jaguars, as they needed a win to earn a top-four playoff seed in Section 5A. The Jaguars open up playoffs hosting the Lakeview Lakers next Tuesday night at the high school football stadium. Lakeview finished their season 5-3, although two of their five wins were against Junior Varsity teams from Marshall and Luverne. This is due to Lakeview not playing in a football conference. **Thursday night update: Lakeview will join the Little Sioux Conference in 2009, meaning they will have a real schedule and won't be playing J.V. teams. They have had success on the gridiron in recent years. In 2007, they went 5-3 in the regular season, earned the 5th seed, and lost the playoff opener at Renville County West in a high-scoring affair 50-38. In 2006, they played 11-man and 9-man games in the regular season, finished 4-4, and then went 1-1 in the Section 3, 9-man playoffs. In 2005, they went 5-3 before falling in the Section 3, 9-man playoff opener 36-34. My point is, they know how to win games. I've been digging up information on Lakeview and sending it Coach Richards' way. After their practice on Friday morning, I'll begin posting some of this scouting information on this website. A pile of information can be found further below regarding the upcoming Section 5A football playoffs. The Jaguars scored a total of 188 points during the regular season, a high number considering they fell in a shutout to Pierz in week 5. That is the 2nd-most points scored in B-B-E history. The school record is 206 regular season points, set in 1988 (with 1/3 of those points in just one game). I don't want to take away anything earned by the 1988 team, but in terms of offense alone, the 2008 Jaguars set the B-B-E record without a doubt. None of the 188 points this season were directly from turnovers. In 1988, in that game where the Jaguars put up 68 points on winless Brandon/Evansville, only 6 of the 10 touchdowns scored were on offense. (Two were kickoff returns, one a punt return, and another a fumble recovery...all ran back for touchdowns.) The 2008 team's defensive average of 26.9 points given up per regular season game is also noteworthy. (215 total points given up in the 8 games) Keep in mind, that in 2 of the games, against Pierz and Eden Valley-Watkins, the Jaguars gave up 103 points. In the other 6 games, they gave up 18.6 points per game. This is in a Class AA/AAA conference, one of the toughest small-school conferences in Minnesota. In 2006, the Jaguars gave up 222 points in the regular season (27.8 ppg), which was the fewest given up since 2000...until this season. In 2000, when the Jaguars went 2-6 overall in the 2nd year in the CMC, the Jaguars gave up only 177 points (22 ppg). They also had one shutout and lost to Eden Valley-Watkins 19-7 and to Pierz 27-7 in a season in which they were competitive in all but 3 games. The problem year-to-year was consistency. After giving up only 177 points in the 2000 regular season, the 2001 Jaguars gave up 283 points in an 0-8 regular season. As a point of comparison, the year before Coach Richards took over, the 2004 Jaguars gave up 361 regular-season points! (45 points per game surrendered!). The 2003 Jaguars, which was a good team that won their playoff opener, gave up 250 regular-season points. In Coach Richards' first year, the Jaguars gave up 340 points in the regular season. Then 222 in 2006, and then in 2007 they gave up 243 points. So if you put them in order, Coach Richards' teams have given up 340, 222, 243, and now 215 regular season points. That goes a long ways towards being competitive on game night, and it is easier to bring excitement to the program when you're not giving up 40 to 60 points to your opponent in every game. In 1997, the Jaguars gave up 114 regular-season points (including a 40-18 loss on Homecoming night to state-ranked, undefeated Morris Area), for a 14.3 points per game defensive average. In 1988, the Jaguars gave up 83 points (10.4 ppg)...but remember, that year, the Jaguars played against smaller Prairie Conference/Prairie Lakes Conference members. A very special achievement in 2008, the Jaguars finished the Central Minnesota Conference with a 4-3 record, locking up a three-way tie for 3rd place in the league. It is only the 2nd time in B-B-E history that the Jaguars have had a winning conference record. It also ties the school record for most wins in a conference since the 1988 pairing of the former schools. In 1988, the Jaguars went 4-0 to win the Prairie Lakes Conference in their final season in that small-school league. The only other seasons that the Jaguars have finished with at least a .500 conference record came in 1993 and 1997. In both of those seasons, the Jaguars finished 3-3 in the West Central South Conference. Every other season, the Jaguars have went either 0-7, 1-6, or 2-5 in their conference schedules. They should be very, very proud of their 4-3 record in the Central Minnesota Conference this year. Eden Valley-Watkins won the CMC title alone for the second straight season. Pierz finished in 2nd place for the second year in a row. For the first time ever, B-B-E finished in third place in the CMC, tying Maple Lake and Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted. Final CMC standings: #1- Eden Valley-Watkins (7-0) #2- Pierz (6-1) #3- tie, B-B-E, Maple Lake, and Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted (4-3) #6- Rockford (2-5) #7- Holdingford (1-6) #8- Kimball Area (0-7) Central Minnesota Conference game results: Eden Valley-Watkins 19, Maple Lake 0 (The Irish give the Eagles' a heckuva game) Pierz 41, Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted 14 (A big statement for the Pioneers) Rockford 38, Kimball 20 Results involving Section 5A teams: -Renville County West 42, Southwestern United 3 -Canby 22, Ortonville 13 -Lakeview 21, Pequot Lakes 12 (A big upset in my opinion) -Tracy-Milroy-Balaton 26, Minneota 12 (Minneota finishes 7-1, they are the #1-seed) Other area scores: Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City 49, Benson 7 BOLD 49, Paynesville 21 Browerville 42, Parkers Prairie 25 Hillcrest Lutheran 48, Hancock 35 Milaca 53, Sauk Centre 27 Minnewaska 17, Montevideo 14, OT (A big upset win for the Lakers) Mora 38, Melrose 21 (The Dutchmen finish 1-7, ouch!) Morris Area 27, Lac qui Parle Valley 18 Royalton 62, New York Mills 28 Osakis 30, Pillager 20 Ottertail Central 35, United North Central 14 St. Cloud Apollo 34, Willmar 12 Yellow Medicine East 12, Long Prairie-Grey Eagle 0 (LP-GE's second straight winless season) Foley 38, NL-S 24 (a game showing how tough the West Central North Conference is) West Central Area 18, Wadena-Deer Creek 13 (WCA's first win since the opener) The playoff predictions and scenarios and analysis begins at warp speed... The Section 5A seedings are completed for football, and the rankings have been posted on the Minnesota State High School League's website. I have them outlined below. I was right on a few predictions, and I failed on one of them, in terms of who would win their games tonight. First of all, K-M-S pounded Upsala-Swanville Area 33-6. K-M-S led at halftime 26-0. Both of those teams finish the season 6-2, as well as 3-1 in the Prairie South Conference. They both share the conference title with Royalton in a three-way tie. The Fighting Saints pull themselves into a tie with Dawson-Boyd in the Section 5A standings. Even when using the points system, they remain tied, as both had one Class AA team on their schedule. (Both lost to their Class AA opponents) As I predicted, Renville County West won their final two games of the season, both convincingly as well. Last week they won 41-20 over a poor Red Rock Central (Lamberton) team, and tonight they shredded a bad Southwestern United (Heron Lake/Brewster pairing in southwest Minnesota) team 49-3. RRC finished 1-7, and SW-United finished 3-5, with both playing against all Class A opponents. Minneota lost to Class AA state-ranked Tracy-Milroy-Balaton 26-12, in Tracy. Minneota will go into playoffs with the number one seed in Section 5A. At least they are beatable, as they learned tonight. The thing about this loss though, is that it will just make them hungrier to win playoff games and advancing to state. If our Jaguars beat Lakeview in the opener, they would travel to Minneota for a 3:00pm afternoon game on Saturday, October 25, for the Section 5A semi-final. Minneota hosts eighth-seeded Canby in their first-round game. Canby is 1-7, and they won their final game of the season against Ortonville to make the final spot in the Section 5A playoffs. Ortonville finished 1-7 as well, but they ended up ranked #9, meaning their season is done. Right now, it's all about the Lakeview Lakers, a team out of Cottonwood. This school district lies between Marshall and Granite Falls. Their 9-12th grade enrollment is 172 students, compared to B-B-E's 219. I will work over the weekend to learn everything I can about their team. Updates will probably take place every day on this website over MEA weekend. I am surprised that Lakeview picked up the #5 seed. I need to find out how this happened. I think it is a mistake, as they only had 6 games "count" for seeding purposes. Two of their games were against Junior Varsity teams from Luverne and Marshall. In the 6 "real" games, their record was 3-3. I definitely think Renville County West is the better team, so I honestly will not complain about this one! RCW moves in at the #6 slot, and they will face K-M-S in the first round. Dawson-Boyd is the #2 seed, and they will host #7-seed Russel-Tyler-Ruthton in the opener. R-T-R finished 3-5, with two wins in their final two games. The Section 5A championship is set for 5:00 on Halloween, October 31, at the brand new Mattke Field at Southwest State University in Marshall. In order to get that far, the Jaguars need to pull off two playoff wins. That has happened only once in B-B-E history, in Section 5AA in 1997. With all the above said about how the Jaguars have been making history this season, Coach Richards made a comment that the guys don't need more pressure on them than they already have. He's right. Our guys are tired of hearing how poor our football program has been in the past. It's tough enough operating in the Central Minnesota Conference, but it just makes it harder when the Jaguars have to run against B-B-E football history. This year they can make big strides to bringing excitement and enthusiasm to the Jaguars football program. It will only help with turnout in future seasons. Section 5A playoff seedings: (1 hosts 8, 2 hosts 7, 3 hosts 6, and 4 hosts 5) #1- Minneota #2- Dawson-Boyd #3- Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg #4- B-B-E #5- Lakeview (Cottonwood, near Marshall) #6- Renville County West #7- Russel-Tyler-Ruthton #8- Canby All first-round playoff games are at 7:00pm on Tuesday, October 21, with the high seeds hosting. If the high seeds all win, then Minneota and Dawson-Boyd will host the second round games. ****Playoff seedings were completed today for Section 5A in volleyball. The Jaguars locked up one of four #1-seeds in the four "pods" of Section 5A. I will comment more later on about the seedings, but I have to comment on how absolutely furious I am that the section geniuses decided for the second year in a row to place the sub-section championship matches at Brainerd High School. This is on a school night no less! This is crazy, stupid, wild, insane. I can't say enough how nuts this is. Last year, Osakis & B-B-E both traveled to Brainerd for the Sub-Section 5A-South championship. Our schools are 35 miles apart, yet we both had to travel over 90 miles to our sub-section match! I will get to the bottom of who made this decision, and their names will be made public. I think the northern schools in Section 5A were the culprits. It was a political decision, in my opinion. Why not allow this match to be played somewhere in the southern half of the section...say, Long Prairie/Melrose? Not only is this a BIG drive, but this match is the "late" match, set to begin around 8:30pm! As I said before, on a school night! On top of all that, people are broke! Hello, we are in a recession, folks are struggling to make ends meet. We live in rural, small town America and gas money is not growing on trees. Did I mention that I'm furious about this? **Thursday night update...Today at the Post Office, I ran into Duane Swenson, who runs Region 5A for the MSHSL. Section 5A for volleyball actually falls out of the jurisdiction of Region 5A, so he has no control over what happened when the sub-section matches were both designated to be played in Brainerd. He basically backed up what I was just saying, that it's politics that caused this fiasco. This Jaguars sports update brought to you by: