Friday Night Lights Part XI -- Jaguars Football is Hammered by State-Ranked Eden Valley-Watkins, More Shakeups in Section 5A Standings

The elementary football team played at halftime. Coach Evenson is shown here giving instructions to the White team.

The Jaguars football team fell to 2-4 on the season, yet managed to hold onto 4th place in the nine-team Section 5A standings, with a big loss to the elite team of the Central Minnesota Conference, Eden Valley-Watkins. Regardless of how deep the Jaguars go into the playoffs this year, they will never see a team as good as Eden Valley-Watkins. When they're clicking, they are the real deal.

Ten photos from the pre-game drills have been uploaded to a football photo album, in my Jaguars sports photos album, on the Sauk Herald website online photo gallery. The address online is = http://saukherald.mycapture.com. Please e-mail me at jaguarssports@mchsi.com if you have difficulty finding the website and the Jaguars sports photos album. I have a total of 154 photos from tonight's game.

Thanks to the Wabasso Rabbits, the Jaguars took sole possession of 4th place in the Section 5A standings, as the Rabbits defeated Renville County West 23-22. That game was held in Danube, a home game for RCW.

In tonight's game for the Jaguars, they played with brilliance in the first quarter, then all but laid down in the second quarter. After giving up a touchdown in the first 19 seconds of the game, the Jaguars battled and battled, trailing only 6-0 going into the second quarter. It was 34-0 at halftime, however.

A handful of new school records were set tonight, but we can leave that for another time. The Jaguars need to continue focusing on winning games. It's nice to give the recognition to those student-athletes, but I think I'm guessing correctly when I state that the individual records are not a big deal to them... but winning games is.

Renville County West CAVED after leading 22-8 in the third quarter before Wabasso came storming back. The Rabbits, who are now 4-2 overall, pulled ahead with a five-yard touchdown run with 1:35 left in the game. RCW rushed for 338 yards and had 18 first downs compared to Wabasso's 8 first downs, yet lost. They had one lost fumble and no interceptions to the Rabbits. That's a tough loss.

I look for RCW to win their final two games to finish 5-3. If they had won tonight, they legitimately could have finished 6-2, which would definitely placed them ahead of our Jaguars in the final standings, even if we win out and finish 4-4 going into playoffs.

I will repeat, I mean I may sound nuts but *#$*$@(#$* I feel this strongly about it, the Jaguars HAVE to win their final two games or they will start playoffs on the road, most likely at Danube, where Renville County West plays football.

**The assumption that our Jaguars will in their final two games over down-on-their-luck Kimball and Holdingford teams is an assumption that no one, especially the team, should make. No football team at B-B-E should ever go into a game with even a sniff of overconfidence. That is a sure formula for a loss. I really think that's what happened in 2006, when the Jaguars visited Kimball looking for their 3rd win of the season. Kimball came out (for their Homecoming that year) fired up like I hadn't seen a team in a long time. They took it to us, blanking us 20-0.

We did rebound in a huge way, though, to host a home playoff game (53-19 win over Ortonville) and then give state-ranked K-M-S a big scare in the section semi's.

Central Minnesota Conference scores:
Rockford 20, Holdingford 18
Pierz 35, Maple Lake 16
Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted 32, Kimball Area 6

Section 5A scores:
Minneota 40, Ortonville 0
Wabasso 23, Renville County West 22
Royalton 22, Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg 7
Maccray 42, Russell-Tyler-Ruthton 0
Fulda 14, Canby 12
Dawson-Boyd 63, Murray County Central 8

This was unthinkable 2 weeks ago...BUT, it could happen that Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg finishes the season 4-4. They are in a tailspin, no doubt. After being ranked #1 three out of the first four weeks of the season, they are now 4-2 and will for sure fall out of the Class A state polls. They host a tough Browerville team next week, a Browerville team that has an outside chance of beating K-M-S (based on common opponents thus far). In week #8 they travel to state-ranked, undefeated Upsala-Swanville Area (6-0) for the final regular season game. USA defeated Royalton in Royalton by a 23-22 score last week.

Just think...The top four teams are shaping up to be = Minneota, Dawson-Boyd, our Jaguars, and Renville County West. K-M-S might open the playoffs in Danube, against RCW! Again, our Jaguars have to win their final two games, over Kimball Area and Holdingford, in order to get a top-four playoff seed. If they finish the season 3-5 they will finish in 5th place, which means yet another playoff game on the road.

In the history of B-B-E, we have had home playoff games only THREE times, in 1988 for the inaugural Jaguars football season, in 1997, and then most recently 2006. That's three home playoff openers in 20 seasons.

In 1997, we lost 14-12 in the Section 5AA championship, a loss that many local football fans will never forget. The team that beat us was... Eden Valley-Watkins. It was EV-W's first trip ever to the state tournament. They made repeat trips in 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2007. They were 2005 Class AA state champions.

**Current, clear-cut Section 5A football standings: Records included
#1- Minneota (6-0)
#2- Dawson-Boyd (5-1)
#3- K-M-S (4-2)
#4- B-B-E (2-4)
#5- RCW (3-3)
#6- Lakeview (3-2)
#7- Russel-Tyler-Ruthton (1-5)
#8- Ortonville (1-5)
#9- Canby (0-6)

Other area football scores:
Albany 32, Melrose 13
Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City 41, BOLD 7 WOW, a closer game was expected
Benson 47, Lac qui Parle Valley 7
Minnewaska Area 20, Paynesville Area 0
Montevideo 48, Long Prairie-Grey Eagle 15
Morris Area 14, Yellow Medicine East 0
New London-Spicer 46, Milaca 25
Sauk Centre 20, Foley 7 Sauk shakes off an 0-5 start to avoid a winless season
Sauk Rapids-Rice 35, Willmar 14
Upsala/Swanville Area 22, Osakis 14
Warroad 3, West Central Area 0 (WCA is 1-5)

That's all for now, I'll be in Willmar all day Saturday and possibly in the evening too. At 9:00am the Jaguars volleyball team opens up pool play in the 12th-annual Willmar Cardinal Classic tournament. It was just billed on Friday as the toughest field the tournament has seen, according to the West Central Tribune.

Read in the post below to learn more about the teams at this tournament. I hope to update this website early in the afternoon on Saturday with results of pool play action. I am guessing the championship will be at 3:00pm.

At 6:00, the Ridgewater Warriors face the Minnesota West Bluejays in a community college football game. The Warriors host the game at Hodapp Field, near Kennedy Elementary school in Willmar.

On Saturday night I'll add a full update from the volleyball tournament, as well as give more information from Friday night's football results. I am very interested in learning more about how K-M-S was tagged with their second straight loss.

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