Friday Night Lights Part IX: Jaguars take it to Royalton in second half of a convincing 26-13 win to open playoffs!

What can I say! It was a great night at the office for the B-B-E Jaguars tonight...below, the team gathered at the north end of the field prior to hearing the post-game speech from the coaching staff...
Coach Gossen fires up his offensive unit during a timeout late in the first half at Royalton tonight...the Jaguars scored their first touchdown with 28 seconds left in the second quarter to make it 13-8 at halftime.
Zaph Dotson calmly hauled in an interception at the 50-yard line with one minute left in the game to seal the win for the Jaguars tonight...

What an incredible playoff-opening win! Talk about earning it on the field! For the second year in a row, the B-B-E Jaguars football team has won a playoff opener. Better yet, it's the first time ever at B-B-E that the football team has won a playoff opener two years in a row.

After trailing 13-2 in the first half, the Jaguars came alive and poured it on with a great run over the final three minutes of the second quarter and a dominating performance in the second half. Final score: B-B-E 26, Royalton 13.

**Keys to the win: Brian Goodwin was 11-of-19 passing for 111 yards with no interceptions, while fellow sophomore Austin Kollman carried 20 times for a season and career-high 157 yards on the ground; he also ran in two of the Jaguars' three touchdowns. Ola Smedshammer booted a 39-yard field goal in the third quarter for a 19-13 lead. With 79 seconds left, Kollman ran in a 35-yard touchdown for the final score of the game.

The Jaguars (4-5) travel to top-seeded Lester Prairie/Holy Trinity (7-1) on Saturday night for a 7:00 game at Lester Prairie.

Check out this video clip from the first half...about six seconds into the video, take note of Patrick Rooney's stick at the goal line:
http://saukherald.com/main.asp?SectionID=94&SubSectionID=381&NewsVideoID=24

Section 4A quarterfinal round results on Oct. 25:
Le Center 61, Mpls. North 8 (It was 54-0 at halftime)
Kimball Area 39, Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City 21 (Cubs led 21-15 at halftime; with 5 min. left in the third quarter the Cubs led 33-15; the Falcons made it 33-21 heading into the fourth quarter)...interesting fact: Kimball last won a playoff game in football in 1994. A-C-GC, meanwhile, lost the playoff opener for the first time since 1997.

*Action from late in the fourth quarter tonight...

**Added Wednesday morning...the Jaguars earn a safety against Royalton in the second quarter late in this video clip, after the Royals started an ill-fated drive on their own one-yard line.


Area football scores in 2011 playoff openers:
Sauk Centre 56, Osakis 29 (Mainstreeters kick the crap out of Osakis in the second half after both teams went into halftime tied at 21-21; there's no other way to put it)
Long Prairie-Grey Eagle 15, Breckenridge 14 (a pretty big upset; LP-GE trailed 14-0 in the 2nd quarter)
Eden Valley-Watkins 34, Minnewaska Area 33 (OT!!!!!!!!)
BOLD 27, Yellow Medicine East 0
Albany 26, St. Cloud Cathedral 18 (Huskies trailed 12-0 at halftime)
Zimmerman 28, Melrose Area 14
Annandale 21, New London-Spicer 20 (a pretty big upset; Wildcats were the #2 seed)
Foley 21, Litchfield 19
Holdingford 28, Upsala/Swanville Area 0
Pierz 47, Wadena-Deer Creek 7
MACCRAY 46, Canby 27
Paynesville Area 36, Lac qui Parle Valley 27 (Eagles scored in final 11 seconds left after trailing 36-21; they out-scored the Bulldogs 21-8 in the 4th quarter to make the final closer than the game was)
Benson 30, Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta 14 (a huge win for the Braves; kudos to their coaches in knocking out the Tigers)
Browerville 33, New York Mills 0
Mahnomen 30, West Central Area 14
Minneota/Lincoln HI 39, Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg 7
Dawson-Boyd 79, Ortonville 14
Maple Lake 40, Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted 28 (3rd seeded Irish avoid the upset)

Area football playoff game summaries/random information...
**Holdingford kicked USA all over the field in Swanville (USA had one drive get inside the red zone but they fumbled) as the Huskers win 28-0. **On the first drive of the game at Osakis, the Silverstreaks were held to a 4th-and-1 possession at their own 30-yard line by Sauk Centre. Oddly, and I do mean oddly...they tried going for it. Sauk Centre promptly stood them up at the line. Two plays later, Roosevelt Austin is blasting in a 25-yard touchdown and the Mainstreeters hold a 7-0 lead over the #2-seed Silverstreaks. Osakis tied the game at the 6:21 mark in the 1st quarter to make it 7-7. Sauk Centre then went up 15-7 before the end of the 1st quarter. Early into the second quarter (maybe 1 or 2 minutes) Austin scampered for a 62-yard touchdown to make it 21-7 in favor of the underdog Mainstreeters. Osakis would then score on a double reverse play on 4th-and-7 from the Sauk Centre 10-yard line to make it 21-14 with 5 minutes left in the first half. Osakis would tie it at 21-21 (not sure which quarter that was in). Then Sauk Centre went up 28-21 in the third quarter and rolled from there. **At Eden Valley tonight, the 7th-seeded Minnewaska Area Lakers trailed 14-0 in the first quarter before battling back for a 14-14 tie in the second quarter. The Eagles led 21-14 at halftime. Minnewaska Area scored two unanswered touchdowns in the second half to take a 27-21 lead in the fourth quarter. The Eagles then tied the game in the fourth quarter and forced overtime. In the fifth period, Minnewaska's Blake Johnsrud scored on 1st-and-5 to make it 33-27. On EV-W's possession, Brendan Ashton carried the ball every time during their touchdown drive, which ended with Jared Streit's PAT kick that won the game 34-33.

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