Friday Night Lights Part VIII: Jaguars defeat Eagles during grief-stricken week

The Jaguars reached their helmets to the heavens tonight with heavy hearts following their first-ever win over Eden Valley-Watkins in football...

In a nutshell...as the entire community is still reeling from the tragic loss suffered only yesterday, the B-B-E Jaguars football team won 26-6 tonight to finish the regular season 4-4 overall and 4-3 in the conference. The win locks up the #3 seed in Section 4A. They'll host #6-seeded MACCRAY for the playoff opener next Tuesday night with a kickoff at 7:00pm.

*Section 4A playoffs update: Minneapolis North lost 62-36 tonight to finish 2-6 heading into playoffs and clinch the #5 seed; MACCRAY lost 48-7 to Minneota/Lincoln HI while being locked into #6 in the standings; Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart finished 1-7 and is the bottom seed at #7; Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg got drilled by Upsala/Swanville Area 50-15 to finish 3-5 and slide in at #4 to clinch the final home playoff game; Lester Prairie/Holy Trinity is at #2; Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City is the number one seed in Section 4A by virtue of their 6-2 overall record and a 60-7 annihilation of Class AAA Sauk Centre tonight.

Something to be proud of: the Jaguars finished 4-3 in the Central Minnesota Conference this season, which lands them in a tie for third place with Maple Lake. It's only the third time in B-B-E school history that the football team has finished with an above-.500 record in conference play. The other two seasons were in 1988 (4-0 and Prairie Lakes Conference champions) and 2008 (4-3 and tied for 3rd with Maple Lake and Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted in the CMC).

I'll be up all night writing about this emotional game. Videos are uploading as I type this. Check back in the morning for more updates. It was a night that was incredible to be a part of and very difficult to endure all at the same time.

In case you missed it, here's a link to a Sauk Centre Herald web article with details on visitation and Mass of Christian Burial of Coach Vos: http://saukherald.com/main.asp?SectionID=12&SubSectionID=49&ArticleID=14531

Fans high-fived the players as they walked single-file out of the stadium; many tears were being shed at that moment, with the memory of Coach Vos on everyone's mind...

Fun fact: the #3 seed earned by the Jaguars is the highest playoff ranking the squad has had since 1997, when they were seeded #2 in Section 5AA. In only three seasons of B-B-E football have they earned a playoff seed higher than #4 (1988, 1997, 2012).

Central Minnesota Conference football scores on October 17:
Pierz 33, Maple Lake 6 (I need a lot of adjectives to describe that!)
Kimball Area 21, Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted 14
Holdingford 21, Rockford Area 0

Final 2012 Central Minnesota Conference football standings:
1st - Holdingford (7-0)
2nd - Pierz (6-1)
3rd (tie) - B-B-E and Maple Lake (4-3)
5th - Kimball Area (3-4)
6th (tie) - Eden Valley-Watkins and Rockford Area (2-5)
8th - Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted (0-7)

Area football scores in Week 8 on October 17:
Minnewaska Area 14, Paynesville Area 6 (Lakers go 4-4 in the regular season, make me eat considerable crow!)
Upsala-Swanville Area 50, Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg 15 (K-M-S will get the #4 seed and host a first-round playoff game with a 3-5 record)
New London-Spicer 20, Albany 7
Ottertail Central 26, Long Prairie-Grey Eagle 12
Willmar 24, Sauk Rapids-Rice 12
Becker 16, Mora 12
Melrose Area 39, Red Rock Central 6
Lester Prairie/Holy Trinity 36, Mankato Loyola 0
Minneota/Lincoln HI 48, MACCRAY 7
BOLD 36, Benson 6
Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City 60, Sauk Centre 7 (Ouch! the Falcons led 32-0 at halftime)
Browerville 35, Osakis 7
Cedar Mountain/Comfrey 33, Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart 0
Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta 55, Yellow Medicine East 6
LQPV 27, Montevideo 6