Friday Night Lights Part II: Jaguars are 2-0!

Coach Moscho goes over defensive strategy with JV team players with 2:02 on the clock near the end of the third quarter. The Jaguars gave up only one "big play" on defense in the second half...the one resulting in the Cubs second touchdown. Beyond that, they had a great defensive showing after halftime.

For only the third time in B-B-E school history, the Jaguars football team is 2-0 after they beat Kimball tonight 58-12. They join the 1997 and 2006 squads as the only teams to win their first two games.

The Jaguars named the score in the first half and decided to lead 39-6. With 2:42 left in the 1st quarter, the Jaguars scored and got a PAT kick by Austin Trustheim to take an early 13-0 lead. They held Kimball to seven yards of offense in the first 12 minutes of the game. The Cubs showed some life in the second quarter when they scored on a 79-yard pass play, but that was the lone time the Jaguars had a let down defensively.

Kimball committed multiple mistakes that contributed to the lopsided halftime score, but in the game of football you take what the other team gives you and you make the most of it. That's just what B-B-E did tonight. After the first-team offense scored another touchdown to start the third quarter, JV-team players began subbing in...in fact, the "subbing down" began in the second quarter, when Billy Borgerding moved in at quarterback in the final 2 minutes of the second quarter as just one example. Sophomore linemen were also subbed in on defense in the second quarter as well.

The JV defense did remarkably well against Cameron Hunt and gave up just one touchdown in the last 1 1/2 quarters. The JV offense wasn't quite as sharp but they still played very well and put up a touchdown of their own. It was a whole lotta fun watching the Jaguars win by a huge margin while getting the reserves plenty of playing time in the blowout win, reminiscent of Belgrade Redmen-style football in the 1970s and 1980s.

A couple highlights that come to mind quickly include sophomore Dalon Bitzan running for two second-half touchdowns to go with 112 yards rushing. The Jaguars defense also was busy in the Kimball backfield all night long, forcing dozens of tackles-for-losses. I am guessing they held the Cubs to under 50 yards rushing with the exception of Kimball's second-half touchdown run. I've got a pile of notes to review before I confirm more statistics.

As a team, the Jaguars rushed for 364 yards while getting another 116 yards through the air. Kimball managed 99 yards rushing and 89 passing.

Up next: the Jaguars travel to the House of Pain when they head to Holdingford for Week 3. The Huskers are unbelievably good this year, after amassing 504 yards of rushing against a very good Pierz team tonight at Healy high school in Morrison County. Senior quarterback Mitch Messman threw for 276 yards to go with his team's 228 yards on the ground. Wow. It's the Huskers third straight win (including playoffs) over the Pioneers after Pierz got 8 in a row from Holdingford dating back to a 31-27 loss to Holdingford in 2003.

Colby Schramel (24) had a nice carry in the 4th quarter during one of B-B-E's three second-half scoring drives.

Stay tuned for more updates into the night! I'll get some volleyball results posted from the tournament in Marshall. *Update: the Jaguars volleyball team went 1-1 tonight to open the Southwest Volleyball Challenge. They lost to 8th-ranked (Class AAA) Wayzata 25-12, 25-14 before beating Class AAA Bloomington Jefferson 25-19, 25-18. They face Andover at 10:45am tomorrow in their opening match of day two. That makes for three straight Class AAA teams in the tournament for the Jaguars.

Central Minnesota Conference football scores in Week 2:
Holdingford 26, Pierz 3
Eden Valley-Watkins 26, Rockford Area 21
Maple Lake 34, Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted 21

Area football scores on September 6:
NOTE: teams that are underlined are Section 4A teams
Long Prairie-Grey Eagle 42, Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg 22
Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City 44, Melrose Area 15 (good heaven's sakes! Falcons are for real)
Mayer Lutheran 29, LeSeur-Henderson 0
Springfield 28, Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart 6
Lester Prairie/Holy Trinity 37, Bethlehem Academy 34!! (Bulldogs have a pretty bad defensive average so far but they manage a split in their first two games)
Albany 36, Little Falls 34
BOLD 17, Minnewaska Area 7
NL-S 47, Waconia 7
Benson 14, Yellow Medicine East 7
Dawson-Boyd 47, MACCRAY 12
Osakis 40, West Central Area 14
Royalton 34, United North Central 12
Sauk Centre 43, Montevideo 27
Lac qui Parle Valley 62, Minneota/Lincoln HI 0 (Eagles get a rude awakening in the Little Sioux Conference)
Upsala/Swanville Area 40, Browerville 20