Friday Night Lights Part IV: BBE wins on Homecoming night!

What an incredible crowd tonight! They were flat-out fantastic. (The cheerleaders were great too.)

It was a fairly wild game from start to finish, and the Jaguars football team committed more than their fair share of penalties...but in the end they beat Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted 27-14 on the school's 26th Homecoming night. It's their 3rd straight win on Homecoming night.

Woot!

After the Lakers punched the Jaguars in the throat with a touchdown on their first possession (the first possession of the game), they responded by scoring on their second drive of the game on a one-yard run by quarterback Brian Goodwin with 2:06 left in the 1st quarter. The PAT kick failed, though, leaving the Lakers with a 7-6 lead.

With 1:48 left before halftime, Tommy Cebulla caught a 21-yard touchdown catch from Brian Goodwin to put the Jaguars in front 12-7. The 2-point conversion was successful for a 14-7 score.

All the momentum was on B-B-E's side when they successfully converted an onside kick into another possession. With 1:47 left, they had the ball with a short field to go. They got it down to a 3rd-and-5 play with 17 seconds left, but disaster struck when they lost the ball on a 4th-down play with the clock expiring...the Lakers ran back about an 80-yard fumble return with a PAT kick to tie it up 14-14.

B-B-E is now 3-1 overall for only the 2nd time in school history (2-1 Central MN Conf.)...HL-W-W is 2-2 overall and 1-2 in the CMC. The last time the Jaguars won 3 of their first 4 games, it was 1988, and Dennis Weimerskirch/Julius Evenson were at the helm of the program. They finished 7-1 before playoffs, won the Prairie Lakes Conference and went 1-1 in the Section 4B playoffs. Their 8-2 final record stands to this day as the best football record ever at B-B-E.

B-B-E Choir and football team member Kayle Benesh, a freshmen, sang the National Anthem flawlessly prior to kickoff tonight in the football pressbox.  *Video of that coming tomorrow.

Additional photos, etc. will be posted on Saturday morning.

Post-game notes:
Austin Kollman blew up the old single-game rushing record (288 yards by Austin Kampsen in 2007) when he bulled, ran and bolted his way to 351 yards on the ground. In a very classy move, Kollman refused to take the spotlight after the game and deflected all praise to his offensive line. He insisted that his linemen be interviewed on the radio after the game...and Alex Schumann and Jared Steffensen, two more extremely humble, classy guys, pinch hit for him on a very awesome Smooth Magic 107 FM interview with D-Mac up in the pressbox.

Up next: a tough, tough road game at Rockford, who beat Maple Lake 14-7 tonight on their home turf. The Rockets are 2-2 overall and 2-1 in the Central Minnesota Conference. Kickoff on their brand-new artificial turf is next Friday night at 7 p.m.

Icing on the cake! A-C-GC lost at Paynesville Area tonight by a 32-27 score (thanks, Bulldogs!). They're now 2-2 on the season. Mayer Lutheran won their game to keep pace with the Jaguars in the chase for the number one seed in Section 4A.

Soaking up the win! ...and Kollman refusing to take all the credit for his 351 yards in a radio interview request:



Central Minn. Conference scores on Sept. 20:
Pierz 41, Kimball Area 19
Holdingford 47, Eden Valley-Watkins 7
Rockford Area 14, Maple Lake 7

Area football scores on September 20:
BOLD 41, #8-ranked Sauk Centre 0
Paynesville Area 32, Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City 27!!!
Mayer Lutheran 37, Norwood-Young America 7
Upsala-Swanville Area 48, Long Prairie-Grey Eagle 16
Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta 41, Benson 15
Royalton 49, West Central Area 21 (WCA's Homecoming)
New York Mills 40, Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg 0
Glencoe-Silver Lake 42, New London-Spicer 25
Adrian 28, MACCRAY 20
Milaca 14, Albany 13
Martin County West 35, Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart 13
Dawson-Boyd 68, LQPV 6
Clinton-Graceville-Beardsley 34, Wheaton/Herman-Norcross 14
Lester Prairie/Holy Trinity 21, New Richland-H-E-G 14
Litchfield 21, Redwood Valley 15
Minneota/Lincoln HI 53, Canby 12
Montevideo 33, Yellow Medicine East 20
Osakis 20, Wadena-Deer Creek 12
Ortonville 41, Brandon/Evansville 13
Ottertail Central 43, Browerville 0Melrose Area 21, Minnewaska Area 6