Game day!

The Jaguars shown in practice on Wednesday this week.

Holy cow am I nervous or what!!! Nights like tonight don't come along very often.

For the Jaguars football team, it's a night where they can put a big, huge exclamation mark on the already-great 2-0 start to the season. More than that, the Jaguars have a chance to set themselves up for conference glory, something that has evaded B-B-E in the game of football since 1988. (The very first year of the B-B-E Jaguars, a year when they went 4-0 in the Prairie Lakes Conference and emerge as champions following a Week 8 win by a 14-6 score at Swanville-Grey Eagle.)

Tonight they travel a pretty easy 45-mile drive through rural Stearns County farm country up to Holdingford, where the game will be more difficult than anything they've had in recent memory. The Huskers are 2-0 and haven't lost a regular season game since the opening game of the 2012 season. Currently they are hold down fifth in the Class AA polls and seem every bit worthy of that ranking.

The Huskers went 7-0 in the Central Minnesota Conference last year and are favorites to win it again this year. They have an outstanding four-year quarterback, a senior, Mitch Messman, who threw for 268 yards and tied the school passing record last Friday in their 26-3 win at Pierz.

Three of the four TDs scored by Holdingford came on pass plays. Two of those passing touchdowns went to senior running back Jordon Gombos, one for 50 yards and the other for a 66-yard score in the first half. In the third quarter, senior wideout Jeremy Springer caught a TD pass for 14 yards. Junior running back Matt Messman (Mitch's younger brother) ran in the final TD from 20 yards out.

The Huskers rushed for 238 yards with seven different backs getting touches. Quarterback Messman ran 15 times for 41 yards.

From this week's Albany Enterprise:

“We were a lot more balanced on offense this game,” said Holdingford head coach Luke Mitchell after the win.

“Jordon Gombos was a very effective receiver out of the backfield,” Mitchell added. Gombos caught three passes for 134 yards, all in the first half.

Credit for Holdingford’s offensive success went to several. 

“Our offensive line gave Mitch great time,” Mitchell said.

On the other side of the ball, the Huskers also had a good night by limiting the Pioneers to 71 yards passing (6-for-17) and 97 rushing on 28 attempts.

“After the first series, our defense played well,” Mitchell said.

The Huskers picked off three Pierz passes – two by Springer and one by Cody Bialka. All three interceptions were in Pierz territory, Mitchell said, “so they were important in stopping drives.”

Bialka’s pick led to a touchdown.

Now it's up to the Jaguars to see if their defense can slow down the Huskers and then score points on the other side of the ball. I sure hope you can make it to the game! GO JAGUARS!

Here's what winning looks like in the junior high level...the 7th grade players were pretty excited after beating Eden Valley-Watkins 14-12 on the home field yesterday.

Junior high football practices will end earlier than usual (5:15pm) in order to allow coaches, players and parents to make the trip to Holdingford tonight.