Friday Night Lights IX: stunned disbelief

Coach Moscho talks to his defensive unit with 49.5 seconds left in the game. A-C-GC just gained a first down, goal-to-go at the nine-yard line.

I don't even know what to say. I can't even bring myself to type the final score. I haven't decided how much I want to say about the game's ending. It was not right that time expired after our ball carrier was tackled but the game was ruled complete! It hurts. But even if we ran one final play from the 20-yard line, we still had to move the ball 20 yards to get the win.

How's this for irony? The B-B-E Jaguars football team lost tonight to A-C-GC by the same score that A-C-GC lost to the Jaguars in last year's section semifinal game.

The Jaguars got an impressive 241 rushing yards on 34 carries, but the Falcons were better yet with 369 rushing yards on 60 carries. A-C-GC had two turnovers compared to none for the Jaguars.

One thought quickly comes to mind: bring on the Prairie Conference! The Jaguars are coming guns blazing!

I just noticed this, which illustrates the immense strength of the schedule the Jaguars played this fall. In our lone non-conference game, against Class 2A Norwood-Young America, the Jaguars lost to a team that would eventually finish 7-1 and earn the number one playoff seed in Section 2AAA. NYA won their playoff opener 24-6 tonight over Medford.

Here's video of the last play of the game, with the Jaguars at the 50-yard line on third-down and eight. Just eight seconds were on the clock. I shifted just a bit off of Tanner Heinsius, who carried the ball for about 30 yards.


It's not worth whining about, but it does leave a bad taste in your mouth. No matter what, the Jaguars have to pick themselves up and look ahead to the 2015 season. Who's our first opponent? None other than Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City!

Section 4A football scores:
#5 Mayer Lutheran 26, #4 Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart 6
#2 Lester Prairie/Holy Trinity 30, #7 Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg 14 (the Fighting Saints trailed just 15-14 heading into the fourth quarter)
#5 Mayer Lutheran 26, #4 Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart 6
#1 Minneapolis North 33, #8 Kimball Area 0

Other area football scores, playoff openers: 
Section 6AAA
Melrose Area 32, Litchfield 22
Annandale (six seed) 22, Montevideo (three seed) 13
Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta 42, Redwood Valley 13

Section 5AAA
Foley (seven seed) 29, Aitkin (two seed) 14
St. Cloud Cathedral (three seed) 32, Milaca (six seed) 18

Section 4AA
Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted 35, Spectrum 0 (Lakers are the number two seed)

Section 6A
Royalton 43, Prairie Valley 7

Section 6AA
Holdingford 47, Wadena-Deer Creek 0
Osakis 26, Long Prairie-Grey Eagle 19 (first playoff win for the Silverstreaks since 2009)

Section 5AA
Minnewaska Area 38, Sauk Centre 24
Eden Valley-Watkins 41, Yellow Medicine East 8
BOLD 54, Benson 13