extended sports coverage for the B-B-E community brought to you by the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper in Brooten, MN. (Address: P.O. Box 250, Brooten) http://www.bonanzavalleyvoice.com. ALL VIEWS posted are strictly and without exception the opinions of the newspaper owner and no one else; they're written in first hand format. Please submit feedback in writing to the address posted above. **This is Minnesota's oldest varsity high school sports blog. We hope to keep it going into the future!
Saturday, October 31, 2015
Subsection semis
Verndale survived a scare from Kimball Area in the first semifinal match tonight in Long Prairie, winning 3-2 over the third-seeded Cubs.
The B-B-E vs. Browerville/Eagle Valley match will start much later than 6 o'clock. More like 19:00 or so.
Game one: the Tigers have an early 13-6 lead. The Jaguars fought back to a 23-22 deficit, but the Tigers got a kill and an ace serve to win it 25-22.
Game two: an early Jaguars lead of 4-1 evaporated...they now trail 10-8. The Tigers won 25-18 to put the Jaguars into a deep hole.
Game three: ....updates will follow at 8:30 p.m. Game three is going well but I don't want to jinx anything by posting a score. Final score: Jaguars 25, Tigers 20.
This is nerve-wracking! Game four: the Jaguars went quietly in an ugly loss. I have nothing else to say. This concludes our fall sports in Jaguar Country.
Brady will be in Long Prairie tonight...but it would be best if you traveled to the match and cheered in person! Read more on the volleyball team at http://bonanzavalleyvoice.com
In the state football tournament, Minneapolis North poured it on in a 54-29 win over Tracy-Milroy-Balaton earlier today.
The Jaguars celebrate earning match point at the end of game three tonight.
A strong start in a convincing game one win propelled the B-B-E Jaguars volleyball team to a 3-0 sweep over Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City in the Sub-Section 5A-West quarterfinals tonight.
Game scores were 25-9, 25-17, 25-16. Video and a full match recap will be posted tomorrow at the brand new Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website: http://www.bonanzavalleyvoice.com.
ANOTHER great student section tonight! BRAVO.
Next is the semifinal round of the tournament with a match at Long Prairie-Grey Eagle high school on Saturday night (Halloween) at 6 p.m. Their opponent will be extremely formidable: Browerville/Eagle Valley. The second-seeded B/EV Tigers (21-2-3) swept third-seeded Swanville(9-15) in their quarterfinal match tonight. More information on B/EV will be posted in the Bonanza Valley Voice web article tomorrow.
Here's the end of game five on October 13 on "Dig Pink" night against Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted...this one is fun to watch!!!
And lo-and-behold!!! A mild upset took place in Kerkhoven tonight. It's hard to say that I'm surprised about this one, as other prognosticators who I talked to felt that Kimball Area had a good chance of winning. That's just what happened as third-seeded Kimball Area (17-10) took out second-seeded K-M-S by a 3-1 score.
K-M-S entered the match with a 20-9 record and a co-championship in the Camden North Conference. The Fighting Saints felt this was their year to make a deep run in the playoffs after they were moved out of Section 3A into Section 5A. Until tonight, they were having their best season since 2008 when they made a run to the Sub-Section 3A-North finals before losing in five games to Minneota. This year's team actually ended with more wins than that team did, as they went 19-9-2 in 2008. The big difference came in the playoffs, where they went 3-1 in 2008 but finished 0-1 this year. K-M-S has made great strides in recent years after "bottoming out" in 2011 in a 4-20 season (0-10 Camden Conference); last year they were 15-12 and had high expectations this year.
Sub-Section 5A-West playoff quarterfinal scores on Oct 29:
Verndale 3, Bertha-Hewitt 0
Kimball Area 3, Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg 1
Browerville/Eagle Valley 3, Swanville 0
Sub-Section 5A-East playoff quarterfinal scores on Oct. 29:
Onamia 3, Ogilvie 0
Nevis 3, Walker-Hackensack-Akeley 0
Laporte 3, Pine River-Backus 2
Braham 3, Isle 0
Area volleyball playoff scores on October 29: BOLD 3, Sleepy Eye St. Mary's 1 New London-Spicer 3, Minnewaska Area 0 Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart 3, Cedar Mountain-Comfrey 1 Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta 3, Benson 0 Paynesville Area 3, Eden Valley-Watkins 0 (third-seeded Paynesville breaks their school record for most wins in a volleyball season; they are 15-9 overall and now face No.-2 seeded New London-Spicer in the Sub-Section 3AA-North semifinals; before this year, the 1978 Bulldogs team had the most wins in school history and finished 14-3 overall)
The North Dakota State College of Science Wildcats volleyball team improved to 25-7 overall with a 3-1 win over Bismarck State College in the Region XIII championship match last night in Bismarck, North Dakota. Game scores were 26-24, 20-25, 28-26, 25-19. The match ended in game four when B-B-E Class of 2015 graduate Kinlee Swanson earned a kill for NDSCS's 25th point; she finished with nine kills overall.
Game three was a barn-burner, with Bismarck State leading 25-24 and just one point away from taking a 2-1 lead over the Wildcats.
Becca Gruber, B-B-E Class of 2014 graduate, led the Wildcats attack with 14 kills and two ace blocks. NDSCS won the Region XIII title for the second year in a row. In 2014, the Wildcats lost to Central Nebraska in the District G playoffs with a national tournament berth on the line. They took a 34-1 overall record into the district playoffs and finished the season 34-3.
By the way, don't forget to come to tonight's playoff match in Jaguar Country! The B-B-E Jaguars volleyball team hosts Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City at 7 p.m.
The Jaguars will host Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City on Thursday night in the subsection quarterfinals. The match starts at 7 p.m
The Falcons beat Royalton 3-1 on Tuesday night in the play-in round.
The North Dakota State College of Science Wildcats volleyball team is playing for a berth in the NCAA Junior College DII national tournament when they face Bismarck State on Wednesday night in Bismarck.
An important update for the upcoming volleyball sub-section tournament: due to Browerville/Eagle Valley playing in the state football tournament, the potential matchup between our B-B-E Jaguars volleyball team and the B/EV Tigers in the Sub-Section 5A-West semifinals would not start until 6 p.m. at Long Prairie-Grey Eagle high school.
If an upset happens on Thursday night in the quarterfinals, this is of course subject to change.
I hope you can make it over to the B-B-E Jaycees Halloween party tonight. The details were printed in an ad on page two of the Oct. 22 issue of the Bonanza Valley Voice.
Pierz won their third straight Section 5AAA title today in an 18-12 win over Annandale. They face another undefeated team, Albany, in the state quarterfinals.
Minneapolis North crushed Mayer Lutheran 50-21 tonight to claim the Section 4A title for the second straight year. They face 10-1 Tracy-Milroy-Balaton in the state quarterfinals on Halloween at Gustavus Adolphus College. The TMB Panthers won the Section 3A title.
Section 4AA is where something really incredible took place. Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted, who was 0-5 at one point this season, entered the playoffs with a 1-7 record and a number five seed before winning games in a row to land a spot in the Class 2A state tournament. Their lone regular season win was by a 34-28 score in week six over visiting Eden Valley-Watkins. In the Section 4AA championship, the HL-W-W Lakers won 34-27 over two-time defending section champion Maple Lake. Maple Lake entered the playoffs with a 3-5 record and the number three seed, and they had won Section 4AA titles in 2010, 2011, 2013 and 2014.
HL-W-W (4-7 overall) starts the state playoffs against undefeated Pipestone Area (11-0) on Friday, Oct. 30 at 7 p.m. at New Prague high school.
If the Jaguars win the playoff opener, the volleyball sub-section semifinal game would not start until 4:30 p.m. on Saturday, October 31. This has been since changed...to 6 p.m. in Long Prairie !!!!
This morning it became official: the B-B-E Jaguars volleyball team has earned a number one playoff seed for the upcoming Sub-Section 5A-West tournament.
Section 5A is divided up into four separate pods, with two in each sub-section. For the Jaguars, they are ranked number one in Sub-Section 5A-West-A and will host a quarterfinal-round match on Thursday, Oct. 29 at 7 p.m. They will face the winner of the Royalton-vs.-Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City play-in round match. Those two teams square off in Royalton on Tuesday night. The sub-section semifinals will be held at Long Prairie-Grey Eagle high school on Saturday afternoon, October 31. I have heard from sub-section officials that the times for those two semifinal matches in Long Prairie have not been set in stone yet.
Further playoff information and scheduling notes were published in this week's Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper. (Page four, for the curious)
Here's the seedings for Sub-Section 5A-West A-pod:
1.) B-B-E (19-9)
2.) Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg (20-9)
3.) Kimball Area (16-11)
4.) Royalton
5.) Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City
Top seeds in Sub-Section 5A-East include Braham (19-7 overall) and Nevis (18-9 overall). Later today I will break down and post more information on sub-section teams.
The trip home from Pierz had a celebratory mood tonight, with the B-B-E Jaguars volleyball team claiming the school's 13th conference championship since 1994. They earned that feat with a 3-2 win over the Pioneers (2-5, 9-14) to finish the Central Minnesota Conference season with a perfect 7-0 record. Game five was won by a 15-9 score after the Jaguars started out with an early 2-0 lead in games.
For the playoffs that begin next week, the Jaguars will begin with a 19-9 record and the top ranking in Sub-Section 5A-South.
Talk about incredible! Out of 28 seasons of B-B-E Jaguars volleyball, 13 of those teams have won or shared a conference title. Making it more impressive? In 27 of those 28 seasons of volleyball, B-B-E has been the smallest school in the conference.
Tomorrow seeding in Sub-Section 5A-South will be posted along with a playoff schedule.
The fourth-ranked and undefeated Minneapolis North Polars (9-0) won 48-10 in the section semifinals today. Our B-B-E Jaguars football team finishes with a record of 5-5, a solid season after going 1-8 in 2014. The Polars outgained the Jaguars 493 yards to 118. Read more statistics on the game in this week's Bonanza Valley Voice.
In the other section semifinal, Mayer Lutheran crushed Upsala/Swanville Area 35-6. Minneapolis North and Mayer Lutheran meet in the Section 4A championship at St. John's University this week Saturday with a 5 p.m. kickoff.
Area football playoff scores in section semifinals on Oct. 20: Maple Lake 43, Spectrum 16 (Irish are the #3 seed in Section 4AA, Spectrum was the #2 seed!) Montevideo 20, Holdingford 14 Albany 40, New London-Spicer 6 Pierz 42, Foley 6 Paynesville Area 62, Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City 28 (Falcons led early before fading) Minnewaska Area 20, Sauk Centre 7 Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted 40, St. Agnes 20 (HL-W-W is the #5 seed in Section 4AA; St. Agnes was the #1 seed!)
Updates from the section semifinal football game will be posted here starting at about 3:15 p.m.
**As the second quarter is about to begin: Minneapolis North 20, B-B-E 0. One of the Polars' touchdowns came on a 70-yard run.
**Another update: the Jaguars have put points on the board! It's a 28-7 deficit. The Polars fumbled the ball away at their own 33-yard line, and the Jaguars then scored on a 30-yard touchdown pass from sophomore quarterback Ryan Illies to senior wide receiver Sidney Shacter about midway through the second quarter.
It goes without saying that this Minneapolis North team is tremendously talented. Their core group of players, mostly seniors, have been playing varsity football for the past four seasons. They have made no secret of having a mentality that they're on a mission to win a state championship this fall.
With 2:30 left in the second quarter: North 28, Jaguars 7.
*At halftime: the Jaguars trail 34-7 to the fourth-ranked team in Class 1A in the section semifinals.
*With six minutes left in the third quarter: North 42, Jaguars 7.
While you're here, take a glimpse back to 2008, when the fourth-seeded Jaguars traveled to Minneota in the Section 5A semifinals: http://bbejaguars.blogspot.com/2008/10/ouch-hard-to-sugar-coat-this-one.html ...the Jaguars trailed 33-6 at halftime against the Vikings in that game. What's noteworthy is that the Class of 2009 (football players) were the first group of B-B-E football players to go through the varsity program without a winless season. During their freshmen year, the Jaguars were 2-7. Then 3-7 in 2006, and then 2-7 once again in 2007 before going 5-5 in 2008.
In what was considered a tough road test for the B-B-E volleyball team, host team Albany wilted under a triple-pronged attack in a 3-0 win for the Jaguars. The Huskies, who are currently tied for first place in the Granite Ridge Conference with Becker (8-1 each), got close in the third game, a 25-22 loss.
Any way you cut it, the win is impressive for the Jaguars as they head into the final match of the regular season. Now 18-9 overall, they travel to Pierz this Thursday with their eyes set on clinching the Central Minnesota Conference title outright.
A spectator bus has been offered and is already full for tomorrow's football playoff game in Minneapolis. At this point, because it would be difficult to find an available bus driver, a second bus is not being offered.
The game will have a kickoff time of 3 p.m. at Minneapolis North high school.
Also, Superintendent Bullard reported that school will be in session as usual.
Plus don't miss out on photos from the Color FUND Run on pages one and 10 of this week's Bonanza Valley Voice. I have plans to include more in the Oct. 22 issue as well.
Not much to say beyond the fact that they are crazy good! The Polars (8-0) average 34.4 points per game on offense and give up just 2.5 points per game on defense. (Actually they score a lot more than that per game, but two of their games are marked as forfeit wins by scores of 2-0 and 1-0...in actual games played, they average 45.3 points per game of offense.)
The Jaguars (5-4) and Polars will square off in the Section 4A semifinals next Tuesday, October 20 at 3 p.m. at the Minneapolis North high school football field.
Mpls. North was considered one of many state title contenders last year, but their hopes were dashed by Dawson-Boyd in the Class 1A state semifinals in a 28-12 loss at Hopkins High School; they finished 12-1. It was a stinging loss to say the least. From articles I've read, it took players awhile to get over it. (Reminds me of when our boys' basketball team went 1-1 in the sub-section playoffs in 2013.)
In 2012, the Polars went 2-7 with a first-round playoff loss at Murdock to Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg by a 54-40 score. In 2013, Minneapolis North went 7-3 and was the top seed heading into the Section 4A playoffs. In the semifinals, a bigger and stronger Lester Prairie/Holy Trinity team came to North's football field and demolished them 54-26, ending the season with a 7-3 mark.
Fast forward a year, to the Section 4A championship game at Sauk Centre high school, and a vastly-improved Polars team demolished LP/HT 40-14 to go to state.
They were 0-9 in 2011. In 2010, Mpls. North was a Class 3A school before falling on hard times and nearly closing the following year. Their turnaround has been quite impressive, to say the least.
Fun fact:
The head football coach of Minneapolis North, Charlie Adams, is a Minneapolis cop and has been on that city's police force for over 10 years. His full-time job is as the school resource officer at North high school. This is his sixth year as head coach at Minneapolis North. I have conversed with him over text messaging and e-mails during the 2012 and 2013 playoffs. He's a great guy, and I know he will have his team ready to play next week.
Another fun fact:
North high school has a terrific, first-class weight-lifting facilities provided by the E.J. Henderson Youth Foundation. Three former NFL players are mentors to the team.
Coach Vos with Tyler Tensen at the 2012 state wrestling tournament.
At the 2011 Section 5A wrestling tournament at Minnewaska Area with Josey Tensen.
The 2012 B-B-E Jaguars volleyball team paid tribute to Coach Vos. They are shown here in a photo taken the day after he died, after they beat Eden Valley-Watkins in the last Central Minnesota Conference match of the season.
...and the football team praying the Lord's Prayer:
The first writing of mine after I heard the terrible news on Tuesday, October 16, 2012:
The helmets were held high following the game tonight.
An ending for the ages! Something we haven't seen at B-B-E on the gridiron in 28 years of B-B-E football. Straight outta crazy town! I may never see this at B-B-E as long as I live.
Trailing 19-14 as the final minutes approached in the fourth quarter, the B-B-E Jaguars football team got a badly-needed defensive stop right as it appeared as though Lester Prairie/Holy Trinity was about to put the game away. The Bulldogs had first down on the B-B-E 17-yard line. Here's how it played out: loss of two yards on run play, incomplete pass, a pass reception for five yards...on fourth-and-seven, Kyle Felling made a great defensive play to bring another incomplete pass.
*Here's a short video clip from the middle of the second quarter, where the Jaguars turned back an LP/HT drive; the Bulldogs had a fourth down play on the B-B-E four-yard line:
Even so, the odds were not in B-B-E's favor with possession of the ball on their own 15-yard line. Their offense had sputtered most of the night, and they had just five minutes and eight seconds on the clock to cover 85 yards. From the start of the game up to that point, the Jaguars had just 158 yards of offense. Here's what happened next:
1st-and-10: Tanner Heinsius reception for six yards
2nd-and-4: Heinsius run for six yards
1st-and-10 on the 27: Heinsius converts again with a 14-yard gain
1st-and-10 on the 41: Sidney Shacter got out ahead of the defense and caught a perfect pass from Ryan Illies to set up the Jaguars at the Bulldogs 28-yard line!! If you're keeping track, that catch was good for 31 yards.
From the 28-yard line, the Jaguars converted again to get a first down on the LP/HT 12-yard line. Things were looking GREAT with just over three minutes of game left.
At that point, the unthinkable happened: a lost fumble recovered by LP/HT at their own 10-yard line. The clock had just 3:11 on it. Not good!
LP/HT proceeded to convert one first down on third-and-seven, and from there they burnt three seconds shy of two minutes of game time. The Bulldogs were held to fourth down and 13 yards to go. At that point they punted from their own 22-yard line with 44 seconds on the clock after gaining just 12 net yards of offense on six plays.
The Jaguars got a nice punt return from Heinsius of about 20 yards and had the ball on the LP/HT 42-yard line. That was the good part. The bad part: just 34 seconds were on the clock.
Fast forward to under 10 seconds to go, and Kyle Felling ran in a 13-yard touchdown reception with 4.4 seconds left! The two-point conversion was caught by Heinsius in the left flats for a final score of 22-19. Felling's historic catch came on third-and-10, on which the ball was snapped with 10.0 seconds to go. Felling ran a route to the right and evaded numerous Bulldogs before leaping across the goal line just inside the right pylon. LET ME TELL YOU! NFL players have nothing on Felling for his dramatic catch, run and score.
Making it even crazier: Ryan Illies threw the game-winning pass under duress, right as he was getting knocked to the ground.
Coach Langer reminding his kickoff team that "the game is not over yet" following the game-winning touchdown.
On the final play of the game, LP/HT's quarterback rolled out to pass, but he was chased down and sacked as the clock expired. It was an incredible and stunning turnaround in the final minute after the Jaguars trailed 12-7 at halftime and then fell behind 19-7 with seven minutes left in the third quarter. When the dust settled, they added 114 yards of offense to their stats in the final five minutes of the game. When all was said and done, the Jaguars had 272 yards of total offense compared to 229 by LP/HT. The passing stats were nearly identical (just one yard different), but the Jaguars out-rushed the Bulldogs by a 162-to-118 margin.
Next is a game at undefeated Minneapolis North on Tuesday, October 20 in the section semifinals. They had a first-round bye. From the information I've read, the game has a 3 p.m. kickoff. I do know we are making an effort to move the kickoff time to 1 o'clock or 2 o'clock.
In the other two quarterfinal games of Section 4A:
Mayer Lutheran 28, Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg 6
Upsala/Swanville Area 52, Kimball Area 7
Area football playoff scores on October 14: Holdingford 21, Melrose Area 20 (quite the border battle! Section 6AAA) Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City 25, Eden Valley-Watkins 20 (Section 5AA; nice job, Falcons!) Sauk Centre 37, Osakis 16 (Section 5AA) Paynesville Area 64, Benson 35 (Section 5AA) Maple Lake 31, Norwood-Young America 6 (Section 4AA) Montevideo 21, Litchfield 17 (Section 6AAA) New London-Spicer 32, Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta 14 (Section 6AAA, Wildcats win at Big Cat Stadium in Morris)
Twelve seniors helped lead this year's Jaguars football team to a 4-4 regular season record. It's been an up-and-down season that will get a big silver lining on it if they win tonight.
HOME football playoffs! It's extremely rare at B-B-E. So rare, in fact, that you can count the home playoff openers on both hands out of 28 seasons of Jaguars football. When have the Jaguars hosted a home playoff opener up to this year? Those years are: 1988, 1997, 2006, 2008, 2012 and 2013. Now we can add 2015 to that list!
To everyone in and near Jaguar Country = come to the game tonight!! Yes!
TONIGHT! Wednesday! The Jaguars look to get above .500 on the season with a playoff-opening win during the Section 4A quarterfinal round. The opponent is another team that sits with a 4-4 record, Lester Prairie/Holy Trinity. Where's the game? HOME! What time? 7 p.m.! Come early and get a good seat!!! Here's a unique video featuring the coin flip last Friday night with B-B-E's Hall of Fame inductees (four of them plus Gregory Mohs' sister) before the Jaguars faced Kimball on Homecoming:
Senior volleyball players and fellow senior fans on Dig Pink night.
In a topsy-turvy night full of highs and lows, the B-B-E Jaguars volleyball team defeated Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted 3-2 to clinch a share of the conference title. Game scores were 25-14, 25-19, 19-25, 25-27, 15-12. Read all about the match in this week's Bonanza Valley Voice. It hits newsstands on Wednesday afternoon.
Central Minnesota Conference volleyball scores on October 13:
Paynesville Area 3, Kimball Area 1
Maple Lake 3, Pierz 0
Holdingford 3, Eden Valley-Watkins 0
Area volleyball scores on October 13: New London-Spicer 3, Watertown-Mayer 0 Rocori 3, Alexandria 2 Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart 3, Lester Prairie/Holy Trinity 2 Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta 3, Minnewaska Area 0 Melrose Area 3, Montevideo 0 Albany 3, Mora 0 Swanville 3, Upsala 0
Here's Hi-Def video from near the end of the fundraising event last Wednesday at the high school:
Don't miss Dig Pink night tonight at the home volleyball game! It's also Seniors Night and Parents Night. The state-ranked Jaguars will host Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted in a Central Minnesota Conference match.
From game two of the match against Alexandria today.
Coach Weller talking to the team between games one and two against Alexandria. The Cardinals won easily in game one by a score of 25-17 but lost to the Jaguars 25-22 in game two.
In a tournament loaded with talent and high-power teams from around Minnesota, the B-B-E Jaguars volleyball team went 2-2 today. All four of their matches went the full three games, culminating with a tough 15-13 game-three loss to Alexandria in the third-place match.
Dean DeKok speaking at tonight's HOF banquet in Padua. He is a 1962 graduate of Brooten High School.
Fast-forward a couple of hours, and I found myself at the Padua Pub taking in the first-ever Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa all-school Hall of Fame banquet. It was quite the event!! I have video to upload but won't get it posted until late tonight. I especially enjoyed meeting the HOF inductees who were present as well as their families.
Inducted to the B-B-E Hall of Fame are: Dean DeKok, Michele (Marthaler) Perkins, Dick Nelson, Sherwood Sagedahl, George Borgerding, Dennis Weimerskirch, Ralph Halvorson and the late Gregory Mohs.
Visiting with Margie Marthaler was a special treat!!! She has had a front-row seat to some incredible moments in Brooten Buccaneer school history.
Early indications suggest that the B-B-E Jaguars football team will have a first-round home playoff game. Seeding is not finalized, though. Stay tuned for updates. The first playoff game is Wednesday, October 14 at 7 p.m.
**Update: the Jaguars (4-4) indeed have a home playoff game. They are the fourth seed and will host fifth-seeded Lester Prairie/Holy Trinity (4-4) on Wednesday night to start the Section 4A playoffs.
It was anything but pretty, and in fact, some observers would have called it down right ugly. The result is what matters most, though, and that's something to walk away feeling good about as the B-B-E Jaguars football team climbed back to .500 on the season with a 14-0 shut out win against Kimball Area on Homecoming night.
The Jaguars defense had a great night, not only shutting out Kimball but holding them to under 100 yards of total offense (91 actually). The Cubs ran 41 plays good for 39 rushing yards and 52 passing yards. On the other side of the ball, while they struggled at times to convert third down, the Jaguars had 260 yards of total offense with 183 coming on the ground and 77 through the air. They were 7-of-15 on third-down conversions and two-of-four on fourth down conversions.
Kyle Felling caught an eight-yard pass in the second quarter for B-B-E's first touchdown. Isaiah Gilbert scored on a two-yard run in the third quarter to make it 12-0. The extra-point conversion was ran in by Felling to make the final score 14-0.
The Jaguars are 4-4 overall and now wait for the QRF computer to decide their fate for the upcoming Section 4A playoffs. The seedings will be computed some time on Saturday.
This year's B-B-E football team is just the seventh team in school history to win four or more regular season games. (1988, 1993, 1997, 2008, 2012, 2013, 2015) That's seven teams in 28 years of Jaguar football who have gone 4-4 or better before heading into the playoffs.
The Cubs finish the regular season with an 0-8 record for the second year in a row. They've lost 27 games in a row dating back to the 2012 playoffs, when they lost in the semifinals of Section 4AA to Maple Lake.
Mid-State District, Sub-District 3 scores on October 8/9:
Browerville/Eagle Valley 35, Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg 8
Upsala/Swanville Area 31, West Central Area/Ashby 18
Royalton 25, Parkers Prairie 8
Area football scores in Week Eight on Oct. 9: Pierz 49, Holdingford 7 Paynesville Area 48, Melrose Area 24 Montevideo 20, Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta 13 OT BOLD 53, Yellow Medicine East 0 Sauk Centre 16, Benson 13 Rockford Area 26, Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted 14 Minneapolis North 47, St. Agnes 0 Hillcrest Lutheran Academy 35, MACCRAY 30 Wheaton/Herman-Norcross 28, Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart 24 Minnewaska Area 35, Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City 14 (Minnewaska clinched their sub-district title outright with a 7-0 record; they are 7-1 overall) Renville County West 11, Brandon/Evansville 8 New London-Spicer 59, Milaca 6 Becker 42, Albany 6 Waterville-Elysian-Morristown 33, Mayer Lutheran 14 Osakis 28, Long Prairie-Grey Eagle 20
Ashley Trustheim and Karlee Kern put up a wall to slow the attack of Kimball's Caitlin O'Brien.
A perfect 5-0 mark is the record in the Central Minnesota Conference for the B-B-E Jaguars volleyball team. They won their 14th match of the season in three games over visiting Kimball Area. The Jaguars trailed 11-9 in game one before dropping the hammer and surging ahead to score 14 of the next 16 points to earn a 23-13 lead. In game two, the Cubs led 17-13 before wilting against an overpowering B-B-E service game. The Jaguars led 21-9 before subbing down quite a bit.
Game scores were 25-15, 25-21, 25-17.
Next is the Alexandria tournament starting at 9 a.m.
**Don't miss out on the North American State Bank tailgating party to kick off the night on Friday prior to the Homecoming football game. It begins at 5:30 p.m. on the east side of the high school.
(Videos) B-B-E Powder Puff Homecoming football game
The seniors (coaches, players) gather at the end zone.
The juniors confer after the third quarter ended with Coach Jacob Weller giving instructions.
After the senior girls led 9-2 at halftime, they survived a spirited and valiant comeback effort by the junior girls to win the 2015 B-B-E Homecoming Powder Puff football game by a 13-8 score. At the start of the fourth quarter, the juniors narrowed the gap to a 9-7 deficit.
Here's two videos, one showing the pregame and start of the game, and then the post-game celebration by the seniors. I was impressed by the effort of both teams!
And the post-game celebrating:
Two days of Homecoming are in the book. Two more to go!
(Below) Video from one of the color stations and then near the finish line. Note when Superintendent Bullard gets involved in the action around the 7-minute mark!
Here's some video taken before the first annual B-B-E Color FUND Run began earlier this afternoon:
Well-DONE!!! Great job to everyone who made this event a huge success!!!! Fundraising amounts and other information on the event will appear in next week's Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper.
Here's where game two went into extra points last night in front of a full house. What an awesome night, an awesome Jaguars team and an awesome crowd!!!!!
The Paynesville Area Bulldogs were swept away tonight by the B-B-E Jaguars volleyball team, keeping the Jaguars on top of the Central Minnesota Conference. The biggest thrills came in game two, when the Jaguars rallied from an 18-13 deficit to take a 23-21 lead before winning 26-24. Read all about the match in this week's Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper.
It was a fun night on a day where we kicked off Homecoming. Next is the Kimball Area at home on Thursday night. The Cubs (14-4 overall) just beat Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted in four games tonight to improve to 4-1 in the CMC. Their only losses in best-of-five matches are to Litchfield and Maple Lake. Make NO mistake: they will be tough as nails.
Area volleyball scores on October 6: New London-Spicer 3, Rockford Area 0 (Wildcats win their fifth in a row) Royalton 3, Holdingford 1 Sauk Centre 3, Melrose Area 1 Pierz 3, Long Prairie-Grey Eagle 0 BOLD 3, Montevideo 1 Canby 3, Central Minnesota Christian-Prinsburg 0 Braham 3, Ogilvie 0 Henning 3, Underwood 2 Minnewaska Area 3, Benson 0 (Lakers win game five by a 17-15 score) Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta 3, Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City 0 Kimball Area 3, Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted 1 Mayer Lutheran 3, Maple Lake 1
The 27th annual B-B-E Homecoming coronation was held this morning at the high school gymnasium with the 7th-12th grade student body in attendance. After a fun game of "Family Feud", Taylor Knight and Haley Van Beck were named the B-B-E Homecoming King and Queen.
Here's a 17-minute video clip from the coronation events:
Homecoming activities continue throughout the week at B-B-E. Please refer to page one of last week's (Oct. 1) issue of the Bonanza Valley Voice to read about them.
Friday Night Lights VII: Patriots rule second half
The Jaguars and Patriots clashed on this play, typical of the night where both teams tried to stop the other from running the ball. In the end, USA had much better success in the second half, which they won 20-7.
In a game where mistakes and missed opportunities were too numerous to overcome, the B-B-E Jaguars football team lost a tough battle with state-ranked Upsala/Swanville Area 33-17 tonight in a Mid-State District football game.
Upsala/Swanville Area got out to a 13-0 lead early in the second quarter. The Jaguars scored a safety and then a touchdown with a two-point conversion to make it 13-10 at halftime. After falling behind 27-10 early in the fourth quarter, the Jaguars scored to make it 27-17. The Patriots (6-1) scored one more touchdown to bring the final score.
USA's star senior running back, Kyle Lang, ruled the night with 329 rushing yards. He had around 120 rushing yards in the first quarter but was held to just 22 yards rushing in the second. B-B-E gained 239 total yards of offense compared to USA's 375 yards. The rushing yards were heavily tilted in USA's favor: 362 rushing yards to 169 for B-B-E.
For the last game of the regular season, the Jaguars have winless Kimball (0-7) on the docket for Homecoming night next Friday. The Cubs lost 30-0 tonight in their second straight shut out, with West Central Area/Ashby winning on Kimball's field. Last week Browerville/Eagle Valley beat the Cubs 42-0.
On Monday I will have a pretty good idea of how the seeding outlook shakes out. Lester Prairie/Holy Trinity beat Norwood-Young America 22-21 tonight after sitting in a 14-14 tie at halftime. The Bulldogs are 3-4 overall with the same record as B-B-E. Both the Jaguars and Bulldogs will play winless teams in Week Eight, although LP/HT's opponent is a Class 2A team (Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop).
It will be interesting to see how much room B-B-E will have above LP/HT in the QRF rankings on Monday now that both teams are 3-4. I still think the Jaguars will be ranked higher than LP/HT, but we'll see.
The team sitting in second place in Section 4A, Mayer Lutheran, lost to Maple River 23-21. Maple River is 6-1 overall, as both teams entered tonight's game with 5-1 records.
Mid-State District, Sub-District 3 scores in Week Seven, Oct. 2:
West Central Area/Ashby 30, Kimball Area 0
Browerville/Eagle Valley 39, Parkers Prairie 13
Other games around the area had these final scores: Sauk Centre 41, Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City 19 Lester Prairie/Holy Trinity 22, Norwood-Young America 21 New London-Spicer 34, Foley 22 Holdingford 41, Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted 40 Paynesville Area 40, Maple Lake 32 Clinton-Graceville-Beardsley 48, MACCRAY 32 Montevideo 42, Yellow Medicine East 0 United North Central 22, Osakis 8 Brandon/Evansville 40, Wheaton/Herman-Norcross 8 BOLD 22, Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta 12 Frazee 22, Long Prairie-Grey Eagle 13 Minnewaska Area 47, Benson 6 Pierz 47, Rockford Area 0 Melrose Area 26, Eden Valley-Watkins 12 (Eagles lose their fourth straight game)
Here's a clipping from the October 26, 1978 issue of the Bonanza Valley Voice. In the photo, Mark Remer is running the football during a sweep to the right at the Swanville high school football field.
37 years ago!!!
In 1978, for the second-to-last game of the regular season, the Brooten Buccaneers football teamtraveled to Swanville for an afternoon game against the undefeated (7-0) Swans. After being dominated in the first half and trailing 16-0 at halftime, the Buccaneers came out swinging and scored two unanswered touchdowns. They missed both extra-point attempts, though, and ultimately lost 16-12 to fall out of contention for a share of the Prairie Conference championship.
Here's part of the game recap from the Oct. 26, 1978 issue of the Bonanza Valley Voice:
Swanville dominated the first half of a Prairie Conference battle between conference contenders while posting a 16-12 win over Brooten. The Swans are now 8-0 overall (6-0 Prairie) and guaranteed a share of the conference title, while the Buccaneers fell to 6-2 overall and 4-2 in the Prairie Conference.
Mark Remer scored late in the third quarter from nine yards out to make it 16-6. Later in the fourth quarter, Eric Fauskee at quarterback passed a 31-yard touchdown reception to Tim Orton. Again, the extra point was missed making it 16-12.
The Buccaneers were in scoring position earlier in the fourth quarter, but they failed to convert fourth-and-one.
Bill Spellman had a blocked punt, while Jim Hofmann had 13 tackles, Duane Fettig had 14 tackles, Mark Walz had three solo tackles and seven assists, and Dale Thompson had two solo tackles and six assists.
Parents’ Night closes out the regular season this week with Grey Eagle (0-6 Prairie) coming to town for an 8 p.m. game.
Brooten's football team finished 7-2 overall in 1978 with their second-best ever season on the gridiron in the history of the school. They went 5-2 in the Prairie Conference to take second place alone. Swanville finished the season 9-0 overall with a perfect 7-0 mark in the Prairie Conference.
Tomorrow, the B-B-E Jaguars football team (3-3) travels to play on that same football field in Swanville. This time they'll be facing a state-ranked Upsala/Swanville Area Patriots team that's 5-1 overall and in the race for a share of the Mid-State District, Sub-District 3 championship. It will be just the second time in school history that B-B-E and USA have played one another in football. The first meeting was in 2004 in the Section 5A opener, when USA beat the Jaguars 27-20 in Swanville.
In 1988, in the first year of the B-B-E Jaguars athletic pairing, the Jaguars football team played Swanville-Grey Eagle at Grey Eagle in a game of Prairie Lakes Conference contenders. S-GE was 2-1 in the conference, while B-B-E was 3-0. The Jaguars won a hard-fought defensive battle by a 14-7 score to win the Prairie Lakes Conference title outright with a 4-0 mark. It's the only time the Jaguars have won a football conference championship.
In 2013, the Jaguars finished in second place in the Central Minnesota Conference. Besides 1988 and 2013, they've never finished higher than third place on a conference schedule.
If B-B-E wins tomorrow night, they would pull into a tie for second place in their sub-district of the Mid-State District at 4-2. USA is currently 4-1 and in second place alone. Browerville/Eagle Valley is the leader at 5-0. B-B-E and West Central Area/Ashby are tied for third place with 3-2 marks.
