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)