Friday Night Lights I: Jaguars falter in fourth quarter

A defensive struggle played out four three-quarters of the season opener between the B-B-E Jaguars football team and the host Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City Falcons. At halftime, the Falcons held a 12-8 lead, and that score stood into the fourth quarter.

Below, video from the first quarter, right after the Jaguars pulled in front with an 8-6 lead:


The Jaguars appeared to find some footing early in the fourth quarter while trailing 20-8 when they scored on a 51-yard catch by Dylan Meyer to narrow it back to a one-score game. The Falcons had just scored with 10:46 left in the game, and B-B-E started a drive on their own 24-yard line. The Jaguars drove into Falcons territory. They lost three yards on first down, but then Dylan Meyer hauled in a pass deep in the right corner from Thaniel Cebulla and scored with 8:40 to go, B-B-E down 20-14.

A-C-GC scored two unanswered touchdowns in the last eight minutes, one from 53 yards out and the final one from two yards out. Final score: A-C-GC 35, B-B-E 14. For the game, the Jaguars had 263 yards of offense compared to 311 for A-C-GC. Two big differences were the Falcons committing no penalties in the game while they also went 4-of-12 on third-down conversions. B-B-E had five penalties for 30 yards, and they were 2-of-11 on third-down conversions. The Falcons converted on fourth down once, their only try of the game. B-B-E was 0-for-2 on fourth down tries. The Jaguars had a fairly solid run game with 180 yards rushing. The Falcons ran for 203 yards.

While the loss stings, and the fourth quarter of the game left a very bad taste for our team, I drove home from Grove City feeling not too shabby considering the Jaguars have had to replace 13 valuable seniors, including 10 starters on offense and eight starters on defense.

Next for the Jaguars (0-1) is the home and Sub-District III opener on Friday, September 7 when they host rival Kimball Area at 7 p.m. The Cubs lost 41-22 to visiting Eden Valley-Watkins in their season opener on Thursday.

Week one, season openers, including Mid State, Sub-District III teams (home teams in bold):
Osakis 14, Browerville 6
Long Prairie-Grey Eagle 14, New York Mills 10
Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg 26, Benson 0
(Dylan Rudningen had 220 yards, 24 carries and four TDs) Parkers Prairie 14, Wadena-Deer Creek 0
Royalton 34, Sauk Centre 20
Upsala/Swanville Area 43, Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted 20
Eden Valley-Watkins 41, Kimball Area 22

Area football scores in Week 1:Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta 44, Holdingford 21
BOLD 30, Paynesville Area 20
Melrose Area 44, Montevideo 14
Wabasso 28, Lac qui Parle Valley 21
Breckenridge 34, West Central Area/Ashby 20
Hancock 20, Park Chrisian 12
Maple Lake 27, Minnewaska Area 0
Pierz 64, Milaca 8
Holy Family Catholic 32, New London-Spicer 23
Tracy-Milroy-Balaton 30, Yellow Medicine East 8