Friday Night Lights XI: HISTORIC WIN! (VIDEOS)

The Jaguars gather at the FargoDome turf on Friday, November 5, following their historic win in the Section 4A championship game over Upsala/Swanville Area.

The B-B-E Jaguars football team won a game for the ages in the Section 4A finals today. The final score was B-B-E 52, U/SA 44. Crazy. The Jaguars totaled an unofficial 433 yards of offense. They gained 226 in the first half. Also noteworthy: the Jaguars scored on their first four drives of the second half to take a 44-30 lead. Crazy. Luke Dingmann passed for 232 yards with three touchdowns. On the defensive side, the Jaguar defense forced three U/SA lost fumbles while earning one quarterback sack (by Carson Gilbert) and four tackles for a loss.

Coming up: Friday Night Lights XII! Yes, the 12th installment of Friday Night Lights this fall for our football team. This is the first time in my career that I'll have a Friday Night Lights XII! This could not get any more exciting! Who else is jacked sky high out there right now in Jaguar Country??? We will get a tough-as-an-anvil No. 3-ranked Rushford-Peterson team in the Class 1A state quarterfinals. That game is on Friday, November 12 at 7 p.m. in St. Bonifacious at Crown College's Old National Bank Stadium. Spread the word! (This is repeated below.) The No. 3-ranked Rushford-Peterson Trojans are having a memorable season and take an 11-0 record into state. Their 8-0 regular season was the first undefeated regular season since 2002. They defeated long-time rival Fillmore Central by a 7-0 score tonight in the Section 1A title game. It was Rushford-Peterson's first appearance in a section football final since 2016, when they defeated Fillmore Central 22-21 in the 1A finals to advance to state. At state in 2016, Rushford-Peterson blazed their way to the Prep Bowl with a 44-21 win over Murray County Central in the quarterfinals and a 49-0 win over Browerville in the semifinals. In the 2016 Prep Bowl, Rushford-Peterson fell 30-14 to a loaded Minneapolis North team. That Minneapolis North team defeated our Jaguars 48-10 the year before (2015) in the section semifinals in Minneapolis.

The Trojans lost to Blooming Prairie in the Section 1A championship in 2014. They won the section title in 2008 under long-time head coach Jim Reinhardt, who retired after that 2008 season. R-P lost to Royalton by a 20-14 score in the 2008 state tournament. Coach Reinhardt had a 198-68 record in 24 seasons at Rushford-Peterson, leading the team to state nine times overall. His teams won state titles in 2002, 2004 and 2006. Their 1988 team was runner-up at the Prep Bowl.

Rushford-Peterson entered tonight's game with Fillmore Central with an 8.5 points per game defensive average. They have 9 senior starters on offense and 9 senior starters on defense.

**Here's video from the opening minutes of the game. What played out was not in B-B-E's favor...


**The tide began turning in favor of the B-B-E Jaguars in this video clip, which features the Jaguars earning their first touchdown of the game:


Section 4A championship first half recap:
B-B-E trailed 16-0 in the first quarter before scoring on the second play of the second quarter to trail 16-6. That first scoring drive started on their 35-yard line with 2:08 left in the first quarter. The Jaguars had a great start with a 20-yard gain on the first play and then a 7-yard gain on the next play. To start the second quarter, the Jaguars converted 4th-and-2 with a 36-yard gain to the U/SA one-yard line. At that point, with 11:40 on the clock, Wyatt Lewis scored to bust up the shut out.

The Jaguars mounted their second scoring drive starting on their 21-yard line with 8:27 left. Almost four minutes later, the Jaguars scored on a 28-yard pass play with 4:34 left. The 2-point conversion was good, bringing the Jaguars to a 16-14 deficit.

The Jaguars took advantage on the ensuing kickoff, when U/SA's return guy coughed up the ball. The Jaguars were back in business with 4:28 left to erase the two-point deficit starting on the U/SA 34-yard line. Using just three plays, the Jaguars scored with 3:15 on the clock on a 14-yard run play. The 2-point conversion was good, which put the B-B-E Jaguars ahead 22-16. The U/SA Patriots responded with a 69-yard touchdown drive that ended with 26 seconds remaining before halftime. Their 2-point conversion was good, which gave U/SA a 24-22 halftime lead.

A second-half game recap will be posted on Saturday afternoon.

This is the first state football tournament berth for our local community since the fall of 1983. In that year, the Belgrade-Elrosa Redmen won the Section 5C title and advanced to the state tournament, where they lost in the first round. For the B-B-E Jaguars, the football team had an 0-4 record in section championship games coming into today. They lost in the Section 5AA championship by a 14-12 score on Halloween Night in 1997 to Eden Valley-Watkins. The Jaguars lost 15-6 in the 2010 Section 4A championship at Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City. In 2012, the Jaguars lost in the Section 4A finals 6-0 to A-C-GC at Husky Stadium in St. Cloud. And finally, in 2013, the Jaguars lost in the Section 4A finals by a 29-12 score to Lester Prairie/Holy Trinity.

***The Jaguars play in the state tournament on Friday November 12th at Crown College in St. Bonifacious with a 7 p.m. kickoff. Spread the word! St. Bonifacious is approximately 100 miles from Brooten. You can get a glimpse about Crown College's Old National Bank Stadium by clicking here: https://athletics.crown.edu/sports/2013/8/2/KBS.aspx. PARENTS: talk to your student children about signing up for a fan bus. That is by far the safest and best way for them to get to the game. This includes students who can drive! Yeah, the Joe Biden-forced masking is a pain in the ass, but a game 100 miles away at night is not a good situation for teenage children to drive in. There are 100 ways to get to St. Bonifacious, so there's also the risk of an inexperienced driver getting lost before or after the game.

**Here's a very important link to share, which is ticket information for the state tournament: https://www.mshsl.org/tickets.

B-B-E will face either Rushford-Peterson (10-0) or Fillmore Central (9-1) at state. Those two teams square off tonight in Winona for the Section 1A title. Kickoff is at 7 p.m.

Pit stop over, time to get back on I-94 and get Command Central set up back home.

****After 7 p.m. and I am listening to the Rushford-Peterson vs. Fillmore Central game and taking notes. So I won't get much blogging done here until halftime! These are such extremely exciting times. I can't even describe. I'm adding a new blog post with updates on the Trojans vs. Falcons Section 1A football championship game. I will get back to updating and adding content to this blog post after that Section 1A game is in the book.

THANK YOU to Bonanza Valley State Bank for sponsoring this Jaguars sports playoff update! A historic one!! One for the ages.