This game was one for the ages! A night that we will never forget.
In a steady rain on a soaked gridiron, the B-B-E Jaguars football team settled in for a grind-it-out game against an Upsala/Swanville Area team desperately trying to avoid falling to 1-3 on the season. The Patriots, who coming in were one of the best 1-2 teams in Class 1A, punched the Jaguars in the throat right off the bat with a big defensive stop (just seven yards gained for the Jaguars) and then promptly drove 84 yards on their first drive of the game for pay dirt. Fortunately, their two-point conversion failed, and the Jaguars later gained the lead at 8-6 in the second quarter.
*Here's a defensive stop made with under a minute to go in the first quarter tonight:
**And here's another defensive stop, this time with just over 8 minutes to go in the second quarter:
B-B-E's 8-6 halftime lead grew to 16-6 in the third quarter.
U/SA scored the lone touchdown of the fourth quarter, but their last-ditch try at a third touchdown stalled out on downs after B-B-E made one of the most incredible and/or simply crazy defensive stops in the program's history. The Patriots ran their final play with 57 seconds to go, but they fell short of converting and turned the ball over on downs. B-B-E's Luke Dingmann took a knee twice with the final 51 seconds on the clock, and the Jaguars were winners for the third straight time! ***That last defensive stand is outlined in detail during my sports show, the video of which is posted further below.
Final score: B-B-E 16, Upsala/Swanville Area 12. Overall, U/SA outgained the Jaguars by a whopping 311-to-153 yard margin. That's right. The losing team had 311 total yards of offense compared to the winner's 153 yards. The Jaguars stopped U/SA multiple times in the red zone and on fourth down. It was an unforgettable defensive performance. They did what they had to in order to win.
Next: the Jaguars can't let off the gas one bit as they prepare for Week Five...their next opponent is Long Prairie-Grey Eagle, who will play host to B-B-E next Friday, September 30. *Update: the LP-GE Thunder got whipped by No. 9-ranked Class 2A Kimball Area 50-0 in Kimball tonight. The Cubs improved to 4-0 with the win.
Make no mistake: B-B-E has to continue improving. And they are. But they can't let up on the gains. Yes, they are 3-1 overall, but they have to get better if they want to keep this rolling. They were outgained 293 yards to 110 yards on the ground tonight. On first downs, U/SA had 17 compared to just six for B-B-E.
This is just the fourth time in B-B-E history that the football team has started 3-1 in the first four games! The other years were 1988, 2013 and 2017.
**Here's my fourth-ever sports show, this one based on Friday Night Lights IV:
The show was recorded a little after midnight. This has been a super long day! It started with taking a picture of our Homecoming royalty candidates before 8 a.m. "No rest for the wicked!"
Mid-State, Sub-District III scores in Week Four on September 23:
Browerville 43, Benson 0 (at Benson, where the Braves fell to 1-3)
#2 BOLD 26, #8 Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg 6
#9 Kimball Area 50, Long Prairie-Grey Eagle 0
Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City 36, Maple Lake 14 (at Grove City)
