A very exciting, thrilling season on the gridiron has concluded after a wild ride full of lows and highs came to a crashing end yesterday in the Section 4A semifinals. The B-B-E Jaguars football team saw the postseason journey end prematurely after they lost 22-6 to Upsala/Swanville Area. The Jaguars had high hopes of major improvement after a subpar performance in a 22-14 win against Long Prairie-Grey Eagle to open the section playoffs last Tuesday. While they certainly played better against a superior opponent, the improvement was not enough to overcome what was a stellar U/SA performance on both sides of the ball.
*Here's a video featuring B-B-E's second offensive series of the game, which took place in the second quarter yesterday; in the first few seconds of this clip, Luke Illies had a key reception on the left sideline to move the chains:
B-B-E's second offensive series started on their own 19-yard line and stalled out at the U/SA 21-yard line with 5:07 left before halftime. The saving grace before halftime was their ability to stop the Patriots from scoring on a third straight series in the closing minutes of the second quarter.
Eye-opening statistic: the Patriots had 68 run plays for the game while amassing 290 rushing yards. This equates to roughly a 4.3 yards-per-carry average on run plays. On their game-opening series, they used 15 plays and over 7 minutes of game clock to cover 62 yards to pay dirt. The first touchdown was earned by Tyson Leners from four yards out with 4:48 on the clock in the first quarter. U/SA's second series started on their 34 with 2:47 left in the opening quarter. The first play resulted in a 7-yard gain by Leners, the first of a 13-play drive that found the end zone with 7:59 left in the second quarter. B-B-E faced a 16-0 deficit at that point, a score that stood up to halftime.
B-B-E's high-octane offense ultimately saw the ball just 6 times in the game, once with only 2 seconds left in the first half and another on their 6th possession that ended with an interception. In the 48-minute game, the Jaguars had the ball for just 10 minutes and 14 seconds. The Jaguars finished 7-3 overall. During the season, they won six games in a row and finished in third place in the MidState, Sub-District III standings. Their 15 wins in 2021 and 2022 ties the school record for most wins in back-to-back campaigns. In 2012, the Jaguars went 6-5 before going 9-2 in 2013. In both of those seasons, the Jaguars finished as runners-up in Section 4A.
Other noteables: from 2010 to 2022, the Jaguars have earned 56 wins on the gridiron with three runner-up trips in Section 4A and one section title with a state trip. Also in this period, the Jaguars have won their playoff opener 8 times. From 1988 through 2009, the program had 47 wins, including 7 winless seasons. From 1988 to 2005, the football program had just 5 total playoff wins. From 2006 to 2009, they were 2-2 in playoff openers and 2-4 overall in the playoffs, which makes for 6 wins in playoff openers from 1988 to 2009. B-B-E missed the playoffs in Class B, Class C or Class 2A postseason formats in 1989, 1990, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1998 and 1999.
