Friday Night Lights X: the dream crashes to an end (VIDEOS*)

A second straight dream season fell short of a grand achievement for the program.

Facing an upstart, inspired, ground-and-pound Upsala/Swanville Area team, the B-B-E Jaguars football team found themselves in an 8-0 hole to start the game after the first quarter. The Jaguars fought valiantly all game but struggled to minimize penalties as the Patriots ran and ran and ran the ball all afternoon.

*Here's a video from the latter part of the first quarter:


The U/SA Patriots burned the game's first seven minutes with their first touchdown drive to take an 8-0 lead. The Jaguars tried to stop the Patriots on a 4th-and-one possession at the B-B-E 18-yard line with 6:30 on the clock. They converted and had 1st-and-10 at the 12-yard line. The next play resulted in a 5-yard gain by Nick Kedrowski, and the next play was a 3-yard gain by Tyson Leners. On 3rd-and-2, Leners scored on a four-yard touchdown carry with 4:38 left. This was the script that played out on U/SA's other two touchdown drives.

At halftime, the Patriots led 16-0. The deficit became 22-0 in the third quarter. B-B-E then scored on an 57-yard touchdown drive that started with 1:02 left in the third quarter. With 10:26 left in the game, the Jaguars broke up the shutout bid to close it to a two-score deficit. Talen Kampsen caught a 12-yard pass from Luke Dingmann up the middle for a touchdown. B-B-E's two-point conversion attempt resulted in a tipped pass, with U/SA's No. 11 providing the defense.

**Here's a glimpse of the final plays in B-B-E's touchdown drive:


Final: U/SA 22, B-B-E 6. The Patriots take a 6-4 record into the section finals. B-B-E finishes an incredible season with a 7-3 final record. 

Some game statistics:
U/SA had a punishing ground game to the tune of 290 yards on the ground on 68 carries. Max Lange, the Patriots quarterback, had just two pass attempts all day and made good on one of those throws (good for 27 yards). Their monster rushing attack converted 12 of 18 third down tries. They were also 4-for-4 on fourth down attempts.

B-B-E tallied 65 rushing yards and 92 passing yards. Luke Dingmann was 7-of-14 in passing, and Braeden Michels was the leading ball carrier with 54 yards on 12 carries. The Jaguars struggled offensively and converted just 2 of 6 third-down attempts. They were 1-of-2 on fourth down tries. The toughest part of the game from my perspective was the 10 penalties for 62 yards. That truly put them behind the 8 ball.

Side bar: when the game was over at about 4 p.m., the temperature was a balmy 68 degrees! We had near full sunshine. That was terrific.

This season was wonderful, even though we lost short of where we really wanted to be. THANK YOU for the memories, guys. You are all rock stars to me and our community!!! Since the program earned its first playoff win in 1988, the Jaguars have won playoff openers in 1993, 1997, 2003, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2021 and now 2022. They won section semifinal games in 1997, 2010, 2012, 2013 and 2021. 

Also, the team will bring back 43 players from this year's team. This will be one of the highest numbers of returning underclassmen players in school history. That is something very special to build on!

In the other section semifinal game, KMS defeated Browerville 27-26 in overtime.  Game video is uploading. I'm off to an event at the Brooten city park! (It was advertised on page 1 and page 14 of this week's newspaper.) Plus we have the gun blast at the Padua Pub! (Which has been advertised in the last 3 issues of the newspaper.)

If you haven't already, be sure to check out my latest sports show, which I recorded very early this morning before driving to Anoka with the Miss Brooten royalty entourage. In the sports show, I plugged volleyball, the musical and robotics in addition to previewing today's playoff football game.