Friday Night Lights I: LET'S GET this party started! Jaguars win! (VIDEOS)

As advertised!

In their highly anticipated 2023 season opener, the B-B-E Jaguars football team earned a huge win at Bagley by a score of 46-14. Like other small schools, the Jaguars are starting the season with a few dings to key players. The good news from tonight is that the first-string offense and defense played just three quarters, and the JV took over from there for the running "mercy time" 12 minutes to close out the game.

The Bagley Flyers went 2-7 last year and really struggled tonight. They were outmatched at just about every position on the field. They had a tough preseason in which they began overcoming missing five seniors who chose not to come out for football after contributing to the team last year. A sixth player that would have made a difference tonight is still on the injured reserve list while attempting to get cleared after suffering an ACL injury last year. This is how the other half lives. It is a difficult situation, and we wish Bagley the best as they try to rebuild their football numbers.

Here's a video from late in the third quarter...featuring B-B-E's final touchdown of the game:


In the video, Luke Illies catches a six-yard touchdown pass from Luke Dingmann with 2:25 left in the third quarter. This made the score 46-0.

The Jaguars led 20-0 after the first quarter and 34-0 at halftime. They wasted little time in their first drive of the game, which lasted just over two minutes. B-B-E's defense started the game and held Bagley to just one net yard on the opening possession. After the punt, the Jaguars started on their 38-yard line and scored on the seventh play of the drive on a 9-yard touchdown reception by Josh Walstrom with 8 minutes to go.

B-B-E scored their second touchdown on a fumble recovery by Owen Paulson with 6:11 left in the first quarter. The fumble was caused by Jack Lundberg's quarterback sack that was good for a loss of a whopping 17 yards.

**Here's a postgame interview! This was great...thank you Maximus for obliging!


Saturday morning game notes: The Jaguars outgained the Flyers by a 351- to 133-yard margin. Almost half of Bagley's yards came on one touchdown carry of over 60 yards. B-B-E's offense was very evenly split on the ground (173 yards) and in the air (178 yards). The Jaguars convered six of eight third down tries, and they committed no turnovers and had just three penalties. Dingmann completed 13 of 18 passes for 172 yards with five touchdowns to two receivers, Josh Walstrom and Luke Illies.

On defense, earning 5 or more tackles were Brett DeRoo, Jack Lundberg, Braeden Michels, Owen Paulson and Harley Weber. Weber had a monster game with four tackles for a loss.

In Delano tonight, the Elrosa Saints baseball team trails 5-2 in the seventh inning. Final score: Delano 6, Elrosa 2. The Athletics held the Saints to just four hits in the game and scored four of their six runs in the second inning. Elrosa's marvelous, Sweet 16 season has concluded. They had an absolutely fantastic summer!! We are proud of our Saints!!!

NEXT: the Jaguars travel the 55-mile trip to the northwest up Highway 55 to Barret next week for Friday Night Lights II with a 7 p.m. kickoff at West Central Area high school against the Knights. They are 1-0 after winning last night 14-8 on their home field against Polk County West, a team that is based in East Grand Forks. At halftime, the score was 0-0, and WCA scored first and took an 8-0 lead into the fourth quarter. The Eagles went 5-5 last year and had a 1-1 record in the Section 8A playoffs.

Area football scores on September 1:
Murray County Central 35, Lac qui Parle Valley 34
Red Rock Central 13, Renville County West 6
Annandale 21, Litchfield 13
Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg 27, Wadena-Deer Creek 6
BOLD 71, Windom Area 34
Browerville 26, Menahga 0

Area football scores on August 31
Hancock 50, Norman County East/Ulen-Hitterdal 14
Ada Borup West 13, New York Mills 6
Osakis 43, Pillager 8
Long Prairie-Grey Eagle 47, Red Lake 6
Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City 30, Maple Lake 8
Willmar 19, Big Lake 0
West Central Area 14, Polk County West 8
Upsala/Swanville Area 69, Pine River-Backus 14
Montevideo 37, Paynesville Area 28
Holdingford 28, Sauk Centre 16
Eden Valley-Watkins 50, Melrose Area 14
New London-Spicer 48, Albany 20
Minneota 55, Russel-Tyler-Ruthton 6
Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta 40, Minnewaska Area 20
Kimball Area 36, Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted 8
MACCRAY 47, Wabasso 7
Tracy-Milroy-Balaton 50, Dawson-Boyd 41

More to come. Video is uploading from my hot spot on the tailgate of the Buick LeSabre! Then it's time to head home. I may post more to this during a pit stop on the way south. I'm leaving Bagley at 10 p.m. and have a long, long road ahead for the ol' LeSabre. Wish me luck.

...and by 2 a.m. I made it home. By far that was the most grueling drive I've made for a regular season game in the 20 years I've been doing this.