Friday Night Lights IV: Jaguars overcome adversity, improve to 4-0! (VIDEOS)

This blog was lightly updated on Saturday over the noon hour...additional updates to come after 3 o'clock once some badly-needed newspaper office work is completed. Another video was added late Saturday afternoon before heading to Turkey Fest in Swift Falls (see below)...

Friday Night Lights IV! It was a doozy! Tonight was a completely different game than the first three games of the season. Getting to 3-0 was exciting and a huge achievement, but tonight showed that our team is for real, with much to work on!

Against the physical and disciplined Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City Falcons, the B-B-E Jaguars football team won 50-22 to improve to 4-0 as the first undefeated team in school history through four games. As the wins keep coming, the record will continue being broken! Even better than the 4-0 start is that we came out of the game relatively healthy...a little banged up, but that's to be expected against A-C-GC's ability to take you out of your game.

The Jaguars outscored the Falcons 14-0 in the second half. It was a display to take in! I'm quite anxious to start getting scores from around our district. Tonight had numerous hyped-up games that will tell us a great deal about where things stand halfway through the regular season.

And we have a sports show! Yes, here it is...the first one of the fall sports season:


Were it not for my severely sore legs and the need to be active and productive this weekend, I could have put more into that sports show. I have to get many, many tasks done between now and Monday afternoon. It's a start, and hopefully the first of more sports shows to come between now and the month of November! I also have to keep in mind - and you should, too! - that B-B-E's Homecoming is on the horizon. It's still over a week away, but I will need to be at 110 percent on a daily basis that entire week! I am terribly excited for it.

I forgot to mention my sports show sponsor...something I want to incorporate this fall. That is Brink's Beer Joint of Swift Falls. Their Turkey Fest is tomorrow (Saturday)! Click on the following link to read all about it: https://tinyurl.com/485e3cz3. Fun fact: Harold and Harriet Jacobson, great-grandparents of B-B-E "QB 1" Luke Dingmann, are well-known in the Swift Falls area and farmed north of Swift Falls throughout their adult life. I saw them regularly at Turkey Fest year after year once I became the owner of the Bonanza Valley Voice. Harold and Harriet are now fully retired from farm life and enjoying their golden years in Brooten. We love them dearly and wish all the best to them!!

*Here's a video from the final minute of the first quarter...


Brett DeRoo earned a touchdown on a 25-yard interception return with 44 seconds on the clock. Owen Paulson's two-point conversion carry made it a 28-6 lead.

Here's a video from the second quarter tonight:


If you get through the full clip, you'll see that I got really fired up at the point where a personal foul was called on A-C-GC for a late hit. In all fairness, yes, it was a late hit, but from what I saw in the video, the whistle hadn't blown yet either. It's a reminder that football is a super physical game. After the penalty was applied, B-B-E set up their fifth possession of the game at the A-C-GC 33-yard line with 5:52 on the clock. The Falcons defense was cranked up, and they pushed the Jaguars back 3 yards on first down. On 2nd-and-13, Luke Dingmann ran for 19 yards around the left side. Then on 1st-and-10 at the 17, the Jaguars coughed up possession with a lost fumble. This gave A-C-GC the ball at their own 25-yard line with 5:10 to go.

The Jaguars led 28-6 after the first quarter. They were riding high, but the Falcons shifted the momentum to their side with back-to-back touchdowns in the second quarter.

After their 7th drive of the game, the Falcons trailed just 28-22 with 47 seconds left before halftime. That scoring drive, which started after B-B-E's lost fumble, covered 75 yards and 4 minutes, 27 seconds of game clock. B-B-E responded with a 50-yard drive where they needed just 24 seconds to score. Hayden Sobiech's 20-yard touchdown catch in the end zone came with 18 seconds to go. Owen Paulson ran in the two-point conversion to give the Jaguars some breathing room and a 36-22 halftime lead.

**Here's an exciting reel with the Jaguars scoring in the final seconds of the second quarter with 18 seconds left:


To start the third quarter, A-C-GC earned an interception on B-B-E's first play. Starting on their 17-yard line, the Falcons moved into B-B-E territory but punted on the 11th play; on the final play of the drive, A-C-GC punted, and B-B-E then scored on a 55-yard drive capped by Brett DeRoo's 31-yard touchdown grab. Paulson's two-point carry made it 44-22 with 2:11 left.

When the dust settled, the Jaguars had faced a very, very good team that had a record of 1-2, and they overcame it. It was adversity, and in spite of that they still won by a score of 50-22. It is a win to be proud of.

NEXT: the Jaguars will learn if they are contenders or not with a trip to Swanville next Friday, September 29. They will take on Upsala/Swanville Area. More to come on that. Keep in mind that U/SA went to A-G-CG last week and put the hurt on the Falcons by a 36-0 final score. The Patriots are the real deal. I still haven't heard the final score from Browerville tonight. Stay tuned.

For the first time this season, the Jaguars were outgained on offense, but if you win 50-22 that lessens the sting of that by a mile. B-B-E racked up 435 yards of offense compared to 439 for A-C-GC. I haven't combed over my drive totals, but it will be fascinating to see where things stood at halftime. I'm telling you: the second half shut out was something to be proud of.

A-C-GC's running game battered the Jaguar defense at times, but the Jaguars still outgained them on the ground by a margin of 220 yards to 197 yards. The Jaguars were outgained through the air by a 242 to 215-yard margin. Luke Dingmann was 13-for-18 for 215 yards, four touchdowns and one interception. Brett DeRoo had one interception, and Owen Paulson had one fumble recovery.

A-C-GC's Jevon Williams had 28 carries for 136 yards.

To put this game into perspective with what's coming against No. 9-ranked U/SA, last week in Grove City...the Patriots held A-C-GC to just 85 total yards in a 36-0 win after leading 24-0 at halftime. They limited the Falcons to a net negative one yard of rushing for the game. On offense, their leading receiver was Jack Primus, who caught 5 passes for 124 yards. Through U/SA's first three games, they outscored their opponents 149-14.

Tonight I entered the stadium awfully fired up and basically on edge. I arrived "just in time" to join the pep band for the playing of the National Anthem. I had hours to prepare for the game, and wouldn't you know it...at the last minute, I could not find my ankle compresses. I had everything else ready to go, including all my camera equipment. My wife was out of town tonight, which created more adversity on the home front. It was a wicked disaster I had going!! My saving grace was that I had practiced the National Anthem a few times this week, including earlier today. Practice pays off!!! Remember that. This makes it four games that I just haven't been quite perfect in my preparation. I came close to being fully prepared for the trip to Barrett...just one small detail: my camera chip wasn't properly cleared for the video camera. Such a huge let down for the WCA game!! I had about 5 minutes' worth of memory on my video camera and had to rely mostly on my cell phone to get video from the WCA game. I hope Week 5 is different, because it includes a generally treacherous drive to Swanville. Overall, I'm feeling remarkably good on a 13,000-step day. Tonight's football game only had approximately 4,000 steps compared to 6,000 last week.

This week was exhausting! A drive to K-M-S on Monday, the Osakis drive yesterday for tennis...and then tonight's football game. I'm truly grateful that it was a home game. I am running out of steam and glad it was a short drive home afterwards. This may be the first night after a B-B-E Jaguar football game since the 2000s when I won't push past midnight breaking down the game and looking at area scores. Crazy. I have enough gas in the tank to make my first "Sports Show" recording of the 2023-2024 school year. This is something I hoped to do 2 weeks ago. Update: lo and behold! I got a second wind and got a show recorded about an hour past midnight. Life is good.

UPDATE: No. 9 Upsala/Swanville Area is 4-0 after defeating Browerville 36-14 in Browerville tonight. The Patriots scored on the second play of the game on Carter Natvig's 62-yard run to cap a 35-second, 64-yard touchdown drive. The Tigers stuffed the two-point conversion. The final score does not tell the full story of the game. U/SA led 20-14 with about 8 minutes left side in the fourth quarter. With 6:58 left in the game, Jack Primus caught a pass on the left and ran in a 49-yard touchdown. A successful two-point conversion pass expanded U/SA's lead to 28-14. Around the 5-minute mark, both teams subbed down to their JV, and the Patriots added another score for the final margin on freshman Carson Primus's 10-yard run with 2:57 left in the game.

Mid-Northwest Gopher Gold District Week 4 scores on September 23:
Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg 34, West Central Area 6
Benson 33, Long Prairie-Grey Eagle 0 (LP-GE has been shut out for three straight games)
Upsala/Swanville Area 36, Browerville 14

The top of the Gopher Gold District standings features three teams with 3-0 records: Upsala/Swanville Area, Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg and B-B-E.

Area football scores on September 22:
MACCRAY 41, Lakeview 33
Eden Valley-Watkins 50, Paynesville Area 0
Osakis 36, St. Cloud Cathedral 8
Kimball Area 14, Royalton 8
Albany 26, Pierz 14
Litchfield 48, New London-Spicer 21
Rockford Area 27, Montevideo 12
No. 1-ranked Minneota 28, Canby 6
Minnewaska Area 18, Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted 12 (Lakers win for the first time since October 15, 2021; on that night, they beat HL-W-W during a 1-8 season; they were 3-4 during the COVID season, so this was their 5th win this decade)
Rocori 11, Hutchinson 0
Sauk Centre 44, Melrose Area 6
BOLD 66, Lac qui Parle Valley 27
Holdingford 62, Maple Lake 16
Brandon-Evansville/Ashby 6, Hancock 0

Tomorrow we have Turkey Fest coming in Swift Falls! This is an exciting event. I have always greatly enjoyed attending Turkey Fest. Their parade is at 5:30 p.m., while the chili cook-off runs from 3 to 5 p.m. All the details have been published in the last two weeks of the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper. Click on the following short link to watch the 2021 Turkey Fest parade: https://tinyurl.com/485e3cz3. To help support The Voice operations this fall in a time of extremely high energy/fuel costs, numerous businesses such as Brink's Beer Joint of Swift Falls have stepped up with extra advertising. We are grateful for this support to keep us going.

Going back 50 years! Fifty years ago this week...the Brooten Buccaneers football team defeated Osakis on Homecoming night by a 39-0 score. This win improved the Buccaneers to 4-0. I have a full review of the 1973 Brooten football season that I hope to publish next week. There's much more to write about regarding that team.