Here's a comparison of the offensive totals gained by Upsala/Swanville Area's football team week to week in the latter part of the regular season.
Week 3 at Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City: the Patriots' defense allowed just 85 yards of total offense to the Falcons. On offense, U/SA gained 341 yards of offense in Grove City with 193 yards coming on the ground.
Week 4 at Browerville: the Patriots' defense gave up 173 yards to the Tigers, split at 151 rushing and 22 passing. In that game, Jack Primus earned two interceptions. On offense, U/SA gained 370 yards with 232 coming on the ground and Frankie Meagher passing for 138 yards and two touchdowns. Primus caught 4 passes for 127 yards, and Carter Natvig ran 16 carries for 141 yards.
On paper, looking at weeks four and five gave us reason to be anxious about the trip to Swanville. Both A-C-GC and Browerville have great small school football programs and a strong tradition on the gridiron, and U/SA dominated both of them and especially A-C-GC in Grove City. Offensively, U/SA's offense was explosive. They had their first touchdown on the scoreboard in Browerville with 10:08 left in the first quarter. It was against that backdrop that I was on edge that entire first half in Swanville. I knew U/SA could break the game open if we did not keep them in check...
Week 5 in Swanville: the Patriots defense gave up 385 yards of offense to our B-B-E Jaguars football team with 231 of those yards on a powerful run game. On offense, U/SA gained 151 yards overall on 50 plays and were held to just 24 rushing yards on 30 carries. If you do the math there, that means their run plays gained less than one yard each overall in the game.
Here's a video from the final minutes of the second quarter in Swanville...
Both teams pulled off goal-line stands in a hotly-contested second quarter. It was one of the better football games I've seen in 20 years of doing this.
REMEMBER! Homecoming! This is Homecoming week! B-B-E's 34th Homecoming coronation is at 7 p.m. tonight at Olson Auditorium in Belgrade.
And please come show your support tomorrow night, Tuesday, when our B-B-E Jaguars volleyball team hosts Hancock in a sub-section match! Let's pack our part of the bleachers with a large, supportive crowd!!
