Friday Night Lights V: Homecoming is a bust (VIDEOS)

An exciting, promising start to the game fizzled in a bad way as the second quarter unfolded tonight for Friday Night Lights V, which served as Homecoming for the B-B-E Jaguars football team. The full sum of the first half was difficult to take in once halftime arrived. By that point, the energy and momentum the Jaguars had going in the first quarter had faded. The overall tone of the game was set in the latter part of the first quarter...I'll get to that later.

The halftime score stood at 28-0 in favor of Upsala/Swanville Area, and the Jaguars had their work cut out for them. Across the entire first half, the referees whistled plays dead five times to call penalties. Of those five penalties, four were assessed to B-B-E. All four were momentum killers. Overall for the game, five of the first six penalties assessed were against B-B-E.

A much better second half played out, but it was nowhere near enough to overcome the enormous deficit on the scoreboard. A hard-earned Homecoming winning streak came to a crashing end tonight. The Jaguars had won Homecoming games in 2021, 2022 and 2023. I was buzzing with excitement all day at the chance to witness a fourth straight Homecoming win - a feat that the football team has yet to achieve.

Final score: U/SA 28, B-B-E 8. The Jaguars have no time to get down on themselves from this difficult loss, as they have to prepare for another very tough game. Their Week Six opponent is Browerville, and the game next week is at their house. In tonight's game at Benson, Browerville won 21-6 to get back in the win column after losing 20-0 on the road last week to U/SA. The Tigers and Jaguars currently sit in a tie for second place in the district.

How the game played out...
B-B-E started the game on defense and made things tough for U/SA after giving up one first down. On the first play of the game, the Patriots gained 18 yards on a sweep to the left, but four yards was all they got after that. From B-B-E's 41-yard line, the Patriots punted with 10:20 on the clock. Brett DeRoo got an 8-yard return on what was an excellent punt, and the Jaguars set up at their own 15-yard line.

The Jaguars got a big gain on their first play from scrimmage when Jack Lundberg busted free to the left side for a 16-yard gain. The next play was good for a 2-yard rush. Then the penalty bug struck for the first time of the night with a false start. Next came an incomplete pass, but the damage was done to kill the drive. After a short 5-yard run by Lundberg, the Jaguars punted from their 32.

Here's a video featuring part of what I just described...


And you can tell by my frustration that the game was not going in the right direction when our own mistakes stunted any momentum we had going on our side of the ball.

The job went back in the hands of B-B-E's defense, and they stood tall while holding U/SA to 8 yards on three plays. Carson Gilbert had a hurry on the first play with an incomplete pass. On the second down play, U/SA's talented junior receiver Brody Kircher ran for 6 yards. On third down, Jack Lundberg came up with a big solo tackle with a two-yard gain to force a three-and-out. The Patriots then tried what looked like a fake punt, and they were ran out of bounds at the 50-yard line with 6:57 on the clock. The tide was moving in favor of the Jaguars.

On B-B-E's first play of their second drive, Kameron Hiltner caught the biggest pass of his career to that point over the middle for a 30-yard gain. Lundberg and his blockers than blasted the Patriots with a 12-yard gain to bring goal-to-go. Another false start penalty struck at the worst time. On the next first down play, Brett DeRoo carried up the middle for about 6 yards. Next came a costly illegal blocking penalty, which pushed the Jaguars back to the 23. Next was a three-yard loss on a pitch, and third down brought an incomplete pass. On fourth down, another incomplete pass resulted in a turnover on downs. It was difficult to swallow what transpired on what should have been a 50-yard touchdown drive and at least an initial 6-0 lead.

With 4:48 to go in the opening quarter, U/SA started their third series of the game on their own 26. They gained 9 yards on two runs, and on third-and-inches, they got a big carry up the middle for 12 yards. The Patriots started cooking when Jack Primus caught a 23-yard pass to get to B-B-E's 30. The Jaguars had two solid plays on defense to hold to 3rd-and-3. The Patriots responded with a 13-yard by junior fullback Ethan Barthel. Again, the Jaguars dug in and had two great defensive plays to hold for third down as the first quarter ended. On the first play of the second quarter, U/SA punched through with the game's first touchdown with 11:54 left on a 4-yard carry by Barthel. DeRoo intercepted the two-point conversion to make it a 6-0 score.

The Jaguars needed to respond right away, but they did not as just two net yards were gained on three plays. The Jaguars punted to put U/SA on offense at their 33-yard line. A total of 9 plays is what they needed for a 67-yard touchdown drive. On the final play, Barthel weaved his way through B-B-E's defense for a 26-yard touchdown with 7:42 left. Barthel also ran in the conversion and made it 14-0.

On their fifth series of the game, the Jaguars started on their 29-yard line. What hurt at that moment was an illegal blocking penalty that nullified what was a great kickoff return by DeRoo. The Jaguars started on their 29 and found success by the third play when Josh Walstrom caught a 10-yard pass. DeRoo later converted for another first down at U/SA's 45. Disaster struck three plays later in a huge way, however, when Jack Primus ran back a pick six from about 60 yards out. It was a punch in the gut, and with 3:32 left before halftime, the Patriots extended their lead to 20-0.

The Patriots got another interception on B-B-E's next series, and their defender was downed at the U/SA 23-yard line with 2:18 to go. The Patriots put a dagger into B-B-E when they used 8 plays and overcame one false start penalty to score with just 8.5 seconds left. Brandon Mugg ran in a 3-yard touchdown, and Kircher's two-point conversion pass made it 28-0. A key play on the drive was by Jack Primus, who caught a deep pass that was good for a 52-yard gain. That catch gave U/SA first down at B-B-E's 15.

Fast forward to the fourth quarter...

Here's a short video featuring a tough carry by Hunter Laage that brought the Jaguars to the one-yard line...


Harley Weber ran in B-B-E's lone touchdown of the game with 8:18 left on the clock. Ethan Mueller caught the two-point conversion pass to make it 28-8.

When the dust settled on the game statistics, the Jaguars had a total of 244 yards on 66 plays. The Patriots gained 316 yards on 60 plays, with 224 of those yards coming on the ground. The Jaguars had a 115 rushing/129 passing split for their offense. One key statistics was third-down conversions: B-B-E made good on just 2 third-down conversions out of 12 attempts, while U/SA had a much better 6-of-12 conversion mark. Both teams were 1-of-3 on fourth down conversions. The game featured zero lost fumbles, but the turnover ratio was minus three for B-B-E with three interceptions.

Week Five football scores in the Mid-Northwest Gopher Gold District:
Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg 56, Long Prairie-Grey Eagle 7 (Jett Olson had 15 carries for 212 yards with 6 touchdowns in Murdock)
West Central Area 36, Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City 8
Browerville 21, Benson 6

Area football scores in Week Five on September 27:
Rocori 29, Willmar 7
Pierz 56, Melrose Area 26
Albany 22, Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted 8
Sauk Centre 34, Montevideo 21
St. Cloud Cathedral 35, Paynesville Area 30
Eden Valley-Watkins 48, Royalton 15
Holdingford 26, Osakis 6
Minneota 69, MACCRAY 12
Breckenridge 14, Parkers Prairie 12
Hancock 52, Rothsay 6
Border West 51, Underwood 14
Hillcrest Lutheran Academy 50, Brandon-Evansville/Ashby 30
BOLD 50, Dawson-Boyd 19
Minnewaska Area 21, Rockford Area 19
New London-Spicer 34, Watertown-Mayer 7
Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta 28, Detroit Lakes 10