For what was a relatively low-scoring game, this was not a game for the faint of heart!
In the season opener tonight on the home field, the B-B-E Jaguars football team played remarkably in the first half while building an 18-6 lead over New York Mills. With a small roster, their smallest in numbers ever in B-B-E history, the Jaguars had to dig deep and play through a challenging second half.
The Eagles earned multiple chances at scoring in the second half, but B-B-E's defense came up with some big-time plays down the stretch as they hung on for an 18-12 win.
Video is uploading, and game notes are being reviewed! This was an incredible win!
I've got more updates to post to this blog post on Friday night.
Here's a video featuring the second touchdown scored by the Jaguars, which happened early in the 2nd quarter:
The two-point conversion attempt after that second touchdown was halted just a yard short of the goal line.
Here's a video featuring the tension in the air (along with the heavy humidity) late in the 3rd quarter tonight:
While the game had what I'll call "multiple critical junctures," one of the biggest was late in the fourth quarter when New York Mills gained possession with 3:33 left after B-B-E punted from their own 10-yard line. The Jaguars were clinging to the narrow 18-12 lead, and the Eagles had possession starting on B-B-E's 18-yard line. They had ample time to punch in a touchdown with a very short field. On first down, NYM's run was stuffed for no gain. Finn Roder, their talented senior running back, carried for 6 yards on second down. On third down, Kaden Kollman came up with a big pass break up near the goal line. This brought 4th-and-4 with about 2 minutes to go. On fourth down, NYM's quarterback sent another pass to the goal line, but Austin Berge (free safety) came up with a pass break up to force a turnover on downs.
The Jaguars were still not out of the woods, though, with 1:56 on the clock and possession back at their own 12-yard line. Jesse Niklaus had a nice 5-yard gain, and NYM called a timeout to stop the clock. On second down, the Jaguars had an incomplete pass, which meant hardly any time came off the clock. On 3rd-and-5, Lance Radermacher bulldozed his way downfield for a huge 33-yard gain. He was tackled just past the 50-yard line. B-B-E called a timeout just near the end of the play clock, and the game clock showed just 52 seconds left. This allowed B-B-E quarterback Aiden Mueller to take a knee twice and seal the big win.
Here's a video from late in the 4th quarter, where the Jaguars were forced to punt from deep in their own territory with under 4 minutes to go:
In a postgame interview, Coach Moscho noted that the win required multiple players making numerous plays, especially on the defensive side, in order to pull out the win. The Eagles hurt themselves with a rash of penalties in the first half, which contributed to their 18-6 deficit on the scoreboard at halftime.
HISTORY was made tonight at B-B-E! Never in school history has the football team won 3 straight season openers. Until tonight! In 2023, the Jaguars traveled to Bagley and won 46-14. Last year, the Jaguars hosted Bagley and won 38-20. I did a bit of digging, and the Jaguars came OH-so-close to winning three straight season openers under Coach Mike Richards. In his second season, the Jaguars won 38-22 at Ogilvie in Week One in 2006 on their way to a 3-7 final record. In 2007, the Jaguars hosted West Central Area in the opener and dismantled the Knights in a 33-8 win; they finished 2-7 overall. The 2008 team, which featured a dynamite offense guided by senior signal-caller Jackson Illies, suffered a tough 27-20 loss to WCA in Barrett in Week One. They finished 5-5 overall after losing in Week Two but then won 4 of the final 6 games of the regular season.
Back to present day, coming in Week Two: the Jaguars need to turn up their level of play a few more notches as they prepare for the first road game of the season. Next week, the Jaguars travel on Friday, September 5 to West Central Area high school in Barrett. The WCA Knights were at Lake Park-Audubon tonight for their season opener. No results have been posted as I type this.
UPDATE at almost midnight...West Central Area suffered a 28-14 defeat at LP-A tonight. I honestly did not see that coming. LP-A was 2-7 a year ago and 4-6 in 2023, although I have no idea how good they are this year.
Let's look at a few game stats from tonight:
B-B-E racked up 386 yards of offense that were almost evenly split with 190 on the ground and 196 coming off the arm of QB1 Aiden Mueller. Mueller's numbers were nothing less than stellar: 9-for-19 passing for 190 yards, 2 touchdowns and no interceptions. Overall, B-B-E's running game churned out 8.2 yards per carry.
One statistic jumps off the page: NYM was 0-for-11 on third-down conversions. They made a game of it by going 4-for-6 on fourth down. Overall, having B-B-E's defense stop NYM on every third-down conversion was a key part of the win.
The Eagles had 271 yards overall, with 94 rushing and 177 passing on 6-of-14 attempts. Hurting their cause were two huge B-B-E interceptions, one by Lance Radermacher and the other by Kaden Kollman.
Here's the postgame interview with Coach Moscho:
As I got very little sleep last night due to nerves for this game, I have to turn in earlier than usual. Tomorrow morning, the newspaper's sports department travels to Sauk Centre with the tennis team. They face the Mainstreeters at 9 a.m. Good night, Jaguar Country! This blog post will be heavily updated on Friday afternoon.
Area football scores in Week One on August 28:
Eden Valley-Watkins 54, Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City 6
Ottertail Central 22, Ashby/Brandon-Evansville 18
Royalton 26, Kimball Area 20
Minnewaska Area 48, Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta 14
Sleepy Eye United 22, BOLD 14
Maple Lake 30, Menahga 24
Pierz 42, Sauk Centre 12
Melrose Area 42, Montevideo 6
Osakis 46, St. Cloud Apollo 14
Tracy-Milroy-Balaton 16, MACCRAY 8
Russel-Tyler-Ruthton 39, Yellow Medicine East 0
Warren-Alvarado-Oslo 32, Ortonville 0
Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop 44, Lac qui Parle Valley 6
