It's been raining (basically) all day

Around 9 a.m. today, I dumped our rain gauge at home. It showed that we received about 1/4 inch of rain this morning up to that point. Since then, however, it has continued raining. I'm interested to see what the guage says later this afternoon.

Schedule changes due to weather:
Today's Prairie Conference girls' tennis match at home against Parkers Prairie has been canceled due to the rain. As of 2:45 p.m., it is raining.

Also, the home cross country meet in Paynesville has been postponed to Thursday, October 1.

B-B-E volleyball takes K-M-S in four sets (VIDEOS)

A scrappy and athletic Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg Fighting Saints gave the B-B-E Jaguars volleyball team all they wanted tonight in a non-conference border battle. As a battle-tested unit in the Camden Conference, K-M-S faced a 2-0 deficit in sets late in game two, when they trailed 24-22. They stormed back to claim a 27-25 win.

Here's a video featuring the end of game one tonight:


After hitting just 2.8 percent in game two, the Jaguars utilized 17.2 percent hitting in game three while winning 25-15.

Here's the end of game three tonight:


In the fourth set, the Jaguars steamrolled the Fighting Saints with 43 percent hitting and just one attack error while winning 25-11.

Laken Anderson led the Jaguars with 12 kills on powerfull 37 percent hitting. Macey Roering added 9 kills on 24 attacks plus 12 digs. B-B-E had 94 percent serving with 22.8 percent hitting for the night.

With no time to rest, B-B-E (7-6) hits the road tomorrow for a huge Section 6A contest at Hancock. The Owls (11-6) were idle tonight. On Saturday, they went 2-2 at the Bertha-Hewitt Invitational. Hancock will be a formidable opponent, and they are gunning for a Top 5 seed for the playoffs. As of Tuesday morning, September 29, the Jaguars sit in third place in Section 6A, while Hancock is in seventh place. At the top, according to the QRF, is Underwood. Henning is in second, and Park Christian is in fourth.

K-M-S falls to 4-8 overall, but they are vastly better than their record shows. While not having generous height in their front line, they are very quick. They put up a fierce battle on numerous points tonight. In the current Section 3AA-North standings, they sit around the No. 5 position just behind Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City.

Area volleyball scores on September 28:
Kimball Area 3, Rockford 1
Renville County West 3, Wabasso 0
Paynesville Area 3, Litchfield 1
Brandon-Evansville 3, Ashby 0
Park Christian 3, Hillcrest Lutheran Academy 2
Rothsay 3, Norman County East/Ulen-Hitterdal 1
BOLD 3, Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta 1

BORDER BATTLE! Jaguars vs. Fighting Saints

The B-B-E Jaguars volleyball team is hosting Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg tonight in a non-conference border battle. The Fighting Saints hold a 4-7 overall record, and they are 2-3 in the rugged Camden North Conference.

After the conclusion of the JV match, members of the varsity team presented Suicide Prevention Awareness Night. It was a touching, heartfelt moment to be a part of. All of Jaguar Country continues to mourn the loss of Levi Adrian, who passed away on September 24 a year ago. He was a member of the current senior class, the Class of 2027.

Tonight's match will be aired on Smooth Magic 107 FM of Glenwood. Thanks, Brady!

Here's game one action from last Thursday night:


First serve tonight should take place at about 7 p.m.

**After the Jaguars won game one, the Fighting Saints won a thriller by a 27-25 score in game two.

See a new blog post for the rest of the evening's action.

The sun came back! (VIDEOS)

The month has gotten wet and gloomy, but today, we see near full sunshine after 4 p.m. in Jaguar Country! I was going to get videos posted here and more updates, but instead, I encourage you to get outside! Take the Vikings game with you, if you can, on a device! Final score: Minnesota Vikings 23, Tampa Bay Buccaneers 16. The Vikings are 3-0 to start the season, which no one saw coming.

And for some local news...
Between Thursday morning and today, the city of Brooten received a little over 3 inches of rain. The sunshine today was a welcome change!

One week ago, Turkey Fest in Swift Falls took place without rainfall. Organizers were grateful for that.

Here's a short video showing some of the activities of Turkey Fest on September 19:


More to come with updates on Monday morning.

Coming this weekend at Sunburg!
I don't always have time to do extra promotion of all local events, but here's one I wanted to give a shout out to for an event that was advertised on page 3 of last week's Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper. Hope Lutheran Church of Sunburg invites everyone to their Vintage Wedding fall bazaar on Saturday, October 3 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. They have much to see on this day, and a great luncheon will be served simultaneously in their spacious fellowship hall. The Hope Lutheran bazaar includes a bakery shoppe (lefse and other Scandinavian goodies), garden produce, jams, jellies, salsa, freezer meals plus crafts, cards, napkins and a book sale. The quilt raffle takes place at 1 p.m. to conclude the event (winner need not be present). The luncheon includes 2 kinds of soup, ham and turkey sandwiches, macaroni salad, Rommegrot and a wide variety of homemade pies.

Speaking of sports...
On Monday night: the No. 11-ranked B-B-E Jaguars volleyball team will host Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg in a non-conference border battle. It is also the team's Suicide Prevention Awareness Night. The Fighting Saints (4-7) will bring a young squad to town that has just 3 seniors.

I see that the B-B-E Jaguars football team currently sits in a three-way tie for second place in the Mid-Northwest Gold District standings. Also in second are Benson (2-2 overall) and West Central Area (2-2 overall). Both of those teams have won 2 straight games after starting the season 0-2.

As for B-B-E, halfway through the regular season, the Jaguars have the third-best defense in the district. They give up 17 points a game, and WCA has a 17-ppg defensive average. No. 4-ranked Upsala/Swanville Area has allowed 5.5 points per game. WCA does not meet U/SA until Week 8, when they travel to Swanville on Tuesday, October 20.

Here's a video featuring the final touchdown scored at Browerville last Friday:


That catch at the end by Noah DeRoo was exciting!

Friday Night Lights IV: B-B-E wins shootout at Browerville (VIDEOS* added)

A week after Browerville lost 14-8, they hosted Homecoming against our B-B-E Jaguars football team tonight at Jack Dressen Field. With something to prove, the Tigers played a strong first half and trailed 18-12 at halftime in a game where both teams entered the stadium with identical 2-1 records.

Final: B-B-E 42, Browerville 26. Penalties at inopportune times hampered the Tigers, who were soundly outplayed in the fourth quarter.

**This blog post is getting revamped with new game notes on Saturday morning and late morning. The area Week 4 scoreboard is also being reviewed and updated below.

Here's a video from B-B-E's 5th offensive series tonight:


The Jaguars started that fifth series of the game at the beginning of the third quarter on their own 40-yard line. The drive finished with Aiden Mueller's 19-yard touchdown carry with 8:45 left in the third quarter. Mueller ran in the two-point conversion that made it a 27-12 lead.

The teams traded touchdowns from that point forward.

Here's a video from the first half tonight:


More to come!

How the first half played out tonight
Browerville came out strong on the game's first series starting on their 35. After 6 plays, Browerville had 1st-and-10 at the B-B-E 28-yard line. On the next play, the running back lost the ball, and the fumble was recovered by Lance Radermacher with 7:56 left. The Jaguars, starting on their 27, then moved into Browerville territory. They stalled out on 4th-and-7 at the Browerville 41.

On Browerville's second possession, they scored on a 17-yard touchdown run with 10:44 left in the second quarter. A failed 2-point conversion left the score at 6-0.

A 47-second long scoring drive then took place, and the Jaguars needed just 3 plays to score from their own 46. On the third play, Noah DeRoo caught a touchdown pass with 9:59 left. The PAT kick was wide left for a 6-6 tie.

The Jaguars held Browerville and forced a punt. With 8:15 left in the second quarter, the Jaguars started their third series of the game on their 46. On the fifth play, Kaden Kollman caught a touchdown pass with 6:57 left. The extra points conversion failed, so the Jaguars had a 12-6 lead.

Browerville then played out the first quarter. On the third play of the second quarter, Browerville scored on a 17-yard run. The two-point conversion carry was stopped short, and the Jaguars were in a 12-12 tie with 6:06 left. B-B-E then began their 4th series of the game on their own 42. Mueller finished off that drive with a 29-yard touchdown carry. After a successful PAT kick, with 4:04 left, the Jaguars led 19-12.

Browerville drove into B-B-E territory, but they ran out of time after having 1st-and-goal at B-B-E's 3-yard line with 14 seconds to go.

...AND! Here's how the first half ended tonight:


To conclude the second quarter, the Jaguars earned a quarterback sack with a huge loss of yards. In fact, the loss of yardage was so severe, the play ended deep in the backfield and out of the view of my videocamera. The Jaguars annihilated Browerville's front line. In reaction to that, Browerville's quarterback yanked his helmet from his head before play had stopped and began shouting in a fit of rage. No penalties were assessed.

Out of respect for the coaching staff of Browerville and not wanting the video to be clipped and used in a negative way against the Tigers and the player himself, I am not posting that part of the video. That moment began right as the above video clip stops. The quarterback made a mistake. Hopefully that won't happen again. The fact is the Tigers played incredibly hard from start to finish. The Jaguars had to put up their best effort of the season so far in order to come out with a win. This game sets them up well for the Week 5 road trip to Maple Lake.

This blog post will be updated again on Saturday morning.

And here's more second half notes from tonight's game:
As said above, B-B-E started the third quarter with possession and had a 60-yard scoring drive that used 6 plays. The drive also included a Browerville pass interference penalty that gave B-B-E first down at the Tigers' 13-yard line. Mueller finished it off with a quarterback carry while scoring from 19 yards out. He ran in the conversion carry for a 27-12 lead.

Browerville answered right away, and they got a boost by a huge kickoff return that gave them first down at their 40. They needed just 3 plays to go 60 yards. Browerville's No. 40 ran in a 50-yard touchdown with 7:12 on the third quarter clock. The two-point conversion failed, leaving the score at 27-18.

Each team traded punts, and B-B-E then started their 7th possession of the game on Browerville's 38 with 3 minutes left. The Jaguars needed just 3 plays to cover the distance, and with 2:23 left, Mueller ran in a one-yard touchdown. Mauricio Hernandez-Valdiviezo's PAT kick sailed through the uprights to make it a 34-18 lead.

As the third quarter finished up, Browerville mounted a 70-yard scoring drive. They started the fourth quarter with 1st-and-15 (false start penalty to end Q3) at B-B-E's 39-yard line. The Tigers scored on a 41-yard touchdown catch in the endzone with 11:07 left. A successful two-point conversion made it a 34-26 game.

As it happened in the third quarter, both teams traded punts. B-B-E then started their 9th series of the game on their 30-yard line. On the first play of that series...this happened (Watch the video)

Here's exciting action in the fourth quarter:


Six plays after that big reception, the Jaguars scored on Lance Radermacher's 3-yard touchdown carry. Noah DeRoo caught the two-point conversion pass in the right flats to give the Jaguars a 42-26 lead with 3:21 left in the game.

In a classy move that I've seen many times from him, Coach Wayne "Ribsy" Petermeier provided word to the referees that he was subbing down to JV players to play out the game.

Some light game statistics:
B-B-E tallied a whopping season-high 389 yards of offense. They outgained Browerville by the smallest margin: one yard. B-B-E's goal-line stand in the final minute of the second quarter made a huge difference in gaining the upper hand in the game.

Aiden Mueller was 9-for-16 for 209 yards in passing with no interceptions. Mueller had 5 separate targets for his passes. The Jaguars had a powerful run game totaling 180 yards by four different ball carriers. Browerville racked up 304 rushing yards, and their quarterback had 84 passing yards.

Lance Radermacher had one fumble recovery.

NEXT: the Jaguars take their 3-1 record to Maple Lake as they continue the two-game road swing. They play at Irish Stadium on Friday, October 2. Maple Lake played at Benson tonight. I do not have a final score from that game. Last week, Maple Lake blasted Long Prairie-Grey Eagle 40-0 in Long Prairie.

UPDATE: the Benson Braves hammered Maple Lake in a 46-6 Homecoming win to even their record at 2-2. The Irish fall to 1-3. Benson led 32-0 at halftime, and their defense made it tough on the Irish with sophomore Bentley Ascheman earning three interceptions. Maple Lake scored in the third quarter on a 32-yard pass from Jaxson Diebold to George Riviere.

Mid-Northwest Gold District Week 4 scores on September 25:
Upsala/Swanville Area 42, Long Prairie-Grey Eagle 0
West Central Area 12, Ashby/Brandon-Evansville 8
Benson 46, Maple Lake 6

At Minnewaska Area tonight, the Melrose Area Dutchmen spoiled the Lakers' Homecoming with a wild 43-41 win. This improves the Dutchmen's record to 3-1 overall. The Lakers are 1-3. Melrose Area is the alma mater of B-B-E head coach Chris Moscho.

I want to also give a shout out to the Willmar Cardinals, who now have a 4-0 start to their season. The Cardinals won 28-7 at Blattner Stadium in Cold Spring tonight. Their community is suffering right now after a double homicide of two young men took place near Lakeland Broadcasting and the Kandiyohi County Fairgrounds last Monday night. Please continue praying for their community.

Area football Week 4 scores on September 25:
Elk River 39, Alexandria 14
Parkers Prairie 56, Menahga 18
Frazee 33, New York Mills 14 (NYM falls to 0-4)
Lac qui Parle Valley 38, MACCRAY 16
Paynesville 36, BOLD 0
Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City 26, Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg 6 (Fighting Saints falls to 0-4; the Falcons are 2-2)
Marshall 27, Hutchinson 13
Kimball Area 28, St. Cloud Cathedral 3
Border West 28, Hillcrest Lutheran Academy 6
Redwood Valley 47, Eden Valley-Watkins 12 (EV-W falls to 1-3 overall; last season, EV-W won at Redwood Falls by a 46-34 score)
Osakis 12, Holdingford 7
Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted 28, Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta 18
Minneota 42, Lakeview 12
Litchfield 59, Montevideo 6
Royalton 14, Sauk Centre 6
Hancock 24, Ortonville 20
North Branch 12, Rock Ridge 6
Willmar 28, Rocori 7
Pierz 27, Albany 6
New London-Spicer 16, Dassel-Cokato 14
Renville County West 20, Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart 6
Rothsay 20, Underwood 0

GAME DAY! In Todd County

The B-B-E Jaguars football team is doing battle with the Tigers in a big district game in Browerville. Both teams enter the game with identical 2-1 overall records. 

With 6:06 left before halftime, the game is tied 12-12.

Halftime: B-B-E 18, Browerville 12. No one can make extra point conversions...yet.

The final score will be posted in a NEW blog post called Friday Night Lights IV.

Volleyball team takes over first place alone (VIDEOS!*)

After a dominant performance in the opening set tonight, the B-B-E Jaguars volleyball team dispatched a gritty Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City Falcons squad in a 3-0 sweep. During the third set, senior setter/hitter Kamie Fischer surpassed 2,000 career set assists. On a pass from Laken Anderson, Fischer set to the left side for Macey Roering. Roering completed the 2,000-career-set-assist sequence with a kill that gave the Jaguars a 15-14 lead.

Coming into the match, Fischer needed 29 set assists to get to the 2,000 mark.

And here's the video! Featuring that exciting moment...


Both teams entered the match with 2-0 records in the Central Minnesota Conference. The win puts the Jaguars in first place alone in the CMC and evens their overall record at 6-6. A-C-GC falls to 7-9 overall. Next: the Jaguars host a border battle next Monday, Sept. 28 against Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg.

Here's a video featuring the end of the match:


Backing up to earlier in the match...which lasted about 1 hour and 5 minutes...

After getting handled easily in game one, the Falcons came out with a much better block in game two and put up a fight. The Jaguars had leads of 10-8 and 13-11 in the middle of game two. Two straight A-C-GC points to make it 18-16 pushed B-B-E into a timeout. Late kills by Kamie Fischer and two by Laken Anderson brought game point. Fischer ended the set with an ace serve and a 25-20 win.

Here's a video from late in game two:


Game three was a back-and-forth affair after the Jaguars had an initial 4-1 lead. The Falcons cut it to 6-5 and then took an 8-7 lead on two straight Kenlie Blom ace serves. Jaylee Jensen's ace block put the Jaguars ahead 9-8. On the left side, Kelsie Blom had two straight kills that tied the score at 11-11. Teagan Dingmann's kill off of a block put the Jaguars ahead 13-12. A Falcons hitting error tied the set at 14-14, and Roering's kill on Fischer's 2,000th set assist made it a 15-14 lead. The Jaguars repelled a tough fight down the stretch, and Anderson hit back-to-back kills to finish the match with B-B-E winning 25-21.

For the night, the Jaguars had 21.7 percent hitting, which helped overcome a tough match at the service line, where they had 10 errors against just 4 ace serves. Laken Anderson led the Jaguars team with 10 kills, and Macey Roering throttled over 8 kills. The Falcons were led by 7 kills from senior Kenlie Blom, who also added 3 ace serves and 13 digs.

After the match, Kamie Fischer was part of countless pictures with teammates, friends and family. The team and coaches gathered with her for a photo before the rest of the pictures were taken. I had the distinct honor of being able to interview her after the match. I attempted to think of different questions than I've had in the past for volleyball interviews.

Here's Kamie Fischer in her post-match interview tonight:



In a big match to the west, Minnewaska Area won 3-2 against Sauk Centre. The Mainstreeters won game four 25-22 to force the tiebreaking set, but the Lakers overpowered them in a 15-5 win to remain undefeated.

Friday afternoon...
A light football story with a video has been posted to the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website: BBEfootballvsUSA-9-18.

Central MN Conference volleyball scores on September 24:
Paynesville Area 3, Royalton 1
Maple Lake 3, Kimball Area 0
Eden Valley-Watkins 3, Holdingford 0 (the Eagles are having a strong season and are now 10-6 overall)

Area volleyball scores on September 24:
Bertha-Hewitt 3, New York Mills 2
Henning 3, Verndale 2
Milaca 3, Albany 0
Swanville 3, LP-GE 1
New London-Spicer 3, Rockford 0
Ortonville 3, Yellow Medicine East 2
Renville County West 3, Lac qui Parle Valley 0
Osakis 3, Browerville 0
Hillcrest Lutheran Academy 3, Brandon-Evansville 0
West Central Area 3, Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta 1
Minnewaska Area 3, Sauk Centre 2 (the Lakers take control of the West Central Conference)
Upsala 3, Benson 1
Central MN Christian 3, Canby 0
Battle Lake 3, Parkers Prairie 0
Melrose 3, BOLD 1

Jaguars vs. Falcons

The B-B-E Jaguars volleyball team is hosting A-C-GC tonight. The match is being aired on Smooth Magic 107.1 FM.

In game one, the Jaguars have an early 6-2 lead. Final: B-B-E 25, A-C-GC 15.

Hit refresh to read more in a new blog post!

Mainstreeters have edge in border battle

It was the Mainstreeters in four sets.

After a lackluster performance in the first two sets, the B-B-E Jaguars volleyball team found themselves in a position where they had to run the table to pick up a border battle win at Sauk Centre on Monday night.

Sauk Centre, a team loaded for bear with 8 seniors, won game one 25-15 and game two 25-13. In game three, the Jaguars had a much better start than they had in the first two sets and carried that momentum to a 25-22 win. They quickly fell into an 8-2 deficit in game four, and a late rally couldn't save them in a 25-18 loss.

Cool 9 percent hitting was a factor in the loss. Sauk Centre was tough to tip against, and attacks regularly needed to cut an angle through the blocks to find open spots in the corners. Junior outside Macey Roering led the Jaguars with a robust 15-kill performance on 12.8 percent hitting and a whopping 47 total attacks. The Jaguars managed 5 solo blocks, two each by seniors Kamie Fischer and Mya Worms.

No. 10-ranked (Coaches Association) B-B-E falls to 5-6 overall as they prepare for a home conference match with Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City on Thursday this week.

The Mainstreeters move to 12-2 overall and are currently the No. 3-ranked team in a tough Section 6AA. In the state polls, Sauk Centre stands at No. 7 in Class 2A. They don't have a particularly tall lineup for a Class 2A school, but a large array of 5'9" and 5'10" hitters were able to mount an effective block. In the back row, they were tough as nails with scrappy defense that's typical of Jim Klaphake-coached teams.

MARK your calendars! Lions Fish Fry!
The Belgrade Lions invites everyone to their upcoming fish fry night at The Spot in downtown Belgrade. They will be serving all-you-can eat fish from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. Meal prices: $12 for adults and for kids ages 10 and under it's $7. Serving: fish, baked beans, potato salad, bread. A Lions meat raffle also takes place starting at 5 p.m., and the Lions fall raffle drawing will take place at 9 p.m. at the same location that night. Proceeds from this event will go towards the Belgrade city park bathroom and shelter project. This event was advertised in the September 17 issue of the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper, and the ad will continue through these next two weeks leading up to the event.

On Tuesday night...
I have been severely distracted from getting the newspaper completed by news of a double-homicide at Rau Park in Willmar late last night. This is a location sitting between KWLM Radio (Lakeland Broadcasting) and the Kandiyohi County Fairgrounds. My mind is blown! For the 2022 county fair, I parked our minivan right at this park. This news is insane. A third victim has initially survived being shot. The news is still unfolding...

Area volleyball scores on September 21:
New London-Spicer 3, Annandale 2 (the Wildcats survive a stiff Wright County West challenge from a Cardinals team that entered the match 6-6 overall; they are 14-0 overall)
Royalton 3, Osakis 0
Kimball Area 3, Maranatha Christian 0
Holdingford 3, Swanville 0
Hillcrest Lutheran Academy 3, Lake Park-Audubon 1
Pine River-Backus 3, Sebeka 2
Bertha-Hewitt 3, Long Prairie-Grey Eagle 1
Hancock 3, Dawson-Boyd 0
Paynesville Area 3, Benson 2 (Bulldogs are 8-6 overall)
Underwood 3, Barnesville 1

Mainsteeters have early advantage

The Sauk Centre Mainstreeters have a 2-0 set lead tonight in the volleyball border battle. Game three is going much better in the early stages. 

The Jaguars won game three 25-22. Game 4 starts at 8:32 p.m.

In game four, Sauk Centre (11-2) has an early 8-2 lead.

Later, trailing 17-9, B-B-E called their last timeout. It has been a rough fourth set. Check a new blog post for the final score.