The Britton-Hecla football squad celebrated homecoming in style on Friday with a 46-0 shutout over Great Plains Lutheran.
Coach Jacob Skogstad’s crew, now 4-1, travels to Waubay this Friday to tangle with Waubay-Summit, which stands at 2-4 after winning its last two outings over Redfield and Wilmot, both 0-5.
The two clubs have played three common opponents. The Braves beat Redfield 61-22 and Great Plains Lutheran 46-0 while losing to Hamlin 36-0. Waubay-Summit topped Redfield 30-22 while losing to GPL 36-6 and Hamlin 53-0.
“This weeks game keys will be to play sound, limit the penalties, and look to be explosive on offense early and often,” said Skogstad. “Defensively, we need to pressure the quarterback and play gap sound defense.”
The Braves are coming off what Skogstad termed his team’s best performance of the season.
“I thought we played our most complete football game on Friday. Total complimentary ball, and we were able to capitalize early and often on GPL mistakes. I want to see us clean up the penalties, but other than that we played very well.”
B-H took control early against the Panthers, scoring on its first three possessions on a 26-yard Jace Rein run, a one-yard run by Jaxon Zuehlke, and a Bryce Hawkinson three-yard run. GPL finally stopped the Braves midway through the second period but Zuehlke came up with a pass interception to set up a six-yard scoring toss from Rein to Ben Suther. Lineman Graham Fosness capped the 32-point first half with a pick-six just before intermission, returning it 25 yards.
Britton-Hecla received the ball to start the second half and Hawkinson broke loose from 64 yards out for a score that was called back on a holding penalty. But the Braves picked up big chunks of yardage on the next three plays and scored on a 16-yard pass from Rein to Mitchell Burger with just two minutes gone.
Hawkinson intercepted a GPL pass on their next possession and the Braves drove 59 yards in eight plays, scoring on a Bryce Heitkamp one-yard run on the first play of the fourth quarter for the final margin.
On the other side of the ball the Braves’ defense was a dominant force. The Panthers had a minus 52 yards on the ground and 78 passing with four interceptions. Zuehlke led the way with seven tackles and a pass interception.
B-H piled up 225 yards rushing on 30 tries for a 7.5 average. Hawkinson led the way with 120 yards on 14 carries (8.6 ave.), Rein added 4-50 and Heitkamp 5-36. The Braves held a 259-26 total yardage advantage.
FOR FULL STATS SEE THIS WEEKS JOURNAL
