Big plays proved to be the downfall for the Britton-Hecla football squad in a 36-13 loss to third ranked Elkton-Lake Benton on Friday, but the Braves still can ensure a home first-round playoff game on Thursday, Oct. 23, with a win in the regular season finale on Friday.
Britton-Hecla is currently ranked seventh among Class 9AA squads with the top eight seeds hosting a first round game. Coach Jacob Skogstad’s squad takes a 5-2 mark into Friday’s contest against Waverly-South Shore, 3-4, in Waverly beginning at 7 p.m. The two clubs have played three common opponents with both teams defeating Waubay-Summit (BH 53-0, WSS 28-8) and Florence-Henry (BH 53-0, WSS 22-18. B-H defeated Great Plains Lutheran while W-SS lost 28-6.
A key for the Braves in the final regular season game will be to slow down W-SS senior quarterback Kyle Kneeland. The dual threat has passed for 739 yards and run for 257. The Braves will try to assert themselves with their potent ground attack, led by senior Bryce Hawkinson who has a shot at hitting the 1,000-yard mark on Friday. He currently has run for 907 yards and 10 touchdowns.
Last Friday the Braves just found themselves in too big of a hole to dig out of.
“I thought we executed our game plan pretty well aside from two things,” said Skogstad. “We turned the ball over too much, and we didn’t tackle in open space very well. I was happy with our overall defensive performance other than the tackling and was happy with the way we ran the ball. Our line did a good job opening gaps and our backs did a great job just getting what they could. Any time you spot a team 28 points it’s hard to come back from.”
The visitors scored on runs of 93, 76, and 65 yards, along with a 62-yard touchdown pass to score four of their five touchdowns on the way to their sixth win in seven starts. In fact, the Braves, now 5-2, had the ball for 22 more minutes than the Elks (32:50 to 10:18) and had 19 first downs to just seven for E-LB. Total yards were also pretty similar with the visitors winning that battle 349-285.
Turnovers played a key role with the Braves, losing three fumbles and having a pass intercepted. The Elks lost a pair of fumbles.
The big play barrage started with the Elks first play of the game following a B-H three-and-out. On first down quarterback Colt Beck bounced outside to score from 76 yards out. A couple of possessions later Beck connected on a 62-yard scoring toss.
After three straight punts Britton-Hecla finally put together a drive to the E-LB 35 but fumbled on first down. The visitors scored again on first down, this time on a 65-yard run from Eliot Erickson who finished the game with 170 yards on just 11 carries. The Elks had run just seven plays from scrimmage but led 21-0 at the quarter break.
The Braves fumbled again just seven seconds into the second period and the Elks made them pay when Beck hit a 17-yard TD pass on first down for a 28-0 lead. But then Skogstad’s crew turned the tide, putting together a 12-play, 73-yard drive that culminated in an eight-yard TD pass from Jace Rein to Ben Suther. The Braves defense also shut out the Elks the rest of the half, not allowing a first down, and the local gridders trailed 28-7 at intermission.
The second half started on a positive note for the Braves when they recovered an onside kick and proceeded to march to the Elks 10, converting a pair of third downs and a fourth down in the process. B-H had a first and goal from the 10 but managed just three yards before turning the ball over on downs.
Then came the back-breaker for the Braves. On first down Erickson went 93 yards to paydirt and instead of possibly being a two-possession game if B-H had scored, the visitors had things well in hand with a 36-7 advantage midway through the third stanza. Suther caught another TD pass from Rein, this time from 51 yards out, early in the final quarter for the final margin. The Braves did put together a 16-play, 64-yard drive in the final stanza but had it ended by a pass interception with 2:53 to play.
Hawkinson was a workhorse for the Braves carrying the ball 29 times for 100 yards and also catching five passes for 37 yards. Rein added 40 yards rushing and threw for 108, while Jaxon Zuehlke rushed for 33. Suther had two catches for touchdowns for a total of 59 yards and led the defensive effort with 4.5 tackles. Zuehlke added 3.5 stops.
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