Braves Play At NSU For Regular Season Finale

Wolsey-Wessington jumped out to a 28-0 halftime lead on the way to a 48-12 victory over Britton-Hecla in football action on Friday and the Braves will wrap up regular season play this week.

The loss dropped the Braves to 5-2 on the season, while Wolsey-Wessington improved to 4-3. Britton-Hecla will take on Herreid-Selby on the Northern State University field in Aberdeen on Friday in the regular season finale. Herreid-Selby stands at 6-2 and the two clubs have both played Ipswich. The Braves downed the Tigers 48-30 while the Wolverines lost 44-20.

Win or lose this week the Braves have locked up a playoff berth but will have to hit the road for postseason play. B-H could end up anywhere from the ninth to the 13th seed as the top 16 teams in Class 9AA will earn playoff slots. First round playoff action begins on Thursday, Oct. 19.

“I thought that we did not play the way we are used to on Friday night,” said B-H boss Jacob Skogstad. “It just felt like we were stuck in mud the entire game. We had an opportunity to make a game of it midway through the second quarter, drove the ball well, and didn’t convert. Even though we didn’t play the way we have set the standard to, we still had opportunities to make that a football game.

“Keys for this week are getting back to Braves football, making sure our blocking assignments are sound offensively, and defensively we need to tackle better this week.”

Wolsey-Wessington needed just one play to get on the board. After returning the Braves’ kickoff to the B-H 39, the hosts scored on the first play from scrimmage for a 6-0 lead. Britton-Hecla was forced to punt and this time the Warbirds drove 71 yards in 12 plays, converting a trio of third down plays, to go up 12-0 after one period.

The Braves stopped the Warbirds on their next possession and then put together their best drive of the game. Starting on their own 19, B-H drove 74 yards in 11 plays, led by Bryce Hawkinson’ 27 yards and a 23-yard scamper from Jaxon Zuehlke. But Wolsey-Wessington denied the Braves on fourth down on the seven yard line.

The Warbirds ran for 28 yards on first down but Britton-Hecla forced a third and 10. Then came the dagger when the hosts completed a 65-yard bomb and added the extra point kick to for a 19-0 lead.

Wolsey-Wessington’s final score of the half came on another big play after forcing a Braves’ punt. This time it came in the form of a 60-yard run with just 1:41 left in the half and the two-point conversion made it 28-0 at intermission.

The Warbirds quickly erased any Braves’ comeback hopes in the third period, forcing a three-and-out and taking just five plays to go 38 yards and boosting their lead to 35-0 with just a minute gone in the quarter.

It was 42-0 before Britton-Hecla put up its first points when Jace Rein connected with Ben Suther on a 72-yard scoring toss. Then Rein followed that up with a 60-yard bomb to Daniel Person to account for the B-H scoring.

Zuehlke was the Braves’ top rusher with 39 yards and Hawkinson added 30. Rein hit 2-6 passes for 132 yards. Wolsey-Wessington rolled up 350 yards on the ground to win the total yards battle 480224.