This week's game preview is sponsored by The Sharp Firm of Emery!
Seahawks
Last Week
It was rough sailing on both sides of the ball two weeks ago as the Seahawks mustered the second fewest rushing yards in a game over the last two seasons in a 44-6 loss to Sioux Valley. BEE was only able to rush for 89 yards in the loss, which is the second fewest over the last 15 games. This was only the second time the Seahawks have fallen to Sioux Valley since 2015.
The Cossacks scored on 3 of their 4 offensive possessions in the first half on their way to building a 22-0 lead at the break. BEE didn't get a 1st down offensively until their 3rd drive offensively, which was ended on an interception. Trailing 16-0, BEE put together their only solid drive of the first half in the second quarter. That drive, however, ended with an incomplete pass on 4th down inside the Cossacks' 20 yard line. Sioux Valley scored on a Brock Christopherson 50 yard run and a Boden Schiller 3 yard run in the opening quarter to take a 16-0 lead. Schiller added a 13 yard TD pass to Hudsyn Ruesink in the second quarter to take all the momentum heading into the half.
Any hopes of a second half comeback were dashed immediately by the Cossacks, as they took the opening drive of the half 62 yards over 11 plays and scored on a 4 yard TD run by Schiller on 4th down and goal to take a 30-0 lead. The Seahawks answered back with an 8 play, 57 yard scoring drive that ended with a 10 yard TD pass from Drake Gustafson to Taite Klumb to make the score 30-6 late in the 3rd. Sioux Valley answered back with 2 quick scoring drives in the final three and a half minutes of the 3rd quarter with TD runs of 47 and 15 by Donovan Rose to close out the game with a final of 44-6.
Gustafson completed 7-of-14 passes for 80 yards and a TD with 2 interceptions. Klumb caught a career high 4 passes for 34 yards and a score. Macklen Weber rushed 17 times for 41 yards.
For the Cossacks, Rose carried the ball 11 times for 124 yards, Schiller had 16 carries for 104 yards and Christopherson added 96 yards on 6 carries.
Wyatt Anderson led the BEE defense with 10 tackles. Jason Zeeb and Jaxon Koch each added 8 tackles in the loss.
As a team BEE had 169 yards of offense (89 rushing, 80 passing). The Cossacks racked up 340 rushing yards and 24 passing yards for a total of 364 yards of offense.
This Season
The Seahawks come into this week's match-up with Winner with a 4-1 record. Wins have come over Baltic, Flandreau, Clark-Willow Lake, and Parker, with the lone loss on the campaign coming two weeks ago to Sioux Valley. The remainder of BEE's schedule after this week has a homecoming game a week from today against McCook Central/Montrose, before wrapping up the regular season by traveling to the defending 11B Champion Elk Point-Jefferson.
The Seahawks have outscored their opponents 125-59, an average of 25-11.8 per game. BEE's defense had only given up 15 points on the season before allowing 44 points to Sioux Valley two weeks ago. The Seahawks are averaging 247 yard per game offensively, 182.2 rushing and 64.8 passing. Opposing teams are averaging 157.6 yards of offense, 105.8 rushing and 51.8 passing.
Macklen Weber leads the way with 485 yards and 8 rushing TDs on 92 carries (5.3 yards per carry). Weber has also caught 2 passes for 64 yards and a TD. Drake Gustafson has completed 20-of-43 passes for 302 yards and 2 TDs with 5 INTs. Gustafson has also rushed for 188 yards and 5 TDs on 51 carries (3.7 yards per carry). Kean Stevenson has carried the ball 33 times for 144 yards a TD. Camdyn Stoterau has caught 5 passes for 46 yards, Holden Wollman has 4 receptions for 96 yards and Taite Klumb has 4 receptions for 34 yards and a TD.
Defensively, Jason Zeeb has a team-high 39 tackles on the season with 2 tackles for loss and a sack. Stevenson is second with 33 tackles, a tackle for loss, a sack and an interception. Third is Gustafson with 29 tackles and 2 interceptions. Jaxon Koch is 4th with 29 tackles, 2 tackles for loss and a sack. And rounding out the top 5 is Stoterau with 27 tackles and 2 tackles for loss.
Winner Warriors
Last Week
The Warriors also had a bye last week, but traveled to Lead-Deadwood two weeks ago. Winner racked up 40 first half points enroute to a 52-0 win. The game ended due to the 50-point mercy rule with 8:21 left in the 4th quarter.
The Warriors scored 2 TDs in the first quarter, one rushing and one passing. Aiden Barfuss ran in from 17 yards out and Stratton Morehart completed a 17 yard TD pass to Karson Keiser to take a 16-0 lead heading in the second quarter. Winner added three more rushing TDs in the second quarter to take a 40-0 lead into the half. The JV teams finished out most of the rest of the game for Winner and added rushing TDs from Gus Bartels and Rykern Orel to end the game early in the 4th.
The Warriors racked up 391 total yards of offense in the blowout win, with 357 rushing and 34 passing. Lead-Deadwood had 134 yards of total offense, with 77 rushing and 57 passing.
This Season
The Warriors come into this week's match-up with a 5-0 record. In the season opener the Warriors faced their only true test so far this year, when they defeated Tri-Valley 8-0 in 3 overtimes. Barfuss rushed for 77 yards in the win while Jude Sargent ran for the only score of the game. Tri-Valley had 166 rushing yards in the loss while Winner had 152 rushing yards on 53 carries.
The Warriors rolled past Wagner 46-6 the following week behind big performances from Karson Keiser and Barfuss. Keiser rushed for 163 yards & 3 TDs while Barfuss ran for 128 yards and 2 TDs as Winner racked up 374 rushing yards on 35 carries.
Another big performance from the duo of Barfuss & Keiser carried the Warriors past Webster the following week. The duo combined for 6 rushing TDs in a 46-14 win over Webster. Barfuss had 187 rushing yards and Keiser added 138 yards as Winner held Webster to just 43 rushing yards. The Warriors had 392 yards of offense in the win.
Against Class 11A opponent Beresford in Week 4, Barfuss rushed for 105 yards and 2 TDs in a 42-19 win. Keiser added 87 rushing yards and a TD.
After tonight's game, Winner winds down their regular season with a trip to Hartford to take on an undefeated West Central team next week before ending the regular season by hosting Mount Vernon/Plankinton on October 13th.
This Day in Seahawk History
2000 - The Seahawks improved to 6-0 on the year as they rolled past Cornbelt Conference Rival Hanson, 45-0. Jeremy Huber, Mark Determan, Phillip Olinger, Kyle Storm and Brandon Wegehaupt all had TDs in the win. The Seahawks outgained Hanson 293-109 in total yardage. Griffith VanLeur and Huber led the way defensively with 9 tackles each.
2017 - After giving up a kickoff return TD to start the game, BEE scored 5 unanswered TDs to defeat Canton 34-7 and improve to 5-1 on the year. Jamin Arend had a huge day, rushing for 234 yards and 3 TDs. Brady Hawkins added 105 rushing yards and a score. Carter Dye racked up 13 tackles defensively with 2 sacks and 3 tackles for loss. The Seahawks outgained Canton 424-104 in total yardage.
Playoff Picture
If the playoffs started today, this would be the 11B playoff match-ups:
Top Bracket
#1 Winner vs #16 Tripp-Delmont/Armour/Andes Central/Dakota Christian
#8 Elk Point-Jefferson vs #9 Wagner
#4 Woonsocket/Wessington Springs/Sanborn Central vs #13 St. Thomas More
#5 BEE vs #12 Parker
Bottom Bracket
#2 Deuel vs #15 Rapid City Christian
#7 Aberdeen Roncalli vs #10 Hot Springs
#3 Sioux Valley vs #14 Groton
#6 Tri-Valley vs #11 Mount Vernon/Plankinton
Game Bits
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BEE is 2-5 all time against Winner. In the six meetings the Warriors have outscored the Seahawks 198-74, or an average score of 28-11.
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In the six match-ups, BEE has averaged 208 yards per game (132 rushing, 75 passing) and Winner has averaged 299 yards per game (272 rushing, 28 passing).
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Proving how key each possession is, the team with fewer turnovers is 6-0 in match-ups between the Seahawks and Warriors. In the 2019 title game both teams turned the ball over one time.
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Over the last 7 years there has not been an 11B State Title game without either Winner or BEE playing for the championship.
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In the latest South Dakota Football Coaches Association poll Sioux Valley is ranked #1, receiving 9 of 23 1st place votes. Winner is second with 13 1st place votes. Deuel has jumped up to #3. Hot Springs comes in at #4, receiving 1 first place vote. EPJ rounds out the top 5. Teams receiving votes in this week's coaches poll include Woonsocket/Wessington Springs/Sanborn Central, Tri-Valley, BEE and Aberdeen Roncalli.
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In the latest SD Prep Media poll of the season, Winner continues to be ranked #1, receiving 15 of 16 1st place votes. Sioux Valley is 2nd, receiving the other 1st place vote. Coming in 3rd is Hot Springs. Elk Point-Jefferson and Deuel round out the top 5. Teams receiving votes this week include BEE, Tri-Valley and W/WS/SC.
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Big East Conference teams in action tonight have Baltic traveling to Sioux Valley, Elk Point-Jefferson is at Miller/Highmore-Harrold, Flandreau hosts Scotland/Menno, and Parker hosts Redfield.
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Other 11B games of interest tonight have Mount Vernon/Plankinton hosting Wagner, W/WS/SC travels to Mobridge-Pollack, and Tri-Valley travels to West Central.
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Tonight's game will be broadcast on Winner Warriors Live. A link to watch can be found on our home page.
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The forecast at kickoff tonight in Winner calls for mostly sunny skies with a temperature of 71 degrees with winds out of the northeast at 10-15 mph.
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The Seahawk JV team lost their first game of the season last week to Sioux Valley. They are 3-1 and will host Wagner on Monday at 4:30 pm in Bridgewater.
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The Seahawks Junior High team continued their winning ways with a 52-14 win over Sioux Valley last week. They are now 4-0 and have outscored their opponents 182-34. The JH team heads to Wagner on Monday for a 4:30 pm kickoff.