Britton-Hecla led 24-0 at halftime and rolled to a 448 victory over Arlington on homecoming Friday.
The Braves boosted their season mark to 4-1 and will host Ipswich at 7 p.m. this Friday. Ipswich brings a 3-3 mark into the contest including a 44-20 win over a 4-2 Herreid-Selby ballclub and a narrow 16-12 loss to Leola-Frederick, also 4-2, last week.
“The keys for Ipswich will just be to continue to gel offensively and move the football,” said B-H boss Jacob Skogstad. “Ball control will be huge because they have a ton of playmakers on their offense.”
Skogstad’s crew used a potent ground game on the way to its 44-point effort last week but also mixed in an efficient passing attack.
The Braves piled up 393 yards running the football, led by Bryce Hawkinson’s 131 yards on just eight carries, his fourth 100-yard game in five outings. Jaxon Zuehlke was 8-14 throwing the ball for 112 yards and a pair of touchdowns with Daniel Person hauling in five passes for 72 yards.
“I thought our offense was very efficient with the little changes that we made to make us a little bit less one-dimensional,” noted Skogstad. “We were able to take advantage of some soft coverage and find some holes in the passing game which opened up the running lanes. Defensively, I thought we had a total team effort in slowing down their of-fense.”
The Braves also won the turnover battle, forcing three Arlington fumbles while not having a turnover themselves.
The Braves drew first blood through the airways. Zuehlke recovered an Arlington fumble, Hawkinson rambled 24 yards and Isaiah Jackson added nine, and then Zuehlke connected from 11 yards out with Ty Fagerland for the opening score. Hawkinson added the conversion run and the Braves led 8-0 at the quarter break.
B-H put together its best drive of the game, going 85 yards in 14 plays in the final minutes of the opening period and early in the second, but came up empty on Arlington’s one-yard line. Arlington moved the ball to the Braves’ 44 before punting and this time the Braves scored on an 83-yard, eight-play drive.
Daniel Person grabbed a pair of passes for 24 and 14 yards and Hawkinson did the honors with a 17-yard scamper to paydirt. Jackson added the conversion for a 16-0 margin.
Jordyn McGregor pounced on a fumble on Arlington’s 24-yard line on their next possession and six plays later Zuehlke found Jace Rein with a seven-yard scoring toss with just 32 seconds left in the half. Zuehlke scored on the conversion run for a 24-0 halftime lead.
Britton-Hecla wasted little time in dousing any hopes of anArlington comeback to open the third period when Zuehlke broke loose for a 63-yard scoring run. Then the Braves’ defense stopped the visitors on fourth down on the Braves’ 46 and five straight running plays, including a 21-yard burst from Hawkinson and a 17-yard effort from Rein, set up a 10yard touchdown for Jackson. Rein added the conversion and it was 38-0.
The Braves final score was set up by a Jade Tisher fumble recovery on the Braves’ 37. Will Richter had a 22-yard run to get the ball into Arlington territory and Rein added the Braves final score on a 45yard run.
