Britton-Hecla football coach Jacob Skogstad summed up the Braves’ first-round 520 loss to Elkton-Lake Benton on Thursday in just six words, “We ran into a buzz saw.”
“Elkton was a very talented and physical football team and I feel like we kind of ran into a buzz saw,” said Skogstad. “We saw a lot of things that we need to improve on working towards next year in order to take that next step as a program.
“Overall, we were a very young football team this year, and we thank our seniors for being patient as the young bucks learned the ropes of varsity football. We are very excited to continue to see that growth develop in the coming years. Our challenge will be to get more physical as a football team this offseason through weight room work. We feel like we have a ton of talent, but in the games we lost, we lost because of the other team being more physical. We are already looking forward to next season.”
The Braves finished with a 5-4 record. Elkton-Lake Benton moved to 8-1 and will meet an 8-1 Howard squad on Thursday in Class 9AA quarterfinal action. Elkton-Lake Benton dominated on both sides of the ball. The hosts held the Braves to zero rushing yards, just 1-8 passing for 14 yards and had two interceptions, and one first down. On the offensive side of the ball they piled up 329 yards rushing and 124 passing and led 40-0 at halftime, ending the game on the 50-point rule early in the fourth quarter.
B-H (5-4) 0 0 0 0 – 0
ELB (8-1) 16 24 6 6 - 52
ELB – Colt Beck 14 run (Beck run)
ELB – Beck 63 run (Blake De Vries run)
ELB – Carson Griffith 2 pass from Beck (Isaiah Olson pass from Beck)
ELB – Beck 5 run (Griffith pass from Beck)
ELB – Quinton Westley 5 run (Riddick Westley run)
ELB – Griffith 10 pass from Beck (run failed)
ERB – De Vries 1 run
RUSHING : BH, 20-0; ELB, 25-329 (Colt Beck 4-175, Biddick Westley 4 62
PASSING: BH, 1-8-2-14 (Jaxon Zuehlke 1-6-2-14, Jace Rein 0-1-0-0); ELB, 6-11-0-124 (Colt Beck 6-10-0 124)
RECEIVING : BH (Daniel Person 1-14); ELB (Carson Griffith 3-59, Savion Stephens 2-56)
FIRST DOWNS : BH, 1, ELB 14
DEFENSIVE LEADERS: BH (Bryce Hawkinson 4 tackles, Zuehlke 4 tackles, Carter Dawson 3 tackles)
