Braves Explode For 71 Points

Britton-Hecla exploded for 71 points in just two quarters of football on the way to a 71-14 win over Wilmot Friday that was called on the 50-point rule at halftime.
    It was the fifth straight win for the Braves after they dropped the first two contests of the season.  Coach Jacob Skogstad’s squad will wrap up regular season play by hosting Waverly-South Shore on Friday at 7 p.m. and will open the Class 9AA playoffs next week Thursday against an opponent yet to be decided.  
    The top 16 teams among the 23 Class 9AA clubs qualify for postseason play.  With one game remaining the Braves are currently seeded 10th with a 5-2 record.  The top eight seeds will host first round playoff games.
    Waverly-South Shore brings a 3-4 record into Friday’s contest, and the two clubs have played four common opponents.  B-H defeated Waubay-Summit 49-0 (W-SS won 20-18), stopped Wilmot 71-14 (W-SS won 48-12), topped Great Plains  
Lutheran 22-20 (W-SS lost 16-9), and downed Florence-Henry 58-6 (W-SS won 34-20).
    “Waverly-South Shore is going to pose a challenge in the pass game, and they have competed well this year,” said Skogstad.  “It should be a very fun game on Friday to finish out the regular season.”
    Just about everything went right for the Braves against Wilmot that saw them jump out to a 30-0 first quarter lead and then tack on 41 more points in the second period to end the game early.
    “It was an overall great team effort,” stressed Skogstad.  “When you average 20 yards a carry, you are doing everything right offensively. The line is opening holes, and the running backs are finishing the play off.  The 71 points is the most we have scored in my time here, and I think it is the most scored in Britton in a very long time. That is a credit to our kids, and a total team effort. Wilmot did some things offensively that exposed a little that we need to work on for this week, and working towards the playoffs.”
    It took just five plays for the Braves to get on the board when Jace Rein found the end zone on a 16-yard run and then passed to Jaxon Zuehlke for the conversion.  Then Daniel Person broke loose for a 70-yard scamper and Dashel Davidson added the conversion run for a 16-0 lead with 5:48 left in the opening period.
    Bryce Hawkinson came up with the next big play, breaking loose for a 66-yard score and then Davidson found paydirt from 35 yards out and Hawkinson ran the conversion for a 30-0 lead after one stanza.
    Zuehlke followed that up with a fumble recovery in the end zone and Lofton Heer booted the PAT for a 37-0 lead early in the second period.
    Wilmot got on the board with 8:24 left in the half on a 59-yard run but Hawkinson answered with a 19-yard score two minutes later and Heer kicked the conversion.  The Wolves scored on its first play from scrimmage on a 68-yard bomb to but the lead to 44-12 and the rest of the half was all Braves.
    Rein hit Hawkinson on a 14-yard scoring toss, Davidson scored on a two-yard run, Bryce Heitkamp had a 15-yard score, and Mitchell Burger put the icing on the cake with a 38-yard interception return for a TD.  Heer booted a pair of points and Kendall Knudson kicked one.
    Britton-Hecla piled up 397 yards on just 20 carries, led by Hawkinson’s 7-191, a 27.3 yards per carry average.  Rein passed for 47 more yards as the Braves held a 444-265 total yards advantage.  An unusual statistic in the contest was time of possession.  B-H had the ball for just seven minutes and Wilmot for 17 minutes.