Lynx 'D' contains Bucks to single TD in 31-7 rout

Jill Meier

Journal editor 

 

Like the TV reality show Survivor, Brandon Valley (6-2) simply out-played, out-ran and out-lasted Yankton (2-6) in Friday’s ESD Conference meet on Brandon’s home turf. Although the Bucks presented some twists and turns in the first half, quarters three and four proved to be the Bucks’ demise that led to BV’s 31-7 prize-winning ending.

The Bucks made things interesting from the start, opening with a high-in-the-air onside kick that bounced their way. The early-game trickery, however, didn’t pay dividends when the Lynx defense forced the Bucks to a field goal that dropped short of the goal post. 

BV’s first drive down the field resulted in a 25-yard field goal by Jorey Sorenson with 1:26 to play in the first quarter. 

After limiting the Bucks to a three-and-out on their next possession, from a yard out, BV put the ball in Braiden Petersen’s hands and Sorenson’s follow-up kick gave the Lynx a 10-0 lead.  

And this is when the Bucks made things interesting. Stationed inside the 5-yard line and as time was expiring, Rex Ryken hauled in a 2-yard touchdown pass from Garrett Tennant and Cole Sawatzke nailed the extra-point kick for the 10-7 halftime score.

“They did control the ball a little bit in the first half,” Lynx head coach Chad Garrow acknowledged. “They got that score right before half, which was kind of a letdown. It seems like that has happened a few times for us, where we give up a score right before halftime; we’ve got to make sure we don’t do that. Otherwise, the guys battled. It was a good hard-hitting game and I felt like we were getting after them a lot more on defense.”

After getting within 10-7 at halftime, Yankton punted to start the third quarter. 

That’s when the Lynx took charge of their home turf. On the first play of the possession, the Lynx put the ball in Petersen’s capable hands once again and the senior speedster fancy-footed his way 62 yards down the left sideline to make it a 17-7 game with 9:42 to play.

Then came another Bucks punt and another Lynx touchdown, courtesy of a 36-yard TD pass from Thomas Scholten to, you guessed it, Petersen. 

BV capped off the night with a 23-yard Scholten to Cade Terveer strike, and Sorenson’s extra-point kick sealed the 31-7 victory.

The Lynx out-performed Yankton in every facet of the game. In his first game back since sustaining an injury in the Sept. 23 game against Roosevelt, Scholten was effective in his 9-of-13 attempts for 145 yards; he was intercepted once. Tennant connected on 16-29 for 111 yards.

“Thomas did a good job tonight. He got some pressure, so that’s one of the things we have to shore up better if we do want to throw the ball more going forward,” Garrow said. “They put a lot of guys in the box and bring a lot of guys so, it’s kind of a little bit expected, too. We probably could’ve done a little more play action than we did but a couple times we did do bootlegs they were wide open.”

Terveer caught three passes for 39 yards and a score, and Petersen hauled in a pair for 62 yards and a Ted. Cole Siegfried caught two for 19 yards.

The noticeable difference in yardage came in the ground game, where BV generated 235 yards – 222 of those yards credited to Petersen – to Yankton’s 53.

BV’s defense was guided by Andrew Hanson’s 10 tackles. Tanner Niewenhuis had seven, Mason Van Westen had six and Micah McGeen had five.

This Thursday, BV travels to McEneaney Field in Sioux Falls to face a speedy O’Gorman Knights team, also sporting a 6-2 record. The Knights are coming off a 37-24 home win over Rapid City Stevens.

“O’Gorman’s really good. They have a lot of team speed so we’ll have to figure out how we’re going to attack that and how we’re going to defend them, because they have a lot of good receivers. They have speed everywhere. That’s what hurt us last year when we played them in the Dakota Bowl was their speed that they had in their receivers,” Garrow said. “We’ll try to figure out a good game plan and implement it on Sunday and go from there.”

 

YANKTON (2-6) 0 7 0 0 — 7

BRANDON VALLEY (6-2) 3 7 14 7 — 31

Yankton/Brandon Valley

First downs: 11  18

Rushes: 27/53  32/235

Passing: 111  145

Att/Comp/Int 29/16/0  13/9/1

Total off. Plays/Yds 56/164  45/380

Penalties/Yds 2/10  3/35

Individual leaders: RUSHING-Yankton-Caid Koletzly 10/35, BV-Braiden Petersen 25/222/2, Ethan Tellinghuisen 2/19; PASSING-Yankton-Garrett Tennant 8/12/0, 56 yds., 1 TD; BV-Thomas Scholten 9/13/1, 145 yds., 2 TDs; RECEIVING-Yankton-Josh Galvan-Hofer 7/36; Rex Ryken 3/40, 1 TD; Michael Drotzmann 1/14; BV-Cade Terveer 3/39 2 TDs, Petersen 2/62, 1 TD, Cole Siegfried 2/19, Tellinghuisen 1/15; DEFENSE-Yankton-Tackles-Ryken 5; BV-Andrew Hanson 10; Tanner Niewenhuis 7, Mason Van Westen 6, Micah McGee 5. 

Scoring Summary

First Quarter: BV - Jorey Sorenson, 25-yard field goal; 1:26 3-0

Second Quarter: BV - Braiden Petersen, 1-yard run (Sorenson kick); 6:49 10-0; YHS - Rex Ryken, 2-yard pass from Garrett Tennant (Cole Sawatzke kick); 0:00 10-7

Third Quarter: BV - Petersen, 62-yard run (Sorenson kick); 9:42 17-7; BV - Petersen, 36-yard pass from Thomas Scholten (Sorenson kick); 2:41 24-7

Fourth Quarter: BV - Cade Terveer, 23-yard pass from Scholten (Sorenson kick); 4:14 31-7