One and done

A look back at the opening round of the playoffs...

The only real surprise in 11AA was obviously Yankton beating Brandon Valley, though it’s certainly not a huge shock. Yankton entered the season with high aspirations and definitely had a solid enough team.

Brandon tied for the best record in the ESD but that never makes a team unbeatable.

Major kudos to Andrew Hummel, who booted a couple field goals in the game (including the game winner from 30) on a terrible night for anything really. The ball barely cleared the upright, but it did. Kickin’ ain’t easy.

I wasn’t surprised that West Central beat Sisseton but the final score floored me. The more I think about it, the more it makes sense, but still...that’s a thumping. The weather was not ideal for Sisseton, who I’m assuming was unable to run its offense as they have most of the season. West Central’s offense is effective whether its 100 degrees or ten below. Throughout the season, as the Trojans lost a few games, I wondered if this would be the year where they had some struggles during the regular season and simply walked all over everyone come playoff time. I was at the 2009 version of this playoff matchup, standing on the West Central sidelines and it was not a happy place. I get the feeling they’ve been holding onto that feeling ever since.

I still consider the Trojans to be a contender in their class.

Tea got an “upset” win at Pine Ridge. We shouldn’t be shocked. After beating Wagner a few weeks ago, the Titans had some confidence. The strength of schedule, or lack thereof, shined through for Pine Ridge on Tuesday.

I was at the first half of the Washington/Huron game and it pretty much went the way everyone expected. Devonte Clay had a nice half…including a touchdown of 32 yards that got Washington on the board, and another long TD run that was called back on a penalty that occurred at the end of the play. He finished with 166 yards.

After that game, I went to Dell Rapids where I stuck around for about a quarter of the DRSM/Warner game, in which the Cardinals wound up winning 52-0. Colby Bunkers scored three times in the time I was there. This is the only team (DRSM) I see giving Canistota a fight.

From St. Mary, I went to Public where I wasn’t too surprised to see a blank scoreboard two minutes into the second quarter of the Dell Rapids/Milbank game.

Cole Langer was his usual self on the ground, breaking free with a 60+ yard TD run in the 2nd. Early in the third quarter, Milbank QB Nick Mears had an awesome rush of about 65 yards, all the way down to about the 20 or 15 of Dell Rapids. He eventually finished the drive with a TD pass to Tanner Folk, which itself was a well executed play where Folk was wide open in the corner. Milbank had a lot of momentum after that score but the Quarriers responded immediately with TD from Langer and that pretty much shifted the momentum and the game into Dells’ favor.

There are some interesteing matchups in the quarterfinals this Monday. Later this week, I'll post my thoughts and expectations.

Jim Nelson
KSFY Sports
Twitter: @JimNelsonKSFY