ELKTON The Elkton-Lake Benton Elks jumped out to an early lead and never looked back as they smashed the Great Plains Lutheran Panthers 54-0 in their opening game of the Class 9AA Playoffs at the Elkton Athletic Complex on Thursday night.
The Elks, the third seed in the playoffs, improved to 8-1 on the season and advanced to host 11th-seeded Hanson on Halloween night. But despite the big victory, ELB head coach Ethan Pearson saw many things the Elks could clean up in the week leading up to the quarterfinals.
(Thursday night) was just one of those nights where we just had to clean up some things, Pearson said. We had a drive where we had back-to-back penalties, which kind of hurt us, but its a learning experience for our guys. Weve just got to learn from those, but weve got to limit those mistakes on this playoff run we are hoping to go on.
Even with some mistakes, the points came early and often for the Elks, who recovered an onside kick attempt by the Panthers on the opening kickoff. Three plays later, Colt Beck went 40 yards on a touchdown run to put ELB up 7-0 and it would spark a 28-point first quarter.
The Elks got a stop and raced down the field again before scoring on an Elliot Erickson one-yard touchdown run with 7:34 left in the first quarter. After GPL drove into ELB territory but stalled out on the following drive, Beck hit Savion Stephens for a 77-yard touchdown before connecting on a long touchdown pass to Tanner Stein with 3:05 left to cap off a big opening quarter.
The Elks next drive advanced into Panther territory, but a pair of penalties pushed them back. A high snap led to a missed field goal and highlighted some of the things Pearson would like to clean up in the week ahead.
The drive would be the only one that wouldnt end with points for the Elks, however, as Beck extended the lead with a two-yard touchdown run with 2:41 left in the second quarter. Teigan Krog blocked a punt to set up Becks 16-yard touchdown to Stein to give ELB a 41-0 lead at halftime after a missed extra point.
Beck extended the lead again with a five-yard touchdown run with 7:25 left in the third quarter and finished the game with a 19-yard touchdown pass to Drietz to invoke the 50-point rule with 3:21 left in the third quarter.
It was a fitting end for a monster night for Beck, who finished completing 9-of-12 passes for 235 yards and four touchdowns and added six carries for 47 yards and three touchdowns on the ground.
Colt played well (Thursday night). He started out a little slow through the air with some underthrows but we got that fixed, Pearson said. He responded well. And in the running game, hes just a leader for us, he knows who is going to block and where the blocks are going and hes really good at reading the field.
Stein finished with four carries for 63 yards to go with six catches for 37 yards and two touchdowns. Erickson had six carries for 30 yards and a touchdown. Quintin Westley had two carries for 13 yards and Drietz had two carries for seven yards.
Stein led ELB on defense with 11 tackles. Westley had seven tackles and a sack. Beck had nine tackles, Stephens had six tackles, Krog and Erickson had five tackles each.
While the Elks had no trouble scoring points in their first matchup of the playoffs, Pearson and his team know the task will become more difficult as they advance through the bracket and are looking forward to the challenge when they host the Beavers, who scored a 27-26 upset win over Tripp-Delmont/Armour/Andes Central/Dakota Christian on Thursday.
The biggest thing we need to do is just execute every play, every day, Pearson said. Whether youre on defense or offense, we just need nine guys executing. We continue to preach that at practice but those are big things to execute every play and let the guy next to you do his job. Once we get all nine guys flying in the same direction, good things happen.
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