BROOKINGS The Brookings football team upset No. 1 ranked Huron on Thursday night at Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium as the Bobcats beat the Tigers 22-14.
Brookings led 8-6 at halftime and hung onto that lead all the way till the end and finished the regular season with a record of 5-4. The win clinched a spot in the Class AA Playoffs.
I feel like it was the first time this year that we played an entire game as a team, said Brookings head coach Carter Gordon. We played together and worked together and the outcome showed. They have a fairly potent offense and theyre good at running the ball and can spread you out too, so we wanted to take as much time on offense as possible and control the run game for sure.
Neither team scored in the first quarter. Huron then broke the tie with just under four and a half minutes left in the first half. The Tigers faced a fourth and three from the Bobcat seven yard line and quarterback Alex Porisch looked like he was going to be sacked but he threw the ball over his head and it landed in the hands of Riley Wagner in the end zone. Porisch missed the extra point and it was 6-0 with 4:22 left in the half.
It didnt take long for the Bobcats to answer as Gavin Anderson took it 67 yards to the house on the first play of the ensuing drive. Bergan Tetzlaff ran in the two-point conversion to make it 8-6 with 4:06 to play in the first half.
Huron fumbled on its next possession as Porisch had trouble on a handoff and the Bobcats fell on it. However, Brookings was unable to do anything with the turnover and took a two-point lead into halftime.
Neither would score in the third quarter as well. Brookings extended its lead early in the fourth as Ben Schulte scored a 51-yard touchdown run. Drew Johnson added the extra point and the Bobcats led 15-6 with 11:03 left in the game.
Huron marched right down the field and the Tigers drive was capped off with a 12-yard touchdown run from Mason Jurgens as he took a pitch around the left side and scored. Porisch ran in the two-point conversion and it was 15-14 with 9:18 left in the game.
Brookings then methodically moved down the field and the Bobcats worked their way inside the Huron five yard line with just over two minutes left. Huron had no timeouts but Bergan Tetzlaff scored from four yards out.
Gordon said he didnt want to put any pressure on his offense after Huron scored and he was proud of the way his team continued to follow the game plan on their final drive on offense.
I didnt say anything in particular [before the drive]. I didnt want to make too much of the moment. I just wanted them to stay focused on what they needed to do. We handled ourselves so well for most of the game that I wasnt going to change anything up based on the fact that they scored so quick. I just wanted to control the game and control the clock and keep playing the way that we set out to do at the beginning of the week, Gordon said.
The extra point from Johnson put the Cats up 22-14 with 2:05 to play but it gave Huron time to drive down the field for a potential tying score.
Huron moved the ball down to the Bobcat 25 with 10 seconds to play and Porisch completed a 16-yard pass on fourth and 10 and then spiked the ball to set up a final play with one second left. He dropped back to pass on the final play and tried to find his brother, Carter, in the end zone, but it fell to the turf and Brookings completed the upset of the No. 1 ranked team in Class AA.
Gordon said his defense was fatigued on Hurons final drive but they made a play when it mattered most.
[The defense] was tired. You could see it. Our boys were gassed. That was the longest two-minute drive that Ive been a part of, granted the circumstances were higher, but they were tired and just never gave up. I was very satisfied and very proud of them in that moment. It was another bend, but dont break, moment, Gordon said.
Brookings moved up to the No. 7 seed with the win as Spearfish was beaten by Sturgis Brown on Thursday night. With the loss, Huron dropped to No. 2 and that will set up a rematch in the first round of the playoffs next Thursday in Huron.
Gordon said that playing the same team twice in seven days is unique, but the Bobcats will have confidence going up against the Tigers again and wont change their gameplan.
The game plan is probably going to stay the same, but were going to have to switch up how were going to accomplish it, Gordon said. Were going to have to change up how were going to attack their defense. We threw some new things at them this week that they havent seen on tape. Were going to have to be able to put the ball in the air sometimes. When were looking at them, they run the quarterback and that running back doesnt go down on first contact either. I dont know how much theyre going to change.
11AA has been so weird this year. All the games weve lost this year have been by one score except the game against Tea. I just told the boys, you guys are built for this. You can go toe-to-toe with any team in 11AA. [Winning this game] definitely supplies a lot of confidence for our team and gives us some momentum, and hopefully that means were peaking at the right time.
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