Big plays were made on a big stage Friday night at Dacotah Bank Stadium.
Great Plains Lutheran defeated Waubay-Summit 36-6 in an Eastern Coteau Conference football game from a neutral site on the campus of Northern State. Playing at the facility was a first for many kids on both teams.
“They were thrilled. They loved it. I mean, we’d love to have a place to call our own instead of having to borrow places all the time and pay rent. But I mean, this is a pretty good consolation prize,” said GPL coach Aaron Schleusener. “The seniors played here as freshmen. We came here and played North Central in some Lake Region Classic I think, so they remember that, and they were excited they got to do that again. So, I’m glad everyone got to have that experience.”
It was the same for the Mustangs of Waubay-Summit.
“Some of them got to play here when we were 11-man a couple years ago against Roncalli. So, some of them, it’s their second time,” said Mustangs coach Sonny Rumpza. “But yeah, it’s a nice stadium. Northern’s always had a nice stadium.”
Even the players noted the energy of playing at Dacotah Bank.
“It’s awesome. I came out here right away to stretch and stuff and the energy and everything, the bright lights,” said Waubay-Summit’s Zayne Strang. “It felt good, it was fun.”
Great Plains Lutheran’s Lucas Johnson also talked about the environment of the stadium.
“It’s bigger, it’s just better,” said Johnson. “It’s easier to see some of the things like the time and the score.”
Johnson got to experience the score changing first when he broke a two-play drive totaling 65 yards on the ground himself to put the Panthers on the board. He picked up 27 yards on the first play of the drive, and 38 on the following play.
“It was great, I couldn’t do it without my blockers,” Johnson said. “It was super fun, but super tiring. I think I came out within the next play. Just had to take a breather.”
Being one of the main backs for the GPL squad, Johnson is still learning the position with it being only the second game he’s been in the backfield.
“It’s a guy we’re probably gonna have to rely on all year, so, (have) to get his confidence going,” said Schleusener. “He was a tight end last year, so we moved him to a back this year and he’s still trying to figure that out and what he can do. And sometimes, those big plays are like yup dude, that’s what you can do.”
Johnson didn’t take long to find the endzone again as four minutes later he punched in a 2-yard run giving the Panthers a 16-0 lead with 5:08 remaining in the first half.
Waubay-Summit had a shot to put points on the board at the end of the half, starting on their own 39 with 1:34 left. Evan Aker scrambled on the first play for 17 yards, but got sacked on the following play by Johnson. That didn’t slow down the Mustangs as Aker scrambled again for seven yards, and threw a 6-yard pass to Hogan Hlavacek to set up a fourth down-and-3 from the GPL 43-yard line. Aker found Strang on a broken play for 25 yards setting the Mustangs up at the 12 with under 30 seconds to go.
“It felt good when we were in rhythm. The two-minute drill at the end of the half, that felt good. We marched the ball,” Strang said. “Offense was dead the whole first half. We marched the ball in two-minute drill and it felt really good to move the sticks and make some catches.”
After that play, Rumpza misread the referees and the Mustangs were left stranded on the 2-yard line as time expired.
“Yeah, that was crucial and that was kind of my mistake,” Rumpza said. “I thought we were out of bounds. I thought he signaled out of bounds, and he just stopped to move the (chains), and I didn’t catch it in time. That was all my fault.”
The Mustangs came out of halftime and forced a Panther fumble on the second play of the third quarter. As Waubay-Summit was moving the ball down the field, Great Plains Lutheran got it back on an interception by Caleb Kannas in the redzone.
With their backs at their own endzone on a third down-and-14 from the 13-yard line, Jarret Bauer hit Logan Bergan in stride down the sideline for a 87-yard touchdown to give the Panthers a 22-0 lead.
“We know he’s capable of doing it. We know we have receivers that can catch it,” said Schleusener. “For him, especially it’s his first year starting quarterback, again a big confidence boost here for him, the receiver, for the whole team.”
After gaining the ball with a short field, Ryen Kjenstad took his turn finding success out of the backfield for the Panthers as he accounted for all 23 yards on the drive scoring on a 3-yard run making it 28-0. Two drives later, sophomore Grady Hermoe punched in a 7-yard rushing touchdown to be the third Panther running back to find the endzone.
“We got a lot of younger guys ready to go after that as you saw at the end,” Schleusener. “I don’t love having to rely on one guy having to do it all, because you never know with injury, whatever. So yeah, it’s huge, and then they feed off of each other, so that makes it even better.”
Trailing 36-0, the Mustangs didn’t give up as Strang took the ensuing kickoff 75 yards for a touchdown to put Waubay-Summit on the board.
“It felt good. The kick return team blocked good for me, made a good cut and felt good,” Strang said.
The Panthers improved to 2-0 on the season and will take on another conference foe in Florence-Henry next week.
“We’re gonna get back at it, watch film and you know, it’s another conference opponent. We get to start our season with three straight conference opponents,” said Schleusener. “If we can start out with three big wins in conference, that’s huge.”
Waubay-Summit 0 0 0 6 – 6
Great Plains Lutheran 0 16 12 8 – 36
GPL – Lucas Johnson 38 run (Jarret Bauer run).
GPL – Johnson 2 run (Bauer from Caleb Kannas).
GPL – Logan Bergan 87 pass from Bauer (run failed).
GPL – Ryen Kjenstad 3 run (run failed).
GPL- Grady Hermoe 7 run (Tyler Bruemmer from Benjamin Prahl).
WS – Zayne Strang 75 kickoff return (run failed).
OFFENSE: Great Plains Lutheran, rushing 241 (Johnson 86, Hermoe 57, Kjenstad 45); passing 2-5 for 120 (Bauer 2-5 for 120); receiving (Bergan 87, Jeremiah Martens 33); Waubay-Summit, rushing 32 (Evan Aker 33), passing 11-19 for 102 (Aker 11-19 for 102); receiving (Hogan Hlavacek 26, Newton Campbell 26, Krew Gaikowski 20).
