A quartet of regional football teams is ready to hit the road and square off against unbeaten foes in the semifinals of the state playoffs on Friday.
While each team is likely considered an underdog on paper, each is just one game away from playing for a state championship next week.
Faulkton (7-3) will take on Dell Rapids St. Mary (10-0) on Friday afternoon at 3 in a rematch of last year’s semifinal contest that Faulkton won.
“It’s kind of fun rematch. It’s going to be a battle,” said Faulkton coach Shayne Geditz. “There’s probably a lot of people that are going to put us in the underdog role and that’s OK. Our kids are excited for the opportunity. You never take these opportunities for granted. They may not come around again. You just never know.”
While the Trojans have three losses, they are playing their best football of the season and last weekend took out last year’s state champion Sully Buttes.
“We played well, defensively, especially,” Geditz said. “The kids did a nice job limiting and containing their quarterback a little bit.”
DRSM has not lost a game since that semifinal setback at Faulkton a year ago. The Cardinals have scored 50 or more points in eight of their 10 games this season.
“They’ve got a nice football team,” Geditz said. “They’ve got good size up front, run well, and got good athletes. They have a nice offensive football team.”
Both teams are built to run the ball and like to play hard-nosed, physical football.
“They like to line up in the double wing and pound it,” Geditz said, “and we’re a power team also, so something’s going to give.”
Interestingly, the game will be a matinee showdown because the Cardinals share the same field as Dell Rapids Public. Faulkton is not a stranger to playing in the afternoon, either, having had a day game earlier this season due to a shortage of officials.
Geditz said he doesn’t mind not playing in the evening.
“The 9B championship game is played at 10 or 10:30 in the morning on Thursday,” Geditz said.
While both teams have shown the ability to put up big numbers, each is also capable of shutting down foes as well.
“I’m expecting a good football game,” Geditz said. “It’s a semifinal football game. I think it’s a game that’s won and lost in the trenches.”
Geditz said other ingredients will factor in as well such as turnovers and making big plays at crucial times.
“It’s not that complicated at the end of the day,” Geditz said. “You’ve just got to do the little things. If we do the little things, it will make the big things.”
Class 11B
Clark-Willow Lake (9-1) at St. Thomas More (10-0)
Clark-Willow Lake is making its first appearance in the semifinal round since 2012 when it played 9-man football. The Cyclones knocked off last year’s state champion Winner in the quarterfinals last week.
“That was a fun one,” said CWL coach David Severson. “Hats off to Winner. They just have that culture and that stigma for the last two decades.”
Now the Cyclones will face another foe with a similar pedigree in St. Thomas More.
“We’re going to go out there, we’re going to give them our best game, and we expect their best game in return,” Severson said.
While the two teams have not played each other, they did have a common foe. Both squads faced Sioux Valley. STM defeated the Cossacks the first week of the season, while Clark-Willow Lake faced them twice, splitting a pair of contests.
Severson said the Cyclones fell behind early in the setback, but then held their own against Sioux Valley before defeating them two weeks later.
“They took it to us in the first quarter, but really about late in the second quarter, we kind of started doing some good things against them the first time when they beat us,” Severson said. “We just spotted them so many points to begin with and dug ourselves a hole we couldn’t get out of.”
The second matchup was a much different story.
“We knew coming into that second game what we could do,” Severson said, “and we just went out and executed.”
Severson said the Cyclones have been a second-half team this season and credits the line for wearing down opponents.
“Our second-half stats, scores are pretty dominant,” Severson said. “I credit to that our big boys up front. … It’s what has pushed us through a lot of these big games.”
Severson said a big key to unlocking success against STM is winning the battle up front.
“We have to get some pressure on that quarterback. They’re going to pass the ball well,” Severson said. “We’re in the semifinals. Teams pass the ball well, teams run the ball well. We have to play sound defense and win the line of scrimmage. That’s what it’s going to come down to.”
Class 11B
Deuel (9-1) at Elk Point-Jefferson (10-0)
Deuel faces a ‘big’ task in its contest against top-rated and top-seeded Elk Point-Jefferson.
The Huskies’ offensive line features a center who weighs 290 pounds, a right tackle at 260, and right guard at 305.
“Their front line is big. … That’s AAA size on that side,” said Deuel coach Dusty Hourigan.
The Cardinals will combat that with speed and athleticism which foes have had a difficult time stopping, featuring state champion sprinter Oliver Fieber, along with Troy Jenson.
“Those two guys on the edge can really stress defenses,” Hourigan said.
That in turn opens up the middle for Gavin Kloos and quarterback Aiden Sievers.
“I knew we had the right pieces in place. I didn’t know our offense was going to be so prolific,” Hourigan said. “That surprised me a little bit, how many playmakers we were able to put out there.”
Now it’s a matter of slowing down EPJ, who Hourigan said has a “four-headed monster with their backs.”
He knows it will be difficult to prevent the Huskies from scoring at all, but wants to at least make them earn their points.
“You’ve got to limit their big plays,” Hourigan said. “We have our reads. Everyone knows where they need to go. It’s about limiting them.”
Deuel’s defense has cranked up its effort in recent weeks and has created nearly 10 turnovers in the playoffs so far. That could play a key role against the Huskies.
“We’re going to have force some turnovers,” Hourigan said, “and they don’t turn the ball over hardly at all.”
Once the Cardinals have the ball, they will do their best not to relinquish it.
“And then offensively, we have to control the clock,” Hourigan said, “and we have to control the ball.”
Class 9AA
Hamlin (9-1) at Freeman-Marion-Freeman Academy (10-0)
On paper this could be a shootout of epic proportions.
Defending state champion Hamlin rolled past Hill City last week in a game where quarterback Jackson Wadsworth passed for nearly 500 yards and five touchdowns.
“We saw some things in their defense that we thought we could take advantage of,” said Hamlin coach Jeff Sheehan. “Jackson did a great job of exploiting their defense and finding the guys in the spots where we had them. … The kids were on the same page and everything just kind of went well for us in that game.”
The Chargers will meet a team in Freeman-Marion-Freeman Academy that has dominated nearly every opponent on its schedule. The Phoenix have outscored their last four opponents by a combined margin of 219-15.
“They’ve got a lot of good football players,” Sheehan said. “They’ve got a good program going right now. … They have a good passing game. … Their defense flows fast, they tackle well. They’re a good football team.”
In a game that will likely feature plenty of offense, a key could come down to defense, according to Sheehan.
“We know they’re going to score. … We have to make a play. …If we can slow down their run game,” Sheehan said, “because if they can both run and throw, that’s an unstoppable force. We want to try to eliminate one of them if we can and then go from there.”
Sheehan noted that Hamlin was on the doorstep of winning a state title in recent years before breaking through last season, and that Freeman-Marion-Freeman Academy has been in a similar situation the past couple of years. “Again, semifinal game, it’s one game and we’re all playing for the same thing,” Sheehan said. “They know where they want to get to. We’ve been there. We want to get back to there. I think it’s going to be a pretty good football game.”
