It started from the opening kick and carried on all game long Friday night at Brownell Activities Complex.

Second-rated Yankton returned the opening kickoff 91 yards, scored one play later and never looked back on the way to a 48-11 win over Aberdeen Central in an Eastern South Dakota Conference football game.

To compound matters, the Golden Eagles fumbled on their first play, soon the Bucks scored again and Central played from behind the entire way.

“Not the way we want to get things going, not the way we want to get things started, to have yourself in a hole,” said Central coach Justin Briese. “It’s hard to dig yourself out of a hole like that.”

The hosts never quit and eventually forced three turnovers in the contest, but they were never able to fully recover.

“We did a pretty good job of not getting our heads down too much, but it’s got to be deflating. Emotionally it’s deflating as a team to have those mistakes, but I think we battle back,” Briese said. “We showed some signs of, hey we’re going to be good in spots and other spots, we’re like hey we need to get better and improve throughout this week and this season.”

Central got on the board when Caden Forred kicked a 30-yard field goal midway through the second period, but that momentum did not last long when Bucks produced another big kickoff return, this time ending in a 97-yard touchdown from Miles Drotzman, who had nearly 200 return yards in the first half alone.

“We did not do what we need to on special teams,” Briese said. “We emphasize it, we work on it, but all it takes is for one of those guys to not do their job and things get kind of ugly from it.”

It appeared the Bucks were on their way to another touchdown before Central’s Jackson Board read the play and intercepted a pass inside the 10-yard line.

“I was watching film and I saw that when they were in that red zone, I see they got that double slant and tried to get me hooked onto this shorter one,” Board said. “I was like, no, I’m not going to get hooked onto that. I was watching the QB. I saw him throw that ball, and I’m like, oh yeah, I’m getting that.”

It was one of three interceptions for the Golden Eagles. Bennett Eisenbeisz picked off a pass in the end zone to foil another Yankton scoring opportunity.

However, the Bucks had some interceptions as well, including two that resulted in pick sixes. Jaxon Ryken returned an interception 67 yards for a touchdown right before the end of the half, and defensive lineman Austin Conway returned an interception 21 yards for a score in the opening seconds of the third quarter.

Central scored its lone touchdown later in the period when Paden Appl hauled in a screen pass from Jace Byram and ran 34 yards to the end zone.

“We were actually going to go to the boundary and they were like flip it around, you’ll have some more grass to work with and so I did,” Appl said. “My quarterback was like, you’ve got this big guy right here, he might get in your way, so just bring it out a little bit wider than normal. I went out a little bit wider, the ball came right to me, and I just took ‘er to the house.”

However, Yankton wasn’t done producing big plays, scoring on a 49-yard pass play on the first play of the fourth quarter and then tacking one late score for the final margin of difference.

The total yardage from scrimmage was fairly even, but Yankton scored three touchdowns on returns and set up another one on plays that went for a combined 276 yards.

Central held its own in the middle of the field, but it came a bit too late after the Bucks set the tone early.

“We watched a lot of film on them, seeing what they were doing,” Appl said. “We figured things out towards the end of the game when we should have figured it out earlier, like that might have been a big game changer.”

While the Golden Eagles had their moments against Yankton, they also found things they need work on.

“We definitely learned a lot about how we need to perform. We got people looking at the quarterback when they’re supposed to be looking at their man, not locked in, just a bunch of things,” Board said. “We have to keep our heads up. We can’t shoot ourselves in the foot, just a lot of stuff that we’ve got to go through.”

Central will host Tea Area at 7 p.m. Friday.

Briese still has a ton of confidence in his players.

“The ability is there,” Briese said. “We see it in practice every day. It’s just a matter of executing here on the field, so it’s a matter of getting our guys to carry it over from practice to Friday night.”

Yankton (1-0) 14 13 7 14 – 48

Aberdeen Central (0-1) 0 3 8 0 – 11

First Quarter

Y – Jaxon Ryken 9 pass from Jackson Kudera (Asher Nockels kick), 11:35.

Y – Karson Kral 5 pass from Kudera (Nockels kick), 7:02.

Second Quarter

AC – Caden Forred 30 field goal, 7:53.

Y – Miles Drotzmann 97 kickoff return (Nockles kick), 7:37.

Y – Ryken 67 pass interception return (kicked missed), :03.

Third Quarter

Y – Austin Conway 21 pass interception return (Yael Trujilo kick), 11:28.

AC – Paden Appel 34 pass from Jace Byram (Byram run), 3:00.

Fourth Quarter

Y – Jax Gause 49 pass from Kudera (Trujilo kick), 11:53.

Y – Emmett Hirschman 3 run (Trujilo kick), 2:43.

OFFENSE: Yankton rushing 26-89 (Kral 9-31, Hirschman 6-30, Tegan LaCroix 4-16, Kudera 6-15), passing 11-21-2 for 131 (Kudera 11-21-3 for 131), receiving (Gause 1-49, LaCroix 5-35, Will Sager 1-26, Drotzman 2-17, Ryken 1-9), 13 first downs; Aberdeen Central rushing 31-50 (Appel 16-44, Byram 8-18), passing 11-25-2 for 108 (Byram 10-24-2 for 91, Jackson Berry 1-1-0 for 17), receiving (Porter Lozenski 9-54, Appel 1-34, Micheal Wipf 1-17, Ben Weishaar 1-13), first downs 8.

DEFENSE: Yankton, Drotzman 5 tackle, Zane Portilo 4 tackles including 1 sack, LaCroix 4 tackles, Ryken 1 interception, Conway 1 interception, Jake Wolter 1 fumble recovery; Aberdeen Central, Micah Bruns 5 tackles including 1 for loss, Owen Ward 5 tackles including 1 sack, Tyler Joosten 1 interception, Jackson Board 1 interception, Bennett Eisenbeisz 1 interception.