‘Tough Trio’ to lead E/E into quarterfinals versus Nicollet

Daily Globe

EDGERTON — They call themselves the “Tough Trio” and together they have accumulated 29 touchdowns and nearly 1,800 yards rushing for Edgerton/Ellsworth.

The Flying Dutchmen have ran for 1,823 yards more than their opponents this season with just four more attempts and a big reason is because the junior tripod of Derek Voge (77 carries, 704 yards), Blake Jouwstra (55 carries, 530 yards) and Devin Hulstein (47 carries, 559 yards).

“Each of them have different strengths,” E/E coach Andrew Fleischman said. “We have confidence in all three of them.”

The three backs have put aside individual glory for the team and the result is an 11-0 record, an average of more than 57 points a game, a second straight trip to the Class 9-man state tournament and a date with fellow tournament returner Nicollet (9-1) at 5 p.m. today at Southwest State University.

“We really don’t care which one of us have the good game,” Voge said. “Whatever gets us the ‘W’ is all that matters.”

Hulstein concurred with his teammate’s motto.

“We love to win and whatever gets it done, we are willing to do,” Hulstein said.

Just because all three rushers want to win doesn’t mean there isn’t a friendly competition.

“There’s a friendly competition,” Jouwstra said. “Derek and Devin always joke that they pick up the hard yards and I get the ball at the 5-yard line and get the touchdown.”

Hulstein didn’t deny Jouwstra’s accusation.

“We give him a hard time,” Hulstein said with a laugh. “It seems like we get the hard yards and he gets to punch it in.”

Although Jouwstra does have 13 touchdowns to Voge and Hulstein’s 16 combined, Fleischman says there are no favorites in the play-calling.

“Blake does a lot of blocking for those guys, so they should watch what they say,” Fleischman joked. “He gets a lot of touchdowns because we have a play that always works at the goal line for him.

“If we played favorites, I’d be giving my offensive linemen touchdowns.”

One thing is for sure; the tough trio is going to try to leave Nicollet seeing triple tonight.

“All we need to do is break through the first line,” Voge said. “We can overcome their linebackers pretty easily.”

Minus the goal line, where Jouwstra seems to get most of the work, there’s no telling when any of the three will get the ball.

“You never really know at what point which one of us will get the ball,” Hulstein said. “If there’s a big fourth down, any one of us could get the ball.”

Considering E/E quarterback Isaac Heard has completed 114 of 172 pass attempts for nearly 2,000 yards and 28 touchdowns, it’s nearly impossible for defenses to key on the run game. Either way, the tough trio is always ready.

“Since we none of us get a large amount of runs, we always try to make the ones we get count,” Voge said.

Teams can count on another year of the tough trio, since all three are juniors.

“(Voge, Jouwstra and Hulstein) are selfless and play without an ego,” Fleischman said. “We have some key spots to fill next season, but backs are not one of them.”

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