PREP FOOTBALL: Dutchmen dominate in 42-0 win

HILLS — Controlling the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball Saturday afternoon, the third-seeded Edgerton/Ellsworth Flying Dutchmen took an early 6-0 lead and claimed an impressive 42-0 victory over the second-seeded Hills-Beaver Creek Patriots in a highly-anticipated game during the semifinals of the Section 3 9-man high school football tournament.

H-BC, which earned a key 34-28 victory over E/E at Hills back in Week 2 and won the Southern Confederacy Conference West Division championship with a perfect 8-0 regular-season mark, ends a tremendous year with a record of 9-1.

Meanwhile, E/E (9-1) advances to the section championship game for the fourth consecutive season and will take on top-seeded and undefeated Clinton-Graceville-Beardsley Friday (12 p.m.) at Mattke Field on the campus of Southwest Minnesota State University in Marshall.

After receiving a first-round bye in the seven-team bracket, C-G-B (9-0, ranked first in the state polls) advanced to the title game with a 54-14 victory over fifth-seeded Fulda Saturday.

H-BC (second) and E/E (ninth) are also in the state rankings and were meeting in the section semifinals for the third straight season. The Flying Dutchmen won at Edgerton in both 2010 (20-14) and 2011 (44-36), while the Patriots were looking to win on their home field this time around.

However, E/E dominated up front for the majority of the game and outgained H-BC by a huge 412-150 margin. In fact, the Flying Dutchmen held the Patriots to just 37 yards rushing on 21 carries through three quarters.

“We controlled the line of scrimmage, so a lot of credit goes to both our offensive and defensive lines,” summed up E/E head coach Andrew Fleischman. “We did a great job defensively of stopping H-BC from running the ball, which is a very tough thing to do. The Patriots are a great team with a big offensive line and a tremendous running back in Dalton Bass, but we filled our gaps well and played aggressively.”

Bass was limited to 87 yards rushing on 15 carries, although more than half of those yards came on a 46-yard burst in the fourth quarter. H-BC finished the game with only 105 yards rushing (on 28 attempts) and 45 yards passing (4-for-18).

“E/E is an outstanding team, and we certainly tip our cap to them for playing the way they did today,” H-BC head coach Rex Metzger said after the game. “We had a hard time moving the ball consistently, although we did have a couple of chances to score inside their 20-yard line in the second quarter. But we were not able to capitalize on those opportunities, and the Dutchmen stayed in control.”

E/E ran the ball 50 times for 305 yards and gained 107 yards through the air, as Isaac Heard completed 8-of-13 passes. Blake Jouwstra gained a team-leading 121 yards on the ground (14 carries) and scored three touchdowns to lead the Dutchmen.

60-yard touchdown run by Jouwstra sparks E/E in the first half

H-BC started the game with the ball, but E/E forced a three-and-out and a quick punt. The Flying Dutchmen took over at the 50-yard line and assembled a nine-play drive to reach the end zone five minutes and three seconds into the first quarter.

Heard completed back-to-back passes to Derek Voge (10 tackles) for 21 yards combined, while Devin Hulstein (nine carries for 58 yards) had a 13-yard dash to help move E/E down the field. A few more short runs gave the Dutchmen a first-and-goal situation.

Heard then fired a four-yard touchdown pass to Daniel Kramer at the 6:57 mark. It was Kramer’s first career touchdown reception, giving E/E a 6-0 lead (two-point attempt no good).

The Dutchmen got the ball right back after forcing another punt following just three plays and again sustained a drive into Patriots’ territory. Austin LaFollette (10 carries for 58 yards, 11 tackles) started things with a 14-yard dash, while Heard connected with Hulstein on a 31-yard pass over the middle.

LaFollette’s 17-yard surge then gave E/E a first down at H-BC’s 25, but the Patriots came up with a stop when Zach Wagenaar (team-high 15 tackles) intercepted a pass along the left sideline.

H-BC, though, punted for the third time after again not picking up a first down. A quarterback sack by E/E’s Jorge Lopez (10 tackles, two interceptions) highlighted that possession.

The Patriots’ Dylan Gehrke picked off a pass on the Dutchmen’s ensuing series, and H-BC then moved the chains for the first time. A five-yard completion from Gehrke to Jeff Sandbulte (12 tackles), plus a penalty on E/E, gave the Patriots their initial first down at their own 46.

H-BC punted shortly after that, but the Patriots got the ball right back via a three-and-out and punt by E/E. Two straight runs by Bass (five and eight yards) gave the Patriots a first down, and Tate Bork later moved the chains with a seven-yard run.

H-BC reached E/E’s 14-yard line and completed a seven-yard pass on fourth-and-five, but a holding penalty on the play and then an incomplete pass turned the ball over on downs to the Dutchmen.

Three short rushes gave E/E a second-and-five at its own 40, and Jouwstra then got loose — untouched, in fact — for a 60-yard touchdown scamper down the left sideline on a misdirection counter run through a big opening. Lopez added the two-point conversion, lifting the Dutchmen to a 14-0 lead with 6:12 to go in the second quarter.

“That was a big turning point in the game,” Fleischman said. “We got a defensive stop and then our offensive line really gave Blake some open space on his long touchdown run. That sequence swung the momentum in our direction.”

E/E kept things rolling in its favor, as Lopez intercepted a pass on the ensuing series. Hulstein then capped a short five-play, 41-yard drive with a four-yard touchdown run to make it 20-0 (two-point pass picked off by Bass) with 3:06 remaining in the first half.

The Patriots threatened to score right before halftime, with Gehrke completing passes to Nathan Taubert (24 yards) and Sandbulte (14 yards) to help give H-BC a third-and-one at E/E’s 19. But the Dutchmen again stopped the Patriots and maintained a 20-0 halftime advantage.

“If we could have scored on at least one of our drives inside the 20, the game might be a little bit different,” Metzger said. “We needed to get something positive going our way offensively, but it just didn’t happen for us today.”

Jouwstra’s 73-yard kickoff return for TD highlights second half

E/E continued to dominate in the second half, beginning with an electrifying runback on the opening kickoff. Jouwstra broke several tackles along the left sideline — right in front of the Dutchmen players and fans — for a 73-yard touchdown return to make it 26-0 (two-point attempt no good) just 13 seconds into the third quarter.

An impressive 21-play, 73-yard scoring drive that lasted 10 minutes and 21 seconds — consuming nearly the entire period and ending on the final play when Tyler Kurrasch (nine carries for 44 yards) blasted into the end zone for a two-yard touchdown run — further highlighted E/E’s supremacy.

Heard, who completed passes to Jouwstra (nine yards) and Hulstein (11 yards) to help sustain that march, ran in for the two-point conversion, extending the Dutchmen’s bulge to 34-0 as the game entered the fourth quarter.

Another interception by Lopez, a five-yard touchdown run by Jouwstra and a two-point conversion pass from Heard to Jouwstra (with 4:37 remaining) highlighted the final period and completed the scoring at 42-0.

E/E 6 14 14 8 — 42

H-BC 0 0 0 0 — 0

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