The Bobcats return to Class 11AA and the Eastern South Dakota Conference when they match up with Harrisburg on Friday night at Tiger Stadium.
The Tigers lost last week to Watertown, 35-33, to end a two-game winning streak – 48-0 over Douglas on Sept. 14 and a 23-21 squeaker against Aberdeen Central on Sept. 21.
Brookings, meanwhile, is coming off back-to-back losses – 28-0 to Pierre on Sept. 21 and 27-7 to Sioux Falls Lincoln last week.
Things won’t get any easier on Friday night for the ‘Cats.
“Harrisburg has a good football team,” said BHS head coach Lee Schmidt. “They are balanced – run vs. pass; they have been competitive – they did beat Pierre earlier in the year.
“It’s just a big game between two teams that are pretty even – whoever plays the best football is going to come out with a win on Friday.”
The Bobcats, 3-3 on the season and tied for second with Yankton in the 11AA seeding with 41.500 points, are just ahead of Harrisburg and Mitchell (41.000).
“It is about this week – the rest of the weeks really don’t matter,” Schmidt said. “It’s a big game – make no bones about it – our kids know it is a big game. It’s a game where we’re playing a team very equal with us, so we need to play well.
“We’re following up two tough games with two really good football teams, so using that experience – and I thought we competed well in both of those games;we just couldn’t put points on the board, last game, especially. We moved the ball in between the 20s, we just couldn’t get points when we got down there. The big thing is we need to be able to finish this week – sustain drives and put the ball in the end zone – and create some momentum.
“Maybe a little tighter on defense – we did give up a lot of rushing yards last week, but we probably saw the best back that we are going to see all year – and probably the best offensive line that we are going to see all year. We didn’t give up any big plays last week and that’s something we have to do on Friday – we have to make Harrisburg earn all of their points by having to maintain drives and not give up big plays.
“We’re preparing for teams, but we just need to get better at our execution.”
Kickoff is at 7 p.m. at Tiger Stadium in Harrisburg.
