Updated at 3 p.m. Sept. 29
BROOKINGS – There will be celebration in the air on Friday night when the Brookings Bobcats host the Yankton Bucks. The annual homecoming game will serve as a reminder to the past, but it will also have major implication on the Class 11AA standings, where Brookings currently ranks third and Yankton ranks fourth.
“Homecoming is a great week for the community to be involved and to show their spirit and pride in our school district,” Brookings head coach Brady Clark said. “But at the end of the day, we have a job to take care of on Friday night and we’ll go out and give our best effort no matter what.”
Their best effort is exactly what the Bobcats have been bringing the past couple of weeks. A 48-0 loss to Pierre T.F. Riggs was a disappointing blow, but the Bobcats have rebounded winning their past three games outscoring their opponents 97-28, including a 40-6 win over Douglas last week.
“We had a tough game against Pierre, but we’ve been able to bounce back from that,” Clark said. “It maybe took a little longer in some areas than I’d like to see but that’s also due to our age level as far as our young guys not going through a tough loss like that. Our leaders have done a good job of getting guys back on track and realizing that one game doesn’t define us. It doesn’t define our season. How we respond to that is what matters.”
The response has been a dominant one and it’s starting to open up other areas of the team. The passing game came to life in Douglas last week with quarterback Justin Coffell throwing three touchdown passes after opening the game with a 42-yard touchdown run.
“Just the confidence level with our guys was huge for us,” Clark said of the passing game’s emergence against Douglas. “We hadn’t really shown that we could throw the ball as much as we wanted to yet, so why wouldn’t teams want to load the box and make sure to stop the run and force us into being on dimensional?”
The Bobcats shuffled their personnel across the field and simplified some concepts in the passing game, which led to a season-high 108 passing yards in the win over the Patriots. While Brookings will remain a run-oriented team that has averaged 190.4 yards on the ground this season, Clark believes that will open up opportunities for running back Israel Caldron.
“Israel does a good job and we really want to get to a point where our offensive line is in a good enough position where it doesn’t matter who is back there behind us,” Clark explained. “As long as our line is hitting the right holes and doing their job, then that’s perfect. When we’re able to control the line of scrimmage, it can open up the passing game so much more because as you run the ball and lull defenses to sleep, that’s when our opportunity presents itself to throw the ball.”
While the offense has been productive, there are still some areas where Clark is hoping to see improvement. The Bobcats have struggled on third down this season, converting just 34.8 percent of their opportunities. Although they converted 3-of-8 opportunities against Douglas, the Bobcats are hoping they can continue to improve on Friday.
“I just want to see us sustain drives,” Clark said. “If we get to a third down situation, I’d like to see us be able to convert more of them, keep our defense off the field, keep their offense off the field and control the clock from there.”
Brookings will need to have an explosive effort on offense against a Yankton team that is averaging just over 32 points per game. The Bucks have plenty of weapons that could hurt the Bobcats including dual threat quarterback Rugby Ryken and receivers Tyler Sohler and Cody Oswald.
While Clark has been impressed with his defense the past couple of weeks, keeping Ryken and the rest of the Yankton offense under wraps will be a massive key to Friday’s game.
“We have to keep [Ryken] in the pocket,” Clark said. “If we can keep him in check, we can stay in coverage down field on their receivers who are very athletic. That’s going to be key.”
All of this creates a massive game that will be played under a homecoming spotlight at Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium. Brookings currently leads Yankton by 0.4 seeding points coming into Friday’s game and a victory could be a difference in determining their playoff matchup.
Still, Clark recognizes the significance of playing on homecoming. He chose “family” as his word of the week for his team and hopes that the feeling of togetherness will lead the Bobcats to victory on Friday night.
“We talk about family a lot in our program and that we’re not just for the guys that are playing here this year for this team,” Clark said. “We’re playing for the guys that came before us and those who will play after to set an example for them.”
