VOLGA – It’ll be a rematch Thursday night in Volga as the No. 2 seeded Sioux Valley football team hosts No. 7 seeded Bridgewater-Emery/Ethan in the Class 11B Quarterfinals.
BEE beat Sioux Valley 20-16 in the season opener in Bridgewater on August 20. The Cossacks have won nine-straight games since that loss and Sioux Valley head coach Dan Hughes said the season opening loss was a long time ago.
“The first game of the year is ancient history,” Hughes said. “They’ve improved, we’ve improved. You know, with it being the first game, there’s always things you can’t prepare for and certain mistakes are going to be made. It was a long time ago, certain mistakes were made that were beginning of the year type stuff that we’ve cleaned up and addressed since then. It was nine games ago.”
In the loss in August, the Seahawks’ Kayden Klumb found Sam Hofer for a 24-yard touchdown with 1:14 left in the game to give them the lead. Sioux Valley drove to the BEE 32 yard line, but a Hail Mary attempt fell incomplete as time expired resulting in the Seahawk win.
The Cossacks outgained BEE 346-252 in the game. Sioux Valley senior quarterback Parker Puetz was 12-for-23 with 128 yards and two touchdowns in the game. He also had 147 yards rushing on 18 carries. Senior Damian Danzeisen had had 10 catches for 52 yards and sophomore Boden Schiller had four catches for 67 yards.
BEE finished the regular season with a record 5-3. The Seahawks defeated No. 10 seeded Hot Springs 48-6 last week in the first round of the Playoffs. That was their second-straight blowout victory as they beat Baltic 54-0 in their regular-season finale.
After beating the Cossacks in week one, BEE fell to No. 1 seeded Winner 44-0. The Seahawks then won three-straight games over Parker (44-6), Flandreau (38-13) and McCook Central/Montrose (26-24). BEE then lost back-to-back games against Beresford (23-7) and Elk Point-Jefferson (38-21).
BEE has made the Class 11B State Championship the past four seasons and beat Winner 21-14 in 2019. The Seahawks lost the other three games, falling to Winner in 2020 (18-14) and Sioux Falls Christian in 2017 (27-12) and 2018 (43-8). BEE beat then No. 1 seeded Sioux Valley 35-7 in the semifinals in 2017.
“[BEE] does all the ordinary things right. They play hard, they block hard, they tackle well, they’re organized. They just do all the simple things at a very high level,” Hughes said.
BEE also beat Sioux Valley 33-0 in the quarterfinals in 2019 in Bridgewater. The Cossacks are seeking their second-straight semifinal appearance as they fell to Winner 28-14 in the semi’s last season.
Even though there might be a thought of revenge and it being the Playoffs, Hughes said this is just another game for his team.
“It’s another game, another playoff game. It’s just another opponent. We take things one week at a time, deal with every game focusing on ourselves and the things that we have to do well. For us it’s just another game. We’re in the Big East Conference, which is by far the toughest in South Dakota. So for us, we just want to play well, do our things well and be the best version of us we can be,” Hughes said.
The Cossacks are coming off of a 54-20 win over No. 15 seeded Deuel in the first round of the playoffs. Sioux Valley took a 42-6 lead into halftime and cruised the rest of the way against the Cardinals.
Sioux Valley comes into the game averaging 38.2 points per game and is giving up 14.8 points per game.
Puetz leads the high powered Cossack offense. He’s thrown for 1,549 yards and ran for 723. He has 14 passing touchdowns and 11 rushing , with a completion percentage of 63.7% and only five interceptions.
Danzeisen has had a special season as well for Sioux Valley. The senior receiver leads the team in receiving with 505 yards and five touchdowns on 17 catches. He’s also second on the team in rushing with 342 yards and three touchdowns on 59 carries.
Schiller is second on the team in receiving with 338 yards and three touchdowns. Seniors David Knutson and Carson Christopherson also have over 275 yards receiving. Knutson has 286 yards and two scores, while Christopherson has 279 yards and three touchdowns.
Senior McKade Rentsch has 290 yards and four touchdowns on 37 carries. Freshman Donovan Rose has played well in limited action as he has 150 yards and a touchdown on 10 carries, and junior Lane Liebsch has 140 yards and three touchdowns on 35 carries.
Christopherson leads the Cossacks in tackles with 102. Schiller has 67 and Puetz and Knutson each have 56. Joseph Hornick has 53 tackles on the year.
Rentsch leads the team in sacks with four. Schiller, Hornick and Jakob Ziegler each have two sacks. Christopherson has three interceptions on the season and Knutson has two. Puetz has an interception and a fumble recovery. Schiller has three fumble recoveries.
Sioux Valley beat all three teams that BEE lost to. The Cossacks defeated MCM 42-32, EPJ 34-28 and Beresford 24-0.
Even though his team is playing well, Hughes said they will have to play well fundamentally if they want to win and advance to the Class 11B Semfinals.
“We have to do all the fundamentals at a high level [if we want to win],” Hughes said. “We have to do the ordinary things extraordinarily well. We have to block well, tackle well. We have to communicate at a high level. Throw the ball, catch the ball. Just do all the fundamental things as best we can.”
Kickoff between the Cossacks and Seahawks is scheduled for 6 p.m. The winner will take on the winner of No. 6 Aberdeen Roncalli and No. 14 Beresford. The other two quarterfinals include No. 1 Winner hosting No. 9 MCM and No. 13 Wagner at No. 5 EPJ.
