The Pierre Governors and Brookings Bobcats have been linked together in Class 11AA for the last three seasons. Tonight, they lock up again to close out the season with a lot on the line.
The two teams met in the state championship the last two years with the Governors winning both, one in Brookings. However, Brookings is one of three teams to beat the Governors in the last three years and look to be the only team to beat them twice in that span. Tonight’s game, while not a state championship game, will still crown a champion. The ESD title is on the line as the winner will claim the title outright. The winner will also be the two seed in the 11AA playoffs with the loser most likely having to travel in two weeks when the two teams meet back up in the state semifinal if seeds hold true.
Junior Justin Cofell has taken the majority of the snaps for the Bobcats this year but averages just around 12 attempts per game for nearly 600 yards on the season. Junior Tyson Brandt and senior Hunter Gray are the two featured backs for the Bobcat offense accumulating 11 of the 21 rushing touchdowns. The Bobcats two losses have come to Tea Area and Sioux Falls Washington.
Pierre’s Jack Merkwan broke the school’s single season record for touchdown receptions in last week’s win over Aberdeen Central. With at least two games left and at most four, Merkwan will look to shatter the mark and still have another year to try and top it again. Lincoln Kienholz has thrown for a smidge over 2200 yards and 30 touchdowns on the year. He’s on pace, if they make the state championship, to throw for over 3000 yards and 40 touchdowns.
Head Coach of the Pierre Governors, Steve Steele says there is a lot on the line especially with home field advantage in the playoffs…
With the win for Brookings over Yankton, the Bobcats had the ball for nearly 35 minutes of a 48 minute game. Steele says the defense will be looking for negative plays tonight…
Steele says offensively they just need to keep clicking…
Pregame is at 5:30 tonight with kickoff at 6:00. You can listen to the game on KCCR, kccrradio.com and watch the game on YouTube at KCCR Sports with Jon Winkler and Greg Dean on the call.
