The Pierre Governor football team received eight different players to the All-ESD team as postseason awards begin to pile in for fall sports. The Governors had five players on offense and three players on defense.
For the offensive side of the ball, Lincoln Kienholz was the ESD quarterback once again while his top wide receiver, Jack Merkwan and go-to tight end, Jett Zabel would join him on the team. Christian Busch, the center and lineman Matthew Coverdale both were selected on the line as they helped protect and make the offense click. Kienholz would finish the season with over 3300 yards passing and 1400 yards rushing scoring 70 total touchdowns through the air and on the ground. Merkwan had over 1000 yards receiving on the year after his school record 234 yards in the championship game while Zabel finished just shy of 900 yards receiving. Both players finished with 10 plus touchdowns.
Three Governor seniors were on the All-ESD defensive team. Linebacker Gavin Stotts, safety Jacob Mayer and lineman Jason Maciejeczak. Stotts would lead the team in tackles for the season with over 100 total tackles in 2022. He also had 17 tackles for loss, three sacks and an interception on the year out of the linebacker position. Mayer also had an interception but a total of 31 tackles for the ball hawking safety. Maciejeczak had 21 tackles in his only year with the Governors as the senior could have been on both the offensive and defensive line for All-ESD. The only Governor to start on both sides of the ball all 12 games of the season. Maciejeczak created a lot of pressure and extra attention to help lead the Governors to be dominate on offense and defense. Steve Steele, head coach of the Governors says it’s a cool honor…
For Coverdale and Zabel to be on the All-ESD team Steele says it’s a unique thing…
Steele says it was good to win the conference again for the first time since 2019…
You can see the full list of the team below. The 2022 Governors are the second time in school history to go undefeated winning the state title joining 2019 as the only other team.
