Football: BBE is Bank bound

Nov. 10—ST. CLOUD — When Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa's offense was dealt a startling blow, the Jaguars' defense had to step up in a big way.

And now, the Jaguars are Bank bound. BBE won its Class A state opener with a 28-6 victory in the quarterfinals over Mayer Lutheran on Friday at St. Cloud Apollo High School's Michie Field.

"We watched a lot of film — and I have to give a lot of credit to our coaches because they do all the work for us — we just go and execute," said junior lineman Carson Gilbert. "When our QB went down, we knew we had to execute on defense and get the job done."

BBE next plays Minneota in the Class A semifinals at 11:30 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 18, at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis. The Vikings are the defending Class A champions and advanced with a 55-0 win over Braham on Friday across town at St. Cloud Tech High School.

"The scoreboard makes it look a little more one-sided than it was," said BBE head coach Chris Moscho. "Until the very end, we felt like it was a one-score game."

The Jaguars' offense was humming in the first half, building a 22-0 lead. Jack Lundberg ran for a 27-yard touchdown run in the first quarter. Then quarterback Luke Dingmann tacked on a pair of touchdowns. He scampered through the Crusaders' defense on the way to a 91-yard touchdown run. Then with 3 minutes, 25 seconds left before halftime, Dingmann chucked the ball off his back foot into the leaping arms of Luke Illies for a 14-yard touchdown pass.

That upbeat feeling on the BBE sideline quickly turned to silence when Dingmann was injured on the turf. He hurt his shoulder while making a routine tackle on Crusaders receiver Isaiah Ingram. He watched from the sidelines the rest of the game with an ice pack on his right shoulder. Illies took over at quarterback for the second half. After the game, Moscho was unsure about the extent of the injury.

"Illies takes snaps every day at practice and he's a phenomenal quarterback," Moscho said, "I'm sure it was more stressful than practice is.

"But at the end of the day, we're going to the Bank and this team is jacked up."

The mood was subdued at halftime, but the Jaguars weren't about to let a trip to the semifinals slip away. The defense made sure of that.

"It didn't change anything," Gilbert said. "We told (Illies) to rely on his line and do what we can do in the (second) half and rely on our defense."

"We were pretty upset," Gilbert added, "but we did what we could to secure that win and do everything we can."

The Jaguars held Mayer Lutheran running back Jack Grimsley to 45 yards on 20 carries. Defensive back Ryan Jensen came up with two takeaways: a first-half interception and a fumble recovery midway through the third quarter.

"Our big guys up front did a heck of a job," Moscho said. "We had them knowing what plays were coming and they had a beat on it. They did their jobs and made the tackles."

Mayer Lutheran quarterback Levi Hahn was 18 of 41 passing for 156 yards. He gave his team a spark with a 17-yard touchdown pass to Ingram with 10:29 left to play.

That momentum quickly went back to BBE thanks to Lundberg, who raced down the left sideline for a 75-yard kickoff return for a touchdown.

"That's exactly what we needed," Moscho said of Lundberg's TD return. "We needed something to get the team going and rally the team a little bit. ... Jack's touchdown, that sealed it."

And, the defense kept the Crusaders off the board the rest of the way.

"Our line did its job and our back-side guy did their jobs," said Gilbert, who had eight total tackles (three solo). "We forced them to throw and forced them into pressure almost every play. I don't know how many sacks and QB pressures we had, but we got them out of their comfort zone and we did our job."

On going to U.S. Bank Stadium, Gilbert added, "It's an amazing feeling. (We're) happy, but not satisfied."