PHOENIX FEAST ON DOGS
Freeman/Marion/Freeman Academy scored eight touchdowns on 10 possessions and held De Smet to 191 total yards — all on the ground — in a 58-14 win in the opening round of the Class 9AA playoffs Thursday night, Oct. 24 in Freeman.
The win moves the No. 5-seed Phoenix to 7-2 and sets them up for a 357-mile drive to Hill City to face the No. 4-seed and 8-1 Rangers next Thursday, Oct. 31. Google Maps shows that as a 5-hour, 11-minute journey — likely longer by charter bus. Game time is set for 6 p.m. Mountain Time.
De Smet finishes its season 4-5.
“We’re setting the standard for our program,” Freeman senior Sawyer Wipf said after the game. “We’ve all got that dog in us. We’ve been working on being more physical; we bring it to practice every day, and we hype each other.
“We just want to keep playing football.”
The Phoenix took a big step in that direction by setting the tone in the first quarter Thursday night. Touchdowns by Christopher Aasen, Dominic Sperling and Riley Tschetter and successful two-point conversion attempts after each gave F/M/FA a 24-0 lead and put a big Bulldogs team in a hole.
Riley Tschetter gets out of the pocket and away from De Smet big man Grant Wilkinson, a 320 lb., 6 foot, 8 inch junior. PHOTO BY JEREMY WALTNER
“We were locked in early,” said head coach Dustin Tschetter. “I saw a group of boys who came out fired up and played a great first quarter. And then we decided to take the foot off the pedal and let them hang around for the rest of the first half.”
Indeed, the momentum inexplicably swung in favor of De Smet for much of the second quarter after the Phoenix were stopped on downs in the red zone, where a touchdown would have made it a four-touchdown game.
That resulted in a Phoenix punt on their next possession, and that resulted in the biggest play of the game for the Bulldogs — a 76-yard touchdown run by speedy senior Ganon Henrich that made it 24-6 with 4:18 left in the half.
F/M/FA did get another touchdown of its own when Tschetter found Luke Peters on a 9-yard passing play with 27 seconds left to extend the lead, but the letdown in the second quarter was notable.
“I don’t know if we got comfortable and just thought it was going to be easy tonight or what,” said the coach. “Momentum swung their way and we just couldn’t get it back until after halftime.”
It didn’t take long.
With the Phoenix receiving the ball to start the third period, it took just one play from scrimmage — a 68-yard scamper to the outside and down the line from Tschetter — to put F/M/FA in front by four touchdowns.
“We talked about leverage all week — staying below them,” Dustin Tschetter said of how his team prepared for De Smet’s size on the line. “We really didn’t run the ball effectively tonight, but that first play of the second half, we drew it up at halftime. What they were giving us, we tried something different that worked great for us.”
The Phoenix scored again shortly after Tschetter’s long run when they recovered a kickoff that went untouched by the Bulldogs, and Tschetter found Tate Sorensen for a 32-yard touchdown pass that helped open up a 46-6 lead, “and the rest is history,” said the coach.
Tate Sorensen finds open field en route to a 32-yard touchdown in the third quarter of what ended up being a 58-14 win for the Phoenix. PHOTO BY OLIVER WALTNER
The Bulldogs found the end zone late in the third to make it 46-14 but F/M/FA capped the scoring in the fourth with two touchdown passes from second-string quarterback Easton Tschetter, who found Lincoln Anderson for 24 yards and Titus Sperling from two yards out, bringing the game to its final score of 58-14.
Wipf, who led the team with six solo tackles, said he and his teammates weren’t intimidated by the size of De Smet.
“We weren’t really scared of those big guys,” he said. “We are faster and can get around them and we knew that from the start; we just had to prove it.”
“I didn’t see much of a threat,” said Aasen. “We were physical, and our line did what they needed to do for the most part. We made good reads, our running backs ran hard and we ran our routes crisp.
“All in all, we had an amazing night.”
As for the mood before the game, Aasen didn’t hesitate:
“Kick their a**.”
The Phoenix did a good job of splitting up its offense, rushing for 174 on 19 carries and catching 28 balls for 203 yards. F/M/FA forced two fumbles and didn’t turn the ball over once, and were penalized just 15 yards all game.
Tschetter finished with 129 yards and three touchdowns passing and ran for 94 yards and a touchdown, while Sorensen led the team with 57 yards receiving on three catches.
Tayden Kerrigan had seven kickoffs for 311 yards — an average of 44.4 with a long of 60 — and Lincoln Anderson had three kickoff returns for a total of 30 yards.
Freshman Tayden Kerrigan and sophomore Tannen Auch celebrate a positive play Thursday night in Freeman. PHOTO BY JEREMY WALTNER
NOW AND LATER
F/M/FA’s showdown with Hill City next week will be a first in terms of both location and opponent, with the winner moving on to the semifinals against, presumably, No. 1 Parkston Friday, Nov. 8.
Parkston defeated the Phoenix 42-12 in the season opener on Aug. 23 and beat Stanley County 58-6 in the first round of the playoffs Thursday night.
“Keep working hard and show up with game intensity at practice, and just execute,” Riley Tschetter said of keys going forward. “If we do that, we should be good.”
The junior quarterback said he is feeling as good as ever after coming off an ACL injury that sidelined him for most of last season.
“At the beginning (of the season) there some second thoughts, but not it feels better than ever. One hundred percent.”
Tschetter, who on Thursday night went over 2,000 passing yards and 20 passing touchdowns on the season, credited his line for helping get the job done against De Smet.
We had one or two plays that kind of let us down, and one or two drives that weren’t great, but for the most everybody did our job.”
And Coach Tschetter said he feels “great” about where his team is at and how far the boys have come.
“Night and day,” he said. “Our physicality has improved; we’re by no means the most physical team in the state, but you’ll see us hit some guys, and our offensive line has improved tremendously from Week 1. Obviously the rust from Riley has worn off and he’s locked in, and our receivers are dialed in.
“It took us time to gel, but we’re hitting our groove,” he said. “Let’s go to Hill City! If we’ve got to go to Hill City, I don’t care. Let’s go drive!”
