Sports

Sioux advance thanks to last-minute heroics

By Tyler Ohmann

10/29/2013

Last season a come-from-behind win in the opening round of the playoffs helped spark a playoff run that ended in the Westhope-Newburg-Glenburn (WNG) Sioux making it all the way to the Class A Dakota bowl.

This year the Sioux did it yet again, as senior heroics once again allowed the WNG to come from behind to win.

WNG senior Ethan Miller ran back a kick off 73 yards for a score with less than two minutes remaining last Saturday afternoon to allow the Sioux to tie up the game against Grant County-Flasher (GCF).

“Right away he was in the middle and we had about a minute-forty something left and it looked like he was going to get tackled and he was struggling to break free, and I was going ‘go down, go down,’” said Sioux head coach Tom Nesvold. “When he broke a tackle and was going around the end it was, ‘go, go, go.’”

A two point conversion run by senior quarterback Hunter Braaten sealed the Sioux victory 44-42 in a high-scoring affair in which the Sioux never led until the very end.

WNG trailed from the get go as the Storm scored the only eight points of the opening quarter.

After a 28-yard Braaten run and two point conversion tied it, the Storm answered back on the next drive with another score to regain the lead.

They held that lead with two more scores in the second, which sandwiched a Sioux touchdown from Braaten to receiver Chance Kitzman, and the Storm led 28-16 at halftime.

“When we came into the halftime huddle I said, ‘we got them right where we want them,’” Nesvold said with a chuckle. “I said that you guys know that we’ll make some adjustments and that we get the football first.”  

Braaten busted out a 55-yard touchdown run to kick off the second half and draw the Sioux within a score. However, the Storm would not be undone as J.W. Froelich notched his third receiving score of the day to put the lead back up to 14.

This is when the Sioux went on the comeback trail.

“We just had to keep coming and outlast them,” Nesvold said. “I give the entire team credit, because they never quit, they just keep coming.”

Braaten led a drive that yielded him with his third rushing touchdown of the afternoon.

He followed that up with a fourth TD run in the fourth quarter from 24 yards and a two point conversion run to tie the game at 36 with 5:31 left.

GCF drove the field and scored on an 18-yard Zackary Schmidt run to regain the lead, which then led to the Miller and Braaten heroics and left with the final score of Sioux 44, Storm 42.

Braaten finished with an astounding 342 yards on 35 carries and his four touchdown runs. On top of that he went 10-for-21 for 119 yards and a score. Miller, Kitzman and Reese Schell all had three grabs for the Sioux on the afternoon.

“He broke some ankles on Saturday,” Nesvold said. “He stuck his foot in the ground and made some hellish cuts, and they didn’t know if they should play passive or aggressive.”

“When he gets some space, he can make some people look pretty foolish,” Nesvold added.

However, it was also the line that Nesvold gave a lot of credit to.

“Our line did an outstanding job, they gave him (Braaten) enough time to throw for the most part,” Nesvold said. “They really blocked well.”

The Sioux were also without starting tailback and linebacker Chase Conway.

“You take Chase out of there and he is a heck of a running back and a linebacker,” Nesvold said. “Everybody picked up the slack, and it was just a few people out of position, and the timing things were not off as bad as I thought they have been.”

“We worked hard during the week not knowing if we were going without him, or we’re going to have him,” Nesvold added.

The Sioux heroes, Miller and Braaten, impacted the game in another way.

Many of the Sioux drives came on short fields as they intercepted Storm QB Taylor Krenz three times. Twice he was intercepted by Miller and once by Braaten.

Braaten also added 16 total tackles and a pass deflection. Sophomore Dustin Weeks forced and recovered a fumble and had two tackles for a loss in the win.

WNG (8-2) now advance on to face undefeated Towner-Granville-Upham (TGU) in Towner next Saturday. The Titans cruised past Beach 42-14 in the opening round.

TGU beat the Sioux back on Sept. 27 when the Titans blew by the Sioux 40-18.

“We have to eliminate the turnovers,” Nesvold said as a way to upset the Titans. “We just need to execute better, and we’ll do a little better on the line, because we’ve improved a lot since then.”
“Hopefully we can get everybody in the right spots, and the main thing is to execute and we’ll be all right.”

Maybe the Sioux will repeat history again this week, as they avenged a regular season loss to a region rival last year in the playoffs.