Winner football coach Dan Aaker talks to the WHS team in a recent game. The Warriors are undefeated at 8-0 as they head into the playoff game on Oct. 24 in Winner.
By Dan Bechtold
Editor
Winner capped off a perfect regular season as they rolled to a 56-0 victory over Miller/Highmore-Harrold on Monday, Oct. 14.
With the win, the Warriors are 8-0 as they head into the playoffs. Winner also claimed its first SESD Conference title.
Winner will play Lead-Deadwood at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 24 in the first round of the playoffs. The playoff game will be in Winner.
“We played the way we should have played,” said coach Dan Aaker as he commented on the Miller game.
The Warriors got off to a great start with some big plays and a blocked punt.
Winner racked up 40 points in the first quarter and added 16 more in the second quarter. The game was over at halftime.
Six different WHS athletes scored touchdowns.
Trevor Peters opened the scoring on a 26 yard run. A minute later Preston Norrid intercepted a pass and scored a touchdown.
With 3:31 left in the first quarter, Sam Kruger scored on a 22 yard run.
Two minutes later Kaden Keiser scored on a 20 yard run to give Winner a 40-0 lead. With 36 seconds left in the first quarter, Peters scored his second touchdown on a 20 yard run.
Younger players had their chance to score in this game. Evan Farner scored a touchdown on an 18 yard run in the second quarter.
The scoring was capped by an 8 yard run by Aaron Gilchrist. The Warriors piled up 208 rushing yards.
There was no one big rushing leader as the wealthy was spread over several players. Peters was the leading rusher with 60 yards followed by Farner, 39 yards; Keiser and Jack Peters both with 23 yards and Sam Kruger with 22 yards.
On defense, Landon Thieman and Fred Whiting both had 5 tackles; Bosten Morehart, 4.
Aaker says an undefeated season is nice for the team. The last time the Warriors ended the regular season undefeated was in 2016 and they were also undefeated in 2015.
This week Winner has bye week and it gives them time to prepare for playoffs.
“We are going to get back to more individual breakdown in practice,” said Aaker. “We are going to try and work on the fundamental part of each position.”
It is estimated that Winner will be the No. 2 seed in Class 11B with Bridgewater/Emery-Ethan the No. 1 seed.
The high seed will allow the Warriors to host all three rounds of the football playoffs.
Playoff football
Winner will host Lead-Deadwood in the playoff game on Oct. 24 at 6 p.m.
Lead-Deadwood has a record of 3-5. Coach Aaker says the Gold Diggers have some speed and have big play ability.
“We will continue to work on fundamentals in practice as we prepare for Lead-Deadwood,” said Aaker. “With a Thursday game our schedule is a little different but I have no concerns that it will affect us,” said the coach.
Aaker added: “Having home field advantage is important and it is good to know someone will have to beat us on our home field to take us out. Class 11B has some quality teams and the new format should make it interesting.”
The coach said at this stage of the season everyone is 0-0. “There is no tomorrow and we will treat each game that way.”
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