Friday night’s game had shaped up to be a defensive battle among two of 2A’s best teams, and both teams delivered just that. But in the end, the Spirit Lake Indians advanced to 6-0 on the season with the 20-14 win over the Sioux Center Warriors.
It was a tale of two halves in the game. The first half was a defensive struggle, with neither team putting points on the board. Both offenses were averaging around 400 yards per game through week 5, but both were held under 75 total yards in the first half. The second half was a much different story, as both teams gave up points on turnovers and offenses were finally able to score.
In the second half, it took only 2 plays for Spirit Lake to score, as Alec Henrickson connected with Caleb Jennings on a 45 yard touchdown pass. Sioux Center backed that up by marching into the red zone, only to fumble it away on a bad snap. Logan Backhaus picked up the loose ball and returned it nearly 90 yards for the touchdown. Up 14-0 at this point, it looked like Spirit Lake could cruise to the victory, but Sioux Center wouldn’t give up that easily.
The fourth quarter began with a bad snap on a Spirit Lake punt, allowing Sioux Center to block it. Christian Rozeboom returned it 10 yards for the touchdown. With a 14-7 lead later in the fourth, Spirit Lake threw an interception, giving Sioux Center great field position. The Warriors capped that drive with a 19 yard touchdown pass from Ko Kieft to Chris Borchers.
Tied with less than three minutes left, Spirit Lake then marched down the field on a 12 play drive, aided by two 15-yard Sioux Center penalties, and Josh Hofstra punched the ball into the end zone on a 4 yard carry with 19 seconds left. A missed PAT gave Sioux Center hope for a miracle, but Alec Henrickson picked off Kieft’s pass as time expired to seal the 20-14 win for Spirit Lake.
Spirit Lake travels to Sheldon next week and the can be heard on KUOO, with the pregame show starting at 6:45.
