Garretson Blue Dragon Football had a hometown win on Friday Sept. 6 against Beresford!
This one was a real come from behind victory, as for most of the first half the Dragons had a zero score while Beresford successfully completed a touchdown and extra point.
The first two quarters they staggered, flagged, and failed to launch, until the very end of the second quarter when Dominic Abraham went up the middle for a few first downs and ended with a touchdown with only 43 seconds left in the half! The reliable kicks GHS fans have come to expect from Cody Erickson didn’t disappoint. After that, the team got it together. “Anytime you can get a win at home against a good team it’s a real positive,” said Head Coach Chris Long. “We really couldn’t have played much more poorly to start the game and that is something we have to clean up. We didn’t do our jobs on offense and defense and took matters into our own hands rather than working as a team and that does not work. When we settled in and starting executing better, we were able to move the football and establish the rushing attack.”
The second half went much better. Abraham again made an up the middle charge for another touchdown and Erikson delivered on the kick. Beresford countered with a passing touchdown, but didn’t seal the deal to tie up the game as their kick was no good. With 2:31 left in the 4th quarter, Dustin Hass made a run for 21 yards for a touchdown and Erikson was 3 for 3 in kicks, ending the game with Garretson 21- Beresford 13.
“The great thing is we still have a lot of improving to do,” said Long. “We really did not execute our assignments offensively well at all. Before watching the film I thought we did, but the film showed we were turning people loose often and not applying our blocking rules to their defense. That is frustrating and we need to fix that.
“Defensively we are doing a nice job. We are getting to the football, tackling decent and causing turnovers. I believe that so far this year we are +5 in the turnover department and we need to keep winning that stat each game,” he continued.
“Dom Abraham did a good job picking up fullback duties full time this game when Rave got a little banged up. He ran the ball hard and really turned the tide of the game when he ran with that effort and intensity. We’ll need someone to pick us up each week and this week he did. It was a great effort on his part and the guys up front!”
Long then looked forward. “This coming week McCook Central comes to town with a 3-0 record, they beat Stanley County last week 52-14,” said Coach Long. “McCook Central poses a lot of problems. They are diverse on offense, have some good size and athleticism and play hard. I’m looking forward to the challenge of playing them. I feel good about where we will be and I hope that it will be a good game.”
Coach Long also wanted to make note that the JV team won their first game on Aug, 26th against Sioux Valley in Volga, 18-6.
“Parker Schlenker and Carson Clark had rushing touchdowns and Cadyn Ockenga scored on a touchdown pass from Cooper Long. Garretson was led on defense by Jake Schroeder and Joe Zahn,” said Coach Long. “Our offensive line did a nice job early in the game executing and opening some good holes for our backs. We committed too many turnovers but defensively we were solid and made things tough on Sioux Valley. Overall, it was a good way to start the season for our JV team.”
