BEA breaks loose in 4th quarter to down Spartans
Nov. 5—JANESVILLE — Blue Earth Area football coach Randy Keuchenmeister would have been happy to run some time, get a few first downs and protect the lead in the fourth quarter, but this team kept scoring.
"We just wanted to keep the chains moving," he said. "That turned into a scorefest in the fourth quarter. We were just trying to find something that worked."
BEA answered St. Clair/Loyola's comeback attempts with even bigger plays Friday, winning 44-20 in the Section 2AA championship game.
"This was our goal at the beginning of the year," Kuechenmeister said. "We're thankful for this opportunity."
After a scoreless first quarter, the Bucs scored on the first play of the second quarter. After dodging a couple of tacklers in the backfield, Ashton Lloyd found Colton Hubly running alone down the right side. Hubly hauled in the 54-yard pass and ran into the end zone. Parker Meyers ran in for the conversion and the Bucs led 8-0.
The Spartans answered on the next drive, using eight plays, and a couple penalties, to march 73 yards, with Eli Kruse running 20 yards for the touchdown. The two-point conversion failed so the Bucs stayed up 8-6.
Lloyd had a 38-yard run to start BEA's next possession, and he hit Hubly on a slant from 18 yards to add another touchdown. Another two-point conversion made it 16-6.
The Spartans had another chance to score late in the second quarter, but a holding penalty wiped out a 34-yard pass that would have created a first down at the BEA 7.
The Bucs scored on the first possession of the third quarter, with Meyers running in from the 3 for a 22-6 advantage.
Lloyd's 18-yard touchdown run early in the fourth quarter pushed the margin to 28-6.
Brandon Meng gave the Spartans some life with a long kick return, and on the second play, he weaved through the defense for a 39-yard score, turning on the speed a couple times to elude the defense. The two-point conversion failed, but the deficit was 28-12 with 10:05 to go.
"Meng is really quick, especially on the turf," Lloyd said. "He was hard to track down."
But BEA struck quickly on an 80-yard pass from Lloyd to Jack Norman, but the Spartans answered just as quickly on a 56-yard pass from Jake Sizer to Simon Morgan.
The scoring spree continued with BEA's Noah Johnson scoring on a 56-yard run that made it 44-20.
"We wanted to stay aggressive," Lloyd said. "That run by Noah is a good play for us, and he's fast. When he gets loose, not many people can catch him."
The Bucs ended up with 505 yards, mixing the traditional offense with some Wildcat plays. Lloyd passed for 209 yards and rushed for 73 yards. Meyers rushed for 128 yards.
Sizer passed for 178 yards, and Meng rushed for 70 yards.
BEA (9-2) opens the Class AA tournament on Thursday against the Section 1AA champion Chatfield at Rochester.
"I'm just ready to give everything I have for the school, for the coaches, for the community," said Lloyd, one of the few players on this roster that was on the team in the 2019 state tournament. "I love growing up in Blue Earth, and I'm ready to go the distance."
Follow Chad Courrier on Twitter @ChadCourrier.
