Sioux Falls Jefferson completes undefeated regular season by rolling past Roosevelt
It’s going to be second-year Jefferson’s state championship to lose, as the Cavaliers officially clinched the No. 1 seed in the 11AAA playoffs by completing the regular season a perfect 9-0 with Thursday night’s 51-26 win over Roosevelt at Howard Wood Field.
After going a respectable 4-6 in their first year as a varsity program last year, Jefferson polished off a dominant campaign with Thursday’s win.
Just look at the final numbers:
The Cavaliers scored at least 30 points in every game.
Before this game, they hadn’t given up more than 17 points in a game.
Their closest game was their 30-13 win over Lincoln.
Their average margin of victory was 33 points.
They scored 40 or more points in seven of their nine wins. Thursday’s 51 was a season-high, eclipsing the three times they hit 49.
None of those accomplishments will feel all that special if the Cavaliers aren’t successful in winning it all, and coach Vince Benedetto made sure to make that point when addressing his team immediately after the game.
But for one night, at least, it’s worth celebrating the Cavs’ regular season exploits.
“We’re excited and happy for the kids,” Benedetto said. “They’ve worked incredibly hard, the staff has worked hard and there’s no doubt it’s a good accomplishment. But it’s not gonna mean anything if we don’t take it one week at a time going forward.”
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The Rough Riders were significant underdogs coming in, but having won three in a row following an 0-5 start, the young team seemed like they could surprise Jefferson under the right set of circumstances. But those never presented themselves. Cavs defensive back Beau Giblin made sure of that.
The 6-foot-1 senior snagged a Jackson Brouwer pass just seconds into the game and raced unscathed to the end zone for an opening salvo that served as an immediate gut punch to the Rough Riders, and when Roosevelt got the ball back, Brouwer threw another errant pass and Giblin was there again for another interception. That turned into a 43-yard Anthony Erickson field goal, and the Cavs would end up scoring the game’s first 23 points, mostly eliminating any thoughts of an upset.
The Riders, to their credit, fought back with two scores to make it 23-13, but Jefferson answered with another score before the break to go to half up 30-13.
The Riders never got within two scores again. Taylen Ashley threw five touchdown passes in the win, even with start wide receiver Griffin Wilde out with an injury.
“They made some plays – they’ve got some athletes and you know going against Coach (Kim) Nelson, they’re going to scheme you up and get you with some things,” Benedetto said. “They played us hard and it was good for us to play a four-quarter game because we’ve only really had one of those this year.”
Nine and oh, in just the second year as a team. Expectations were fairly high going into the year for a second-year program, but it was hard to see this kind of dominance coming.
“We only won 40 percent of our games last year – we were 4-6,” Benedetto said. “Our big concern was the line of scrimmage, because we were pretty bad there last year. It’s a tribute to our players and our strength coach and the work they did, because we’ve been able to win the line of scrimmage this year and it’s obviously paid off for us.”
This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Sioux Falls Jefferson completes undefeated regular season
