STURGIS, SD – The Sturgis Scoopers lost by a single point for the second week in a row, as the Aberdeen Central Golden Eagles came to Woodle Field and spoiled Homecoming Night, downing the Scoopers 18-17 on a last-second touchdown.
Sturgis came into Friday night’s game with a 2-2 record after losing to the Huron Tigers 28-27 in overtime on Sept. 20.
The Golden Eagles scored first as Joey Dallman booted a 25-yd field goal early in the second quarter, giving Aberdeen Central a 3-0 lead.
On their next series, Scooper quarterback Carter Williams froze the defensive backs with a double pump and found Teigen Wormstadt with a 61-yard touchdown pass down the right sideline to give Sturgis a 7-3 lead.
The Scooper defense forced the Golden Eagles to punt on their next series, then the Sturgis offense put together a long drive just before halftime, ending with a Sully Jost field goal from 30 yards out. Aberdeen Central missed a field goal of their own with just .4 seconds left before intermission and the Scoopers took a 10-7 lead into the locker room at the half.
The Golden Eagles tied things up at 10 apiece on their first series of the second half as quarterback Brayden Bowman threw a rainbow pass down the right sideline and receiver Karsen Borge outjumped Wormstadt for the ball, coming down with the pigskin, running 51-yards to the end zone. The rest of the third quarter was a defensive battle and the score remained tied at 10 headed into the fourth.
Dallman missed another Aberdeen Central field goal with 6:30 left in the game and Sturgis took over on their own 20-yard line. The Scoopers used a mix of runs and short passes to move the ball to the Golden Eagle 21, when Williams faked the handoff to Jost and did the rest, scampering 21-yards to paydirt, giving Sturgis a 17-10 lead with 2:26 left.
Aberdeen Central took over on their own 38-yard line following the kickoff with only one timeout. The Golden Eagles used good clock management to move the ball downfield to the Scooper 16, when Bowman found Colby Dauwen in the front corner of the end zone for a touchdown, making the score Sturgis 17, Aberdeen Central 16.
The Golden Eagle coaches decided to go for the win and got the ball in the hands of Dauwen, who powered his way over the left side of his offensive line, running the two-point conversion in with 1.1 seconds left on the clock and Aberdeen Central led 18-17. The Scoopers took over at their own 25-yard line after the kickoff, then attempted some trickery with several laterals but couldn’t get a score and the game ended with a Golden Eagle one point victory.
Scooper head coach Chris Koletzky took responsibility for the loss.
“The biggest thing is when something doesn’t go our way, we need to focus on the next play,” Koletzky said. “I thought the kids played great, played hard, did a great job. Now this is a tough one because I think as a coaching staff, us not taking a time out there and not having it for the two-point (conversion) was a failure on our part. We have to be better. I say that because when they lined up for the two-point play, I knew exactly what they were going to run. We could have called a time out and had something ready for it a little bit more.”
Sturgis falls to 2-3 on the season and finished with 317 yards of total offense. Williams completed 13 passes on 25 attempts for 208 yards and a score. Sturgis had 24 carries for 109 yards on the ground with one touchdown. The Scoopers did not turn the ball over and had four penalties for 25 yards.
Aberdeen Central improves to 2-3 on the year and had 331 yards of offense. The Golden Eagles ran the ball 32 times for 193 yards and completed 10 of 18 passes for 138 yards and two scores. Dauwen had 112 yards rushing and three catches for 40 yards and a score. Aberdeen Central had one turnover, a fumble, and finished with 11 penalties for 75 yards.
Sturgis travels to Yankton next Friday night to take on the Bucks at Crane-Youngworth Field. Koletzky knows that it’s going to be an uphill battle for the Scoopers as the season progresses.
“It’s just going to get tougher every single week, we knew that. It’s really going to challenge our fortitude, our tenacity and our character and how we want to come back to work after these tough losses.”
