SPEARFISH, S.D. – Rivals Spearfish and Sturgis met on the turf of Lyle Hare Stadium Thursday night in the regular season finale for both teams.
As expected, the game lived up to its expectation with the Spartans holding off the Scoopers by one point in overtime.
Spearfish opened up the scoring as Bridger Niehaus put the Spartans up 7-0 with 8:35 left in the second quarter.
Spearfish would get the ball back and score again with 4:16 remaining before halftime as Niehaus went 15 yards for the score to make it 14-0.
Sturgis answered that score courtesy of an interception as Gunner Rohloff took it in from one yard out to make it 14-6.
Spearfish, however, would add a score right before halftime on a 44 yard touchdown catch by Caden Langenfeld to make it 21-6.
Sturgis opened the second half with two scoring drives to tie the game at 21. They included two touchdown runs by Rohloff – one 8 yards, the other, 6 yards. The Scoopers added an extra point and a two-point conversion to make up for an earlier blocked extra point.
Tied at 21, the game went to over time, where Spearfish scored on their first play of the extra period on a 10-yard touchdown strike to Brayden Delahoyde. The extra point made it 28-21.
Sturgis answered with a touchdown by Gavin Ligtenberg. Sturgis went for the two point conversion, down 28-27 to try and win it, but a pass by Owen Cass into the end zone was intercepted by Spearfish.
The win gives Spearfish a 5-4 record. Sturgis falls to 4-5. Spearfish will play at Aberdeen Central in the first round of the playoffs. Sturgis will travel to Pierre to take on the top seeded Governors.
