A West Central field goal in the final seconds gave the Trojans a 16-13 win over the Dell Rapids Quarriers in the quarterfinal round of the 11A playoffs on Thursday, October 31st at Dell Rapids High School.

The Quarriers scored first with 7:57 to go in the first quarter.  Austin Henry connected with Logan Ellingson on a 57-yard touchdown pass.  The extra point was blocked, and Dell Rapids led 6-0.  West Central tied the game with :59 to go in the quarter on a seven yard run by Justin Zirpel.  Braden Dierickx kicked the extra point to give the Trojans a 7-6 lead.

West Central extended their lead after a two-yard touchdown run by Zirpel with 2:23 to play in the second quarter.  The extra point was no good, and the Trojans lead 13-6.  Dell Rapids marched down the field in the final minutes of the half, and Logan Stone scored on a six-yard run with 1:02 to play in the half.  Victor Knuppe mad the extra point to tie the game 13-13 heading into halftime.

The second half was a defensive battle.  Neither team really threatened to score in the third quarter.  The Quarrier offense got deep into West Central territory, but was held on fourth down for a turnover on downs with 7:01 to play in the game.  The Trojan offense could not take advantage, and they had to punt the ball back to Dell Rapids.  Again, the Quarriers drove the ball to the Trojan 25-yard line only to be stopped on fourth down, this time with 2:05 to play in the game.  West Central was able to drive the ball down to the Dell Rapids 14-yard line with :05.5 seconds to play.  Derek Eidsness lined up for a 30-yard field goal attempt and put the ball through the uprights with :01.7 to go in the game.  Dell Rapids had one last play after the kickoff to try to put a score on the board, but the pass attempt fell incomplete for the Trojan win.

Dell Rapids finished with 260 yards of total offense, 179 passing yards and 81 rushing yards.  West Central had 288 yards of total offense, 26 passing yards and 262 rushing yards.  Dell Rapids was 4-12 on third down and 0-2 on fourth down and also had two turnovers.

Henry finished the game 11-23 passing for 179 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions.  Avery Boechler had four catches for 70 yards.  Ellingson had two catches for 64 yards and a touchdown.  Tyler Wood had two catches for 17 yards.  Coby Maeschen had one catch for 12 yards.  Stone had 13 carries for 51 yards and a touchdown.  Maeschen had four carries for 10 yards, and Carter Rentz had three carries for 10 yards.

Maeschen finished with 13 tackles in the game.  Brayden Gee had 11 tackles.  Cody Schutlz tallied 10 tackles, and Logan Ruesink and Connor Rentz had nine tackles each.

Dell Rapids has their season come to an end with an overall record of 9-1.

The match-up between the top two teams in 11A football was just as expected, maybe even more.  The #1 ranked Dell Rapids Quarriers hosted the #2 ranked Tea Area Titans to close out the regular season for both teams.  The hype around this game was built for a week, and the two teams did not disappoint.

The first half was a defensive battle between the two squads.  Dell Rapids broke through first late in the opening quarter.  Colin Rentz found Logan Stone with a cross-body pass after a rollout.  Stone then took off down the sideline with nothing but open field in front of him for an 80-yard score.  The extra point was blocked, but the Quarriers led 6-0 with 1:25 to play in the first quarter.  Both defenses continued to make big plays and get big stops in the second quarter.  The Titans were able to force and recover a fumble with 2:46 to play in the second quarter.  Tea Area turned the fumble recovery into points.   Joey Headrick on a 10-yard run with :06 to play in the half.  The extra point was good to give Tea Area a 7-6 lead heading into halftime.

The Titans received the ball to begin the second half and ran nearly six minutes off the clock on their opening drive.  Headrick scored on an eight-yard run with 6:32 to play in the third quarter.  The extra point was good to push the Titan lead to 14-6.  The Tea Area defense held Dell Rapids to a three-and-out on the Quarriers first drive of the half.  Two and a half minutes later, they were in the end zone again.  Headrick scored his third touchdown of the game on a 22-yard run with 3:04 to go in the quarter.  The extra point gave the Titans a 22-6 lead late in the third quarter.

With momentum heavily favoring the Titans, the Quarrier offense came up with a big play to get themselves back into the game.  Austin Henry hit Logan Ellingson in stride down the sideline for a 76-yard touchdown with 2:06 to go in the quarter.  Dell Rapids was given two opportunities to score the two-point conversion due to a Tea Area penalty, and Landon Ruesink found the end zone on the second try to cut the Titan lead to 21-14.

Dell Rapids looked to tie the game midway through the fourth quarter.  With 7:53 to play, the Quarrier defense forced and recovered a fumble on the Titan 34-yard line.  Dell Rapids drove the ball to the 11-yard line and was stopped on fourth down with 5:33 to play.  The Titans took over, but the Quarrier defense held strong to force a Tea Area punt.  Dell Rapids got the ball back with 3:40 to play in the game around midfield.  On fourth and 10 from the Titan 37 yard line, the Quarriers were again stopped with 3:18 to play.  Tea Area once again had the ball, but two plays later, the Dell Rapids defense made a game-saving stop.  Tyler Wood and Henry stripped the ball from Austin Lake, and the Quarrier defense pounced on the ball. 

With 2:22 to go in the game, the Quarrier offense went to work starting on the Tea Area 47-yard line.  Henry connected with Ellingson on a 31-yard pass to the Titan 16-yard line.  Henry then found Ellingson again at the Titan six-yard line.  On the very next play, Stone pushed his way into the end zone with 1:30 left in the game to pull the Quarriers within a point.  There was no hesitation from the sideline…Dell Rapids was going for the two points and the win.  Henry launched a fade pass to the corner of the endzone to Ellingson.  Ellingson made a great catch reaching around the defender and keeping himself inbounds to score the two points giving Dell Rapids a 22-21 lead.  The Quarrier defense forced a turnover on downs with 1:10 to play.  Dell Rapids tried to run out the clock, but Tea Area had enough timeouts left to force the Quarriers to punt.  The Titans got the ball back with :10 to go, but the Quarrier defense held strong for the win.

Dell Rapids finished with 301 yards of total offense, 292 passing yards and just nine rushing yards.  Tea Area had 274 yards of total offense, 104 passing yards and 170 rushing yards.  Dell Rapids was 2-9 on third down and 0-2 on fourth down, while the Titans were 5-13 on third down and 1-2 on fourth down.  The Quarriers committed four turnovers, and Tea Area had five turnovers in the game.

Henry finished the game 5-12 passing for 151 yards with a touchdown and interception.  Colin Rentz was 5-8 passing for 141 yards also with a touchdown and interception.  Ellingson had four catches for 155 yards and a touchdown.  Stone had two catches for 80 yards and a touchdown.  Wood finished with two catches for 31 yards, and Ruesink had two catches for 26 yards.  Stone led the rushing attack with 11 carries for 14 yards and a touchdown.  Coby Maeschen had nine carries for 13 yards.

Maeschen finished the game with 13 tackles on defense.  Ruesink had nine tackles.  Henry finished with eight tackles.  Drew VanRegenmorter had seven tackles, Brayden Gee had six tackles, and Ian Hackett had five tackles.  Henry, VanRegenmorter, and Thane Hilmoe all had fumble recoveries.  Maeschen and Ellingson each had an interception.

The Quarriers finished the regular season with a perfect 9-0 record for the first time in program history.  Dell Rapids will host the #8 seeded West Central Trojans in the quarterfinals of the 11A playoffs on Thursday, October 31st.  The game can be seen on Big Sioux Media.

The Dell Rapids Quarrier football team kept their undefeated season going with a 14-0 win over the West Central Trojans on Friday, October 18th.  The shutout was the second straight shutout for the Quarrier defense and third overall this season.

Both defenses came to play in this game.  It was a hard-fought, old-fashioned smash-mouth football game.  Neither offense could really get into any sort of rhythm all night long.

The Quarriers finally broke through late in the second quarter.  Logan Ellingson scored on a five-yard run on fourth down with 1:04 to go in the half.  The extra point was made by Victory Knuppe to give Dell Rapids a 7-0 lead heading into halftime.

The third quarter and most of the fourth quarter was scoreless as well.  The Quarriers got the game-sealing touchdown with 2:59 to play on a 23-yard pass from Colin Rentz to Tyler Wood.  Knuppe again made the extra point for the 14-0 win.

Dell Rapids finished with only 218 yards of total offense, 149 passing yards and 69 rushing yard.  West Central, though, was held to just 111 total yards, 83 rushing yards and 28 passing yards.  Dell Rapids was 2-9 on third down and 2-5 on fourth down, while the Trojans were 0-6 on third down and 1-1 on fourth down.

Colin Rentz finished 10-14 passing for 143 yards with a touchdown and interception.  Austin Henry was 1-4 passing for six yards.  Ellingson had six catches for 80 yards.  Wood had four catches for 63 yards and a touchdown, and Carter Nelson had a catch for six yards.  Wood also finished with three carries for 36 yards.  Logan Stone had six carries for 24 yards.  Coby Maeschen had nine carries for 15 yards, and Carter Rentz had five carries for 12 yards.

Drew VanRegenmorter led the team with six tackles.  Maeschen and Brayden Gee had four tackles each.  Wood and Ian Hackett both had three tackles.  Carter Rentz had an interception.

Dell Rapids (8-0) will host the Tea Area Titans on Thursday, October 24th.  The game will be the final regular season game for the Quarriers, and will also be Senior Night.  The game can be seen on Big Sioux Media.