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Patriots give Ellsworth fans
homecoming win

The teams combined efforts to score 86 points and compile 667 yards during a wild Southwest Ridge Conference tilt that served as Ellsworth's 2000 Homecoming game.

When the game was complete, H-BC-E celebrated a 56-30 win that lifted its record to 3-0 for the campaign.

Considering H-BC-E was limited to five touchdowns and 30 points during the first two games of the season, Friday's offensive eruption was a welcome but unexpected treat for the Patriots.

H-BC-E erupted for 35 points in the first half and iced the win with a 21-point fourth quarter.

"I don't know where all of that scoring came from," said Patriot coach Dan Ellingson. "I just hope we didn't use all of it up in one night."

Actually, Ellingson knew exactly why H-BC-E was able to score 56 points against the Quasars. The Patriots were able to move the ball through the air and on the ground against SSC, racking up 393 yards worth of total offense.

"This was the first game we were able to pass and run the ball well, and that opened things up for us. You can do a lot more things (to a defense) when you can pass and run. That's what happened Friday," he said.

The stage was set for a high-scoring contest in the first quarter when the teams scored a combined 28 points.

H-BC-E received the kick to open the game. On the first play from scrimmage, Lyle DeBoer ran for a 43-yard gain to the SSC three-yard line. He covered the final three yards during the next play, and the first of six extra points by Eric Joens gave the Patriots a 7-0 cushion 30 seconds into the game.

After the Patriot defense forced a punt during its first appearance on the field, DeBoer came up big again when he returned a punt 61 yards for a touchdown at the 9:22 mark of the opening period to make the difference 14-0.

The rest of the first quarter belonged to SSC.

Quasar quarterback Tyler Leopold tossed a 46-yard touchdown pass to Isaiah Rogers with 9:06 left to play in the stanza, and Josh Henkels ran for an 11-yard score at the 3:07 mark. A Leopold-to-Rogers conversion passed knotted the score at 14 after Henkels' touchdown.

The momentum switched back to H-BC-E's favor in the second quarter, when the Patriots scored 21 points to gain a 35-14 halftime cushion.

Patriot quarterback David Top, who completed 10 of 14 passes for 224 yards in the game, tossed a screen pass to Chris Reid that turned into a 63-yard touchdown at the 8:50 mark of the period.

Top and Kevin Van Batavia connected for a four-yard touchdown pass at 6:02, and DeBoer scored on a three-yard run 56 seconds later to cap the 21-point uprising.

SSC responded to H-BC-E's big second quarter by scoring 16 points in the third period to make the difference 35-30.

Leopold hit Rogers for a six-yard touchdown pass with 6:19 left to play in the quarter, and the same combination clicked for a successful conversion pass.

Leopold then scored on a one-yard run before Henkels carried in a two-point conversion to make it a five-point difference (35-30) with 2:53 remaining in the stanza.

H-BC-E put the game away in the fourth quarter by using a key play on special teams to set up one touchdown and using a pair of SSC turnovers to score two others.

The Patriot offense was on the move late in the third quarter before the SSC defense forced a fourth-down situation. H-BC-E lined up in punting formation on fourth down, but DeBoer ran with the ball once he caught the snap and picked up 17 yards for a first down. On the first play of the fourth quarter, Chris Willers scored on a 12-yard jaunt before running in the two-point conversion to make it a 43-30 game.

H-BC-E defender Pat Nelson set up another score when he recovered an SSC fumble moments later.

A 20-yard touchdown pass from Top to Willers followed the fumble recovery with 8:43 left to play, but a missed extra point kept the score at 49-30.

Willers then recovered a fumble on the SSC 12, from where Reid found the end zone on first down. When Joens added the extra point, the scoring was complete with 6:41 remaining.

The downside of H-BC-E's win was the fact that the team yielded a season-high 30 points to the Quasars. Ellingson, however, seemed unconcerned with that fact.

"They had a couple of big plays against us, but this was one of those games where you expected that to happen. We knew going into the game that SSC was a team that could score points. We just had to score more than they did," he concluded.

H-BC-E plays Sioux Valley-Round Lake-Brewster in Brewster tomorrow. The Raiders are 1-2 overall and 0-2 in the conference.

Team statistics

H-BC-E: 169 rushing yards, 224 passing yards, 393 total yards, 16 first downs, six penalties for 45 yards, one turnover.

SSC: 134 rushing yards, 140 passing yards, 274 total yards, 12 first downs, 11 penalties for 38 yards, four turnovers.

Individual statistics

Rushing: DeBoer 11-101, Reid 18-56, Willers 2-25, Top 4-minus 5, Curt Schilling 2-minus eight.

Passing: Top 10-14 for 224 yards.

Receiving: Crawford 3-94, Willers 2-41, Darin DeBoer 2-14, Reid 1-63, L.DeBoer 1-8, Van Batavia 1-4.

Defense: Crawford 11 tackles, one fumble recovery, one interception; L.DeBoer nine tackles, Willers nine tackles, Brant Deutsch three tackles and one fumble recovery, Nelson two tackles and one fumble recovery, Lee Walraven five tackles and one sack.

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