Pretty much everyone outside of Fort Pierre expected Bennett County to roll over Stanley County on Friday night. However, the Buffaloes have been playing some inspired football in 2026, and they felt like they could hang with the Warriors. With that confidence, they played four tough quarters before falling 24-6, and the final score was not indicative of how close the game actually was.
Bennett County jumped out to an early in the first quarter after Maddux Risse found Hayden Risse from 10-yards out to make it 8-0. The Buffaloes offense could not get much going in the first half, but their defense was playing inspired and shutting down the extremely potent run game of the Warriors. The Stanley County defense kept it close throughout.
In the second quarter, Rush O’Neill capped off a drive with a score to make it 16-0 and bring it towards the end of the first half. The Buffaloes found some rhythm at the end of quarter number two, but ran out of time on the doorstep of the end-zone.
To start the third quarter, the Warriors ate up 10:12 of game clock before being stalled out on 4th down by Carson Bourne who deflected a 4th & 10 pass to hand the ball back to the Buffs. Stanley County was again unable to score, but their offense was starting to click with some completed passes and some positive runs by Witt Meyers and company.
Trailing by two touchdowns in the fourth quarter, the Buffaloes defense tipped and picked off a Lyle Noll pass to completely shift the momentum back their way. Although there was laundry on the field, and the interception got overturned by a personal foul call that had Buffalo head coach Max Foth absolutely incensed on the sideline. It immediately swung the momentum away from the Buffaloes and back to the Warriors. Bennett County would score a few plays later and put the nail in the coffin.
Stanley County would get a clean up time score when Bryant Zeeb would power it in from one-yard out, but the Buffaloes would fall 24-6.
Stanley County falls to 1-2 and will take on Lead-Deadwood next Saturday night on KGFX.
Comments