One of the most exciting parts of every high school sports season is the final game. This morning in Vermillion, the St. Mary’s Cardinals and Avon Pirates played the first of seven final games in the South Dakota State Football Championships. An already red DakotaDome was flooded with a red wave of Pirates and Cardinals fans who were hoping to see their team take home the 9B title.
St. Mary’s set the tone early with an onside kick that they recovered, scoring a few plays later on a Trimmier Hanson 47-yard run. St. Mary’s swiftly followed that up with two fumble recoveries on consecutive drives, both fumbles they would capitalize on with touchdowns.
Avon settled in, but it St. Mary’s was just too potent on both sides of the football for the Pirates to build a comeback.
The Cardinals spread out the scoring with five different players finding the end zone. Thomas LaVoy, Trimmier Hanson and Logan Bauer all had touchdowns for St. Mary’s, but the key player was Lincoln LeBrun who averaged just over 17-yards a carry, scored twice, tallied 176 all-purpose yards and led the defense in tackles with 10. Not a bad performance in your final game as a Cardinal in the Coyotes building.
For the Pirates, Easton Sees had the sole touchdown in the 54-6 loss, Sees also ending up as their lead rusher.
St. Mary’s receiving their title trophy as the first champions of the week
This game kicks off a very exciting weekend of State Championship football with an evening game between 10-1 Elkton-Lake Benton and 11-0 Freeman/Marion/Freeman Academy for the 9AA title which will kick-off at 7:00 PM CT tonight.
Tomorrow, the Dome will see three games starting with the undefeated Wall Eagles versus the 9-2 Howard Tigers at 10:00 AM for the 9A title. In the afternoon, it will be a battle of the unbeatens with St. Thomas More and Elk Point Jefferson at 2:00 PM for the 11B crown. Then, to cap-off the Saturday slate, the Pierre Governors make their ninth straight trip to the State Championship trying to avenge their regular season loss earlier this year to the Yankton Bucks. They will face off at 7:00 PM.
To close it out on Saturday, Lennox and Sioux Falls Christian will play in a game that has been said will be won in the trenches. The two are set for a noon kick-off. And the last game of championship week, maybe the two toughest teams in the state will face off as Brandon Valley and Sioux Falls play for the 11AAA title at 5:00 PM.
If you plan to attend any of these games, please remember USD is charging $5 cash to park in their lot!
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