Titans triumph over Spearfish in Friday night showdown

Tea Area High School’s football team secured an impressive victory against Spearfish on Friday, Oct. 6, in defeating Spearfish 62-13 on the road.

The first quarter of the game saw both teams trading touchdowns. After a great punt return by Ethan Vis, the Titans were on the Spearfish 10. Three plays later, Brenner Konrad took the two-yard quarterback keeper in for the score. Griffin Wiebenga added the extra point, giving the Titans an early 7-0 lead.

Spearfish quickly responded with a 14-yard rushing touchdown of their own but their extra-point attempt failed, leaving the score 7-6. The game remained tight until late in the first quarter when Tea Area’s Ethan Vis returned a kickoff 86 yards for the score. Konrad completed the two-point conversion pass to Dawson Eimers to put the Titans up 15-6.

Spearfish once again answered back on a five yard rushing touchdown. The point after pulled them within two of the Titans, 15-13.

In the second quarter, Vis scored again this time on a 15 yard carry. The point after was no good, but the Titans increased their lead to 21-13.

Tea Area continued to dominate. Keegan DeYoung and Konrad each found the endzone twice and Cole McKinney also added a rushing touchdown. Despite some missed extra-point attempts, the Titans managed to increase their lead to 56-13 by halftime.

In the third, Konrad scored once more on a quarterback keeper, running it in from 41 yards out. The score gave the Titans the eventual 62-13 victory.

Offensively, Tea Area finished with 351 yards of offense, gaining 279 on the ground and 72 in the air. Spearfish was held to just 90 yards of offense.

Leading the rushing attack for Tea Area was Konrad who rushed for 121 yards on eight carries. He scored four rushing touchdowns on the night. McKinney rushed for 74 yards on six carries. Riley Svanda 29 on two carries, DeYoung 26 on eight carries, Vis 19 on two carries, and Tyler Rhead eight on three carries.

In the air, Konrad completed five of five pass attempts, throwing for 72 yards. Svanda caught two passes for 27 yards, Brock Ellingson one for 37, McKinney one for five and Rhead one for three.

Defensively, the Titans sacked the Spearfish quarterback six times. Credited with sacks in the game were Sam Werdel, Carter Turek, Tim Halbur, Jessen Wiebenga and combining for sacks were Wiebenga and Brady Tapia and Nick Dunkelberger and Charlie Leslie. Werdel and Dawson Eimers each had a fumble recovery in the game.

Werdel led the defense in tackles with nine. Turek and Eimers each had five, Carter Christensen, Halbur, and Parker Wilson each had four and DeYoung, Ethan Miller, and J. Wiebenga each had three.

The Titans play at home this Friday, Oct. 13 when they take on Pierre. Pierre sits at 6-1 on the season, with their only loss coming at the hands of Brandon Valley (35-14). Pierre has recorded wins over Aberdeen Central (32-0), Brookings (49-0), Mitchell (62-8), Yankton (27-14), Watertown (49-20), and Huron (35-0). Kick-off is set for 7 p.m.