The Browerville Tigers hosted the KMS Fighting Saints for their homecoming last Friday night. The Fighting Saints came prepared for a Tigers ground game that has dominated all season long. The Tigers shrugged off some early struggles to defeat KMS 34-13.

KMS came out with nine men in the box. This put an end to the Tigers’ run game as they gained negative four yards on seven carries in the first quarter. The Fighting Saints also controlled the ball in the first quarter on offense.

The Fighting Saints were able to take advantage of the Tigers being out of position on defense. “We were able to get a couple of stops and force punts,” head coach Wayne Petermeier said. “But we just could not get our run game going at all.”

In the second quarter, the Tigers decided to open up the passing game in hopes of opening things up in the running game. A 62-yard pass play from Mitch Heid to Ben Dreher gave Browerville some momentum and got the Tigers down to the seven yard line. Dreher powered the ball in on the next play for a seven-yard touchdown at 4:50 in the second quarter. Heid added the extra point to give the Tigers a 7-0 lead.

After an interception by Mackenzie Asmus, Heid was able to evade rushers, scrambled to his left and hit Dreher for a 44-yard pass down to the one-yard line. Heid punched it in for a one-yard touchdown run on the next play. A successful extra point gave the Tigers a 14-0 lead going into halftime.

“Defensively, we found some things that worked pretty well for us in the second quarter,” Petermeier said. “We felt pretty good going into halftime with a 14 point lead after the start we had.”

To start the second half, the offensive line started to win at the line of scrimmage. The passing game was working well in the second half as well. Heid found Kyle Petermeier for a 41-yard reception and then again for 20 more yards. Dreher scored with 3:18 left in the third on a nine yard run.

KMS was able to get on the scoreboard with an eight-yard touchdown pass from Kyle Baker to Adam Doraska. This brought the score to 28-7.

The Tigers would find the end zone with 7:27 left in the fourth quarter, with Asmus scoring from eight yards out.

An interception and nice return by Heid gave the Tigers excellent field position on the next drive. Seth Kellen found some running room to score on an 11-yard run.

After this touchdown, the Tigers were able to give way to their junior varsity players.

At 1:22, Travis Lamecker of KMS punched it in for a one-yard touchdown run. This would be the end of the scoring for the night as the Tigers came out victorious 34-13.

The Tigers did a good job of adapting to the pressure KMS was putting on them. They played very well in the second half.

“Due to some injuries, we had some new players and others playing positions they had never played before,” Petermeier said. “They were able to come through when we needed them most.”

The Tigers will be on the road when they take on New York Mills on Friday. They will then end the regular season with a road game in Osakis next Wednesday.

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