(Hull) KSOM will air the Class 3A State Championship matchup on Friday afternoon between Boyden-Hull/Rock Valley and Harlan. Pregame coverage will start at 12:30 and the game kicks at 1:00 p.m.
Boyden-Hull/Rock Valley coach Cory Brandt was asked what concerned him the most about Harlan. “Everything. If you look at that team, that’s an incredible football team.”
Boyden-Hull/Rock Valley opened some eyes with their 42-0 win over Solon last week. “Kids have been playing at a very high level, but I give my coaching staff just a ton of credit. They’ve been preparing kids extremely well, getting them in the right spots, and the kids have been going and making plays. It all goes back to execution and preparation. How they carried it out was just so good.”
These teams are familiar with each other. Last season Harlan won 44-7 when they met in the semifinals and coach Brandt thinks this year’s version of the Cyclones is even better. “They have dominated pretty much everybody that they have played. I’ve watched them for a couple of years now and just seeing what they do I am so impressed by how well coached they are. Coach Bladt and his staff do an incredible job, hats off to them always. Just watching their kids play, they play so hard. Offensively, defensively, whatever there is no quit in them and they get after it every single play. I have nothing but respect for them. Offensively they can hit you with the pass game or run game and they have incredible athletes and they involve all of them. On defense they just don’t give you much. They attack the football, they shed blocks extremely well, they can give you different looks.” He says, “There’s just no weakness in this team. They are really good.”
The Nighthawks are much improved in their own right. A big reason why is quarterback Tanner Te Slaa. The South Dakota State basketball commit has started for the Nighthawks a sophomore and now again as a senior. “He actually didn’t play football last year. He’s an extremely good basketball player and just felt he couldn’t play. We missed him and stuff, but Caleb Kats came in and just did a heck of a job for us last year bringing us back to the dome. He was the leader in that. So when Tanner came back out we had a competition and it played out that Tanner was the best at that position and Caleb is an incredible receiver. Tanner has done a great job all year of improving on his quarterback skills and the fundamentals of it. He just gets better and better and understands the game and throws the ball extremely well.”
Te Slaa leads an offense that has scored at least 40 poins in five straight games. He has 2,264 yards passing on the season with 32 TD’s and only four picks. In the semifinals he had 336 yards and four touchdowns.
The defense held Solon to just 136 total yards last week. They’ve forced 32 turnovers on the season. “We play a great team defense. They all have a part in it from time to time. Our guys up front have done a great job of freeing up our linebackers. Our linebackers have most of our tackles. Landyn Van Kekerix, Casey Pick, Cade Fisher, these guys get it done and Jaxon Rozeboom before he got hurt was doing a great job too. Our linebacking core is extremely strong and our defensive backs behind them continue to make plays. They make it difficult to throw the ball and when they do catch it we tackle pretty well. We are going to have to do that again.”
Harlan seeks their 100th playoff victory and 13th state title. Boyden-Rull/Rock Valley won a state championship in 2016. They’ve been in the playoffs for 14 of the last 15 seasons.
Boyden-Hull/Rock Valley coach Cory Brandt:
