Winner looking to represent West River well

By Jake Nordbye, Journal correspondent | Friday, November 14, 2008

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Winner is set to battle Dell Rapids in the Class 11A state championship game in the DakotaDome tonight at 6:30 MST. This is Winner’s 10th trip to the Dakota Dome, but its first appearance since 1998.

“The community here is really energized,” said Winner head coach Dan Aaker. “Anytime you can make it this far there is going to be a lot of excitement around it. Plus, with the tradition Winner football has had in the past, there are always high expectations. This is a huge football town.”

The Warriors started the season with a loss to Belle Fourche, 12-0, but since have rattled off 10 straight victories while outscoring their opponents 482-113 including a 49-17 playoff victory against St. Thomas More which propelled them into the title game.

“We become better and better as the year has gone on. We’re looking forward to representing our high school, the town of Winner and all of West River,” Aaker said.

Winner comes into the matchup with a prolific offense. They chalked up almost 4,000 total yards this season, 3,200 of which came via the running game.  It is led by one of the premier running backs in the state, Braden Gardner, who rushed for 1,156 yards this season with 27 total touchdowns.

“We have to do a good job up front and control the line of scrimmage, they’ll probably be the quickest team we’ve seen all season,” said Aaker. “If we do that, we have a pretty good group of running backs that have decent speed and we have some power runners as well.”

Winner has also done an outstanding job taking care of the football this season, and Aaker points to that as one of the major keys of the game.

“We need to take care of the football, which we’ve done well all year. We only had eight turnovers in 11 games and anytime you can have less than one turnover per game it is pretty good. It is probably what I’m most proud of this year.”

Dell Rapids comes into the game at 9-2. One of those losses came to perennial powerhouse West Central.

Dell Rapids avenged that loss in the second round of the playoffs with 19-14 victory. Like the Warriors, Dell Rapids pounds the ball on the ground by committee. They have three backs that get carries consistently and are led by Tate Bunkers who averaged over 10 yards per carry and scored eight touchdowns.

“They have great team speed, and they have a lot of versatility at running back,” said Aaker. “We’re definitely similar teams both offensively and defensively. They have played a brutal schedule against tough teams so they’re coming in with battle tested confidence, but at the same time, we’re very confident as well and we won’t back away from anyone. It is going to be a lot of fun.”