Reed Krieger, No. 77, dives onto the ball after a Martin County West fumble, securing possession for Blue Earth Area during the team’s Sept. 30 rout of the Mavericks.

For the first time in three weeks, Friday night belonged to the Blue Earth Area Buccaneers.

Returning on Sept. 30 to Wilson Field, the same place they surrendered a 20-point lead to rival Jackson County Central a week earlier, the Bucs had little to worry about in week five, building another big halftime lead but this time holding on, riding big runs and bigger special teams play to a 35-16 victory over Martin?County West.

“It’s a good win for us,”?said BEA head coach Randy Kuechenmeister. “Special teams came up big, and we got a lot of kids in there and got them some game experience.”

With a three-score lead in the Homecoming game’s final quarter, the maroon and gold could afford to shuffle new faces in and out of their lineup. A few of them, like running back Chandler Pettit (six carries, 64 yards), had their hands all over BEA’s steady rushing attack.

But the deciding blow of Friday’s clash may very well have been on the other side of the ball and not defense.

Caelan Sanders, No. 88, kicks one of five converted extra points on Friday, Sept. 30, in Blue Earth Area’s 35-16 win over Martin County West. Looking up after holding the kick is Sanders’ brother, Chris, who also scored vs. MCW.

Up 14-3 over the Mavericks in the second quarter, the Bucs took an even more commanding lead thanks to a handful of blocks and a wide-open running lane on a kickoff.

Slot receiver Kaylan Legred cut behind those blocks and sprinted right through that running lane to return the kickoff 82 yards for a score, and all of a sudden, the Bucs put Martin County West in an 18-point hole.

The long return, which followed the Mavericks’ lone score of the first half, a 33-yard field goal, came with just 12 seconds left in the second quarter. And it swung whatever momentum was still up for grabs in BEA’s direction.

The scoreboard tilted further early in the third, when Legred added to his big night with a 13-yard rushing touchdown and returned to the sideline with some fiery support for his teammates.

Along with Pettit, he was not the only one contributing to the Bucs’ offense Friday night, either. More than half of BEA’s 257 total yards, enough to outdo Martin County West’s offense, came on the ground, and five other players contributed to that total.

Quarterback Logan Jahnke, who is routinely among the team’s rushing leaders, was one of them, accounting for 46 yards with his legs. But the senior passer also moved the ball through the air when he needed to, completing seven of 13 passes for 94 yards, all but 44 of which came on a deep-ball touchdown to Chris Sanders in the second quarter.

Bucs running back/linebacker Zach Buseman got the scoring started in the first with a five-yard carry into the endzone, and kicker Caelan Sanders made his first of five extra points on the night to cap off the opening score.

Some missed tackles haunted BEA late in the game, as the Mavericks drove their way down the field for a pair of second-half touchdowns.

But by that point in the evening, the Buccaneers had done too much to be stripped of victory, their second on the season. Buseman’s second touchdown of the night, an eight-yard run in the fourth quarter, made extra sure of that, putting the home team up 35-10.

Despite holding the ball for nearly five fewer minutes than the Mavericks, the Bucs stayed strong on defense as well, sacking Martin County West once and pressuring the team quite a bit more, forcing one fumble and limiting the visitors to a 25-percent third-down conversion rate.

Improved to 2-3 after the big Homecoming victory, the Buccaneers were next scheduled to hit the road for a 7 p.m. matchup with the Windom Eagles on Friday.

Windom came out on top, 47-0, in its own showdown with Martin County West but fell 49-13 to Jackson County Central in its last action on the gridiron.

After Friday’s competition with Windom, the Bucs are slated to return home for their fourth and final regular-season contest at Wilson Field. And Kuechenmeister knows that even a big win over Martin County West, let alone Windom this week, will only be a precursor to challenges down the road.

“The rest of them are going to be tough,” he said, of the Bucs’ remaining games. “It’ll be tough, but that’s why we play.”