Waylen Douglas (3), pictured above, runs for a big gain during Blue Earth Area’s 49-7 victory over Waterville-Elysian-Morristown in the opening round of the Section 2AA playoffs.

The No. 3-seeded Blue Earth Area Buccaneers advanced to the semifinals of the Section 2AA football playoffs by walloping the No. 6-seeded Waterville-Elysian-Morristown Buccaneers 49-7.

BEA, playing on their home field, scored 21 points in the opening quarter of the game, which was played on Oct. 26.

The win by BEA put them in a semifinal contest against the No. 2-seeded Maple River Eagles, which was played on Saturday, Oct. 30, in Mapleton. Look for results of that game in next week’s edition of the Faribault County Register.

WEM was unable to generate any kind of offense against the BEA starters.

Their first drive began on their 23-yard line. They immediately lost four yards when BEA defensive tackle Blake Ripley sacked WEM quarterback Preston Grams on the first play from scrimmage.

Another sack on second down moved WEM back to the 13-yard line. They gained two yards on third down before punting into a strong wind on fourth down.

BEA took over in WEM territory on the 48-yard line. Runs of 19, 22 and seven yards by Waylen Douglas resulted in a touchdown. A successful extra-point kick by Gabe Smith gave the Maroon and Gold a 7-0 lead with 8:44 left in the first quarter.

WEM had similar results on their second drive. Faced with a fourth down and 16 yards to go situation, they again punted the ball to BEA.

The hometown team began their next drive from their own 42-yard line and needed just five plays to score again.

A 23-yard run by quarterback Adam Schavey moved the ball into WEM territory at the 35-yard line.

Following an incomplete pass, Douglas covered the final 35 yards in three rushes to score with 4:17 remaining in the first quarter. Smith’s kick was good to make the score BEA 14, WEM 0.

BEA’s defense continued to dominate and WEM punted the ball back to the Maroon and Gold with 1:58 to go in the opening stanza.

Three plays and 50 seconds later, Douglas crossed the goal line for his third touchdown of the game. Smith made the PAT and BEA extended their lead to 21-0.

Luke Schonborn’s 50-yard punt return early in the second quarter put BEA in business at the WEM 35-yard line.

Jack Norman had a run for 30 yards before Douglas covered the final five yards for his fourth score of the game and a 27-0 BEA lead. Smith added the extra point to put the Maroon and Gold on top 28-0.

The Bucs began to put in some of their reserves but still scored once more before halftime. Their final touchdown drive of the opening half covered 45 yards in four plays with Nick Nelson scoring from 11 yards out. Smith was good on the extra point and BEA led 35-0 at the half.

The second half was played with running time before moving to continuous time for the fourth quarter.

BEA added two more touchdowns in the third quarter, both on runs by Caleb Langager.

WEM finally scored on the last play of the game to make the final score 49-7.

The final statistics showed BEA with 338 yards of total offense to 140 for WEM.

BEA gained all of their yards on the ground and averaged 8.7 yards per carry.

Douglas rushed nine times for 110 yards. Langager had 15 totes for 79 yards. After carrying the ball 42 times in BEA’s win the previous week against Fairmont, Schavey only had two carries for 67 yards against WEM. Nick Nelson finished with four rushes for 35 yards.

BEA’s record improves to 8-1 for the year. They are 2-1 in Section play.

WEM ended their season with an overall record of 3-6.They finished with a record of 1-4 in Section play.