Tristan Tungland celebrates after scoring a touchdown in a game earlier this year.

The Section 2AA playoffs got underway on Tuesday, Oct.21 with the No. 5-seeded Blue Earth Area Buccaneers traveling to Mankato to battle the No. 4-seeded St. Clair/Loyola Spartans on a cold and windy night.

The Spartans, who had defeated the Bucs 22-8 on Oct. 3, never trailed last Tuesday. They scored seven points in each of the first two quarters to take a 14-0 lead at the half. They added 20 more points to their total in the second half to triumph over BEA 34-0. St. Clair/Loyola now moves on to the second round where they will face top-seeded Waterville-Elysian-Morristown on Saturday, Oct. 25.

The Bucs, who were missing a high number of starters due to injury, struggled to move the ball against the Spartans’ defense.

BEA had 106 total yards of offense with 78 of those yards coming on the ground and 28 coming through the air.

Turnovers did not help the Bucs’ cause as they fumbled twice and lost both miscue’s to the Spartans. BEA also gave the ball to St. Clair/Loyola twice on interceptions which also killed off drives. The Spartans also blocked a Buccaneer punt and returned it for a touchdown.

BEA did record 10 first downs during the game – eight on the ground and two passing.

Defensively, the Bucs were led by Hayden Prestegard and Timmy Nagel who each had eight tackles. Nagel had one tackle for loss and also forced a fumble that was recovered by Jacob Brase.

Chase Brase finished the game with seven tackles including one tackle for a loss and Will Weerts had six tackles.

The leading passer for the Bucs was Traven Zierke with five completions out of 11 attempts for 26 yards. Nagel had one completion in five attempts for two yards.

Dylan Preuss had three receptions for 13 yards and Peter Fletcher had two receptions for 10 yards. Weerts had one reception for five yards.

Nagel finished the contest with 60 yards rushing on 20 attempts while Tristan Tungland carried the ball six times for 29 yards.

The Bucs end their season with a 3-6 record.

Caden Juba was the leading rusher for the Bucs. Though he missed the last two games of the season due to injury, the junior quarterback gained 623 yards on 97 rushing attempts for an average of 6.42 yards per carry. He rushed for three touchdowns.

Senior Nagel rushed the ball 79 times for 468 yards which is 5.92 yards per carry. He rushed for six touchdowns. Senior Tristan Tungland gained 184 yards on 62 carries for a 2.97 per carry average. Before being injured in the third game of the season, senior Omar Gomez had 13 carries for 71 yards and four touchdowns.

Juba completed 26 passes out of 58 attempts for 275 yards and two touchdowns. Traven Zierke, a junior, completed 14 passes for 125 yards.

The leading receiver was junior Peter Fletcher with 148 yards on 11 receptions and two touchdowns. Nagel caught 10 receptions for 75 yards and senior Dylan Preuss finished the season with eight receptions for 92 yards and one touchdown.

The defense was led by sophomore Hayden Prestegard with 68.5 total tackles including two and a half tackles for loss. He also forced two fumbles.

Timmy Nagel was the second leading tackler with 65. He recorded three tackles for loss, forced two fumbles and recovered a fumble.

Tungland finished with 39 tackles, John Nelson, a junior, had 38, senior Chase Brase had 34, sophomore Tate Elzenga had 28 and two interceptions and junior Will Weerts finished with 24 tackles.

It was the final game of their high school football career for six BEA seniors. They are Parker Stauffer, Nagel, Tungland, Omar Gomez, Carlos Rodriguez and Chase Brase.