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Pierre Governors 29, Huron Tigers 7
Saturday, August 18th
Phil Trautner Stadium at Hollister Field -- Pierre, SD

Game Recap
Governors open up season with impressive win
BY TYLER MERRIAM

It was a tale of two halves, but the Governors won the second one much more decisively than Huron did the first, giving Pierre a 29-7 victory over their ESD-rival Huron Tigers at Phil Trautner Stadium at Hollister Field Saturday night.

The Governors came out flat, only tacking on 112 first half yards, with senior quarterback Andy Hanson failing to complete a pass in the first half. However, Hanson led his team on a 70-plus yard drive to begin the third quarter, capped by Hanson's 3-yard touchdown scamper, and when he ran in for the two-point conversion, Pierre had a 14-7 lead they would not relinquish.

Each team stalled on their first drives, but on Huron's second drive they were on all cylinders. The Tigers mixed up handoffs to tailback Josh Sprecher and fullback Brady Hastings, suprising a Governor team. Not helping matters was early in the drive, Gov inside linebacker Dan Swenson being forced to go down to an arm injury, more on that later.

The Tigers capped the drive with Sprecher's 5-yard scamper, and a stunned Governors crowd saw the Tigers ahead. Each team floundered on their next couple of possessions, but not without chances.

Huron punter Tony Wahl bobbled the fourth-down snap, and was brought down inside his own 20-yard line. Pierre took possession at the Tiger 16-yard line, and had a 3rd-and-short, when Andy Hanson appeared to pick up a first down. Instead, holding was called, the Govs failed on 3rd and 4th and long, and Pierre missed a golden opportunity to tie the game.

Huron punted, this time successfully, but a good Tyler Prue return started Pierre in good field position. The Govs marched down the field, mixing handoffs to Prue and Brandon Deffenbaugh along with an assortment of keepers for Hanson. When Deffenbaugh plowed through the Tiger defense to score a touchdown with less than 6:00 left in the first half, Pierre was within one.

Instead of taking the extra-point, Chad Gusso decided to go for two, but with personnel problems on the play, Pierre had to quick snap and Andy Hanson was brought down in the backfield, keeping the score 7-6 Huron, which woudl end up being the halftime score.

Following a ceremony officially naming Hollister Field "Phil Trautner Stadium at Hollister Field," the Govs came out smoking off the second half kickoff. Hanson looked much more poise with his runs, and had a then found Austin Schneider for 19 yards to get Pierre in scoring range. Prue got the Govs closer, and Hanson snuck in, giving the Govs a 12-7 lead.

Pierre went for two, and in a tremendous show of guts on the quarterback's part, Hanson literally carried Zach DeShazer two yards as he tight-roped the sideline to get inside the pilon, and give his squad a 14-7 lead.

For all intensive purposes, the game was over right then and there. Huron gained a measley 27-yards in the latter half, while Pierre marched down the field with the running attack of Hanson, Prue, and Deffenbaugh. Hanson also found his tight end once more, Schneider, for a 23-yard pickup, and when Hanson scored again, Pierre's lead was now 20-7, and after another two-point conversion, 22-7.

Hanson found Travis Scharnweber in the endzone in the fourth, wrapping up the scoring, finalizing the Governors 29-7 win over the Tigers. Gusso was impressed with Hanson's performance, saying "he's a kid that works so hard in the offseason, I think he tries to make the 100-point play every time. He's a football player first, and a quarterback second, and he showed that on the runs."

Gusso on the performances of his offensive backfield: "Brandon Deffenbaugh played a heck of a football game for us, and if he and Tyler (Prue) can keep that up all year, hopefully we can be in contention at the end."

Pierre's only significant injury of any sorts during the game happened to the prior mentioned Dan Swenson, the starting inside linebacker and reserve fullback for Pierre. During Huron's scoring drive, Josh Sprecher broke free for a 13-yard pickup into Pierre territory. As he did so, Swenson sat in pain in on Huron's side of the 50.

Swenson came off the field clutching his left arm, and sat out a couple series. He did return to the game for a couple defensive series, and did come in as part of a three-man backfield offensively. Gusso said "apparently it's an injury he suffered back in wrestling too, but it wasn't bad enough to keep him out, and he wanted to play. We'll have to see how things go for him this week." The Governors next game is in Aberdeen Central, game time in Aberdeen is 7:30.

Game Box Score