By John RittenhouseSouthwest United denied Hills-Beaver Creek-Ellsworth a berth in the state football tournament by blanking the Patriots 25-0 during the Section 2 Nine-Man championship game played in Hills Saturday.A swarming Wildcat defense limited the Patriots to 50 yards of total offense while shutting out the hosts.SWU running back Anthony Johnson ran for 175 yards and two touchdowns and passed for another to lead the Wildcats to their first appearance in the state tournament.The winner of five straight games after starting the season at 0-6, SWU will open the Minnesota State Nine-Man Football Tournament by playing a 7 p.m. quarterfinal-round game in Spring Grove Friday.H-BC-E, which had a three-game winning streak snapped with the loss to the Wildcats, ends its 7-4 season.According to Patriot coach Dan Ellingson, the section title game was settled in the trenches.The Wildcats controlled the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball, limiting H-BC-E to 34 rushing yards and four first downs defensively, and compiling 253 rushing yards on offense."They played pretty well on the line," Ellingson admitted. "We played well on the line last week (against Comfrey-Cedar Mountain), and I thought SWU played well on the line this week. Their play on the line is where they got us."The Wildcats played especially well on defense, shutting down an H-BC-E offense that scored a combined 50 points in the first two playoff games.SWU concentrated on stopping H-BC-E running backs Zach Wysong and Tom LeBoutillier, and the Wildcats got the job done.LeBoutillier picked up 14 yards. Wysong, H-BC-E’s leading rusher this season, was limited to seven yards.A thigh bruise sidelined Wysong early in the first half. He tried to come back late in the game, but it didn’t work out."Defensivley, they sent everyone after us," Ellingson said. "They had seven guys near the line the whole game and blitzed all seven of them. We didn’t run the ball well against them, and when we tried to pass, we didn’t have time to get the ball to our receivers."It didn’t take SWU’s defense long to make a statement in the game.After forcing the Patriots to punt four plays into their first offensive possession, the Wildcats turned their first possession into a 7-0 lead.A long drive ended with Johnson scoring on a three-yard run. A successful extra point followed the touchdown.The score remained 7-0 until late in the second quarter, after the Patriots lost the ball on downs.SWU countered by putting together its second scoring-drive that was capped by a 38-yard touchdown burst by Johnson. The extra-point attempt failed, leaving the Wildcats with a 13-0 advantage near the 3:00 of the second stanza.H-BC-E made a bid to score in the third quarter when it moved the ball inside SWU’s 10-yard line, but the drive stalled on downs.SWU’s offense took over and moved the ball into H-BC-E territory before Johnson tossed a 23-yard halfback pass to Will Schmitz late in the third quarter to make it a 19-0 game. The ensuing two-point conversion attempt failed.The Wildcats added a meaningless touchdown with less than one minute to play in the fourth quarter to end the scoring.Although H-BC-E lost its second straight section title tilt Saturday, Ellingson said it wasn’t because of a lack of effort."The kids played like champions all the way through the game. They played very hard until the very end," he said.Team statisticsH-BC-E: 34 rushing yards, 16 passing yards, 50 total yards, four first downs, five penalties for 40 yards, zero turnovers.SWU: 253 total yards, 56 passing yards, 309 total yards, five first downs, 10 penalties for 110 yards, two turnovers.Individual statisticsRushing: Wysong 8-7, LeBoutillier 8-14, Travis Broesder 13-3, Kerry Fink 6-10.Passing: Broesder 2-7 for 16 yards.Receiving: Wysong 1-8, Blake Hanisch 1-8.Defense: Cody Scholten 15 tackles, Jon Klaassen 11 tackles, Brian Gacke 10 tackles, Cody Rozeboom four tackles and one interception, Wysong one fumble recovery.
