SIOUX FALLS — Brandon Valley completed the regular season as the undisputed No. 1 team in the 11AAA ranks, defeating Sioux Falls Jefferson 28-3 on Thursday night at Howard Wood Field.

With the win, the Lynx finish 9-0 and will be the No. 1 seed in the playoffs that begin next week. They will be a heavy favorite and a difficult team to knock off.

“Super proud of our guys,” said Lynx coach Matt Christensen. “Going undefeated — that’s awesome and we love doing it. We take a lot of pride in what we do and learning from every game. It’s been a very rewarding season and we’re just getting started.”

The Lynx had already locked up the top seed by way of having the tiebreaker over Lincoln and Harrisburg, and Jefferson was locked into the 4-seed, so this game had nothing tangible at stake.

But with a chance at an undefeated season the Lynx came ready to treat it like any other game against a Metro rival.

“It’s not the NFL where you want to save your guys for the playoffs,” Christensen said. “Our kids wanted to play and they wanted to win. They only get so many chances to do this so they wanted to come out and play as hard and as well as they can.”

Jefferson, too, wanted to win. They held out star tight end/D-end Edward Whiting with a minor injury (he’ll be back for the playoffs) and were missing a few other injured players who won’t be back, but they still came ready to play. The Cavs took the opening kickoff and drove nearly 80 yards for a game-opening score, but they fumbled as they were crossing the goalline and the Lynx recovered, the first of five Jefferson turnovers on the night.

Instead of a 7-0 lead and some breathing room, the Cavs (6-3) suffered the gut-punch of putting together a fantastic drive against the state’s best defense only to come up empty, and they never fully recovered.

“You turn the ball over that many times against a good team it makes it tough to win,” said Jefferson coach Vince Benedetto. “I thought we had a really good plan and our kids executed well early on but we just kept shooting ourselves in the foot at inopportune times. Credit to Brandon, they made the plays and that’s why they won the game.”

The Lynx took a 7-0 lead when Briggs Knutson hit Madden Timmer and saw the 5-10, 230-pound fullback rumble 57 yards for a touchdown. Jefferson got on the board with a 34-yard Kennan Aman field goal just before half, but the Lynx would outscore the hosts 21-0 in the second half, getting a pair of touchdown runs from Levi Veskrna and a 24-yard scoring strike from Knutson to Landon Dulaney.

Brandon outgained Jefferson 338-206. Veskrna rushed for 90 yards and Gus Scott 75, while Knutson was 11-of-16 for 137 yards with two touchdown passes. Dulaney had seven catches for 55 yards, while Chase Leary led the Lynx defense with five tackles and two interceptions.

Matt Zimmer/Sioux Falls Live

Ethan Swenson was 16-of-31 for 151 yards for the Cavs but was intercepted three times. Jefferson had just 55 rushing yards on 20 attempts. Brody Jacobson paced the Cavalier defense with 13 tackles.

“We tried to win the game and build some confidence,” Benedetto said. “And I think our kids have proven throughout the year we can play with anyone in the state we just got to execute better.”

Matt Zimmer is a Sioux Falls native and longtime sports writer. He graduated from Washington High School where he played football, legion baseball and developed his lifelong love of the Minnesota Twins and Vikings. After graduating from St. Cloud State University, he returned to Sioux Falls, and began a long career in amateur baseball and sports reporting. Email Matt at mzimmer@siouxfallslive.com.