WATERTOWN — Second-rated Watertown High School’s football team didn’t need to go door-to-door for a special Halloween treat.
The Arrows (8-2) scored twice in their first four plays and never let up on the way to a convincing 35-0 win over seventh-seeded Huron in a Class 11AA playoff quarterfinal game Thursday night at Watertown Stadium.
Watertown will host third-seeded Brookings (8-2) next Friday for a chance to play for the state Class 11AA championship on Friday, Nov. 15 in the DakotaDome at Vermillion.
Here’s three takeaways from Thursday’s game:
Senior quarterback Treyton Himmerich cut his finger on a weight-room incident on Monday and needed stitches so the Arrows turned to junior Markus Pitkin. Pitkin’s played a major offensive and defensive role for the Arrows this fall, but other than a couple of option passes, hasn’t served as the team’s main signal-caller.
At least not until Thursday and even through the Arrows didn’t throw the ball much, they did have success throwing it. That’s because two of Pitkin’s completions went to senior receiver Mitch Olson, who turned the catches into scoring plays of 67 and 63 yards.
“We had a lot of confidence in Markus. He had a great week of practice and was just the next man up,” said Olson. “I didn’t think we would really throw the ball tonight but those two big plays helped changed the game.”
Olson’s two long touchdowns weren’t the only big plays for Watertown, which won the coin flip and decided to take the ball first. On their third play, senior Spencer Wientjes broke through the line and dashed 48 yards for a touchdown.
On the first play of their next posses, Olson leaped to make a catch over a Huron defender and then dashed to the end to give the Arrows a 14-0 lead.
Watertown’s onslaught continued in the second quarter when Pitkin scored on a 2-yard plunge just six seconds into the period. Wientjes broke free on another long TD jaunt (this one from 80 yards out) with 6:17 remaining that made it 28-0 at halftime.
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Pitkin’s second long TD pass to Olson with 4:30 left in the third quarter set the running clock in motion and opened the door for Arrow reserves to get some holiday playing time.
“It was just man-to-man and I won my battle but when we run the ball as well as we do with our O-line, it just opens up plays for all of our receivers,” Olson, who now has eight touchdown catches this season, said.
Statistics will be added after they are received. Nathan Briggs made an interception for Watertown’s defense. Oakley Anderson recovered a fumble for Huron (4-6).
One of the most interesting things about the 2024 season for Watertown was that it didn’t have a game scheduled against fellow Eastern South Dakota Conference rival Brookings.
It was only the third time dating back to 1938 that the Arrows didn’t play the Bobcats in the regular season. For some reason, the two squads didn’t meet in 1949 but had played every other year except for 2019 and 2020 when Watertown was in Class 11AAA and Brookings was still in Class 11AA.
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So instead of not playing Brookings for only the second-time ever when they were both in the same class, the Arrows and Bobcats will instead meet for a berth in the state championship.
Since the South Dakota High School football playoffs started in 1981, Watertown has won state Class 11AA titles in 1996 and 2001. The 2001 title came after a win over Brookings in the championship.
Follow Watertown Public Opinion sports reporter Roger Merriam on X (formerly known as Twitter) @PO_Sports or email: rmerriam@thepublicopinion.com
