Elk Point-Jefferson wins rematch vs. St. Thomas More, erupts for record 61 points

VERMILLION — The Elk Point-Jefferson Huskies got their revenge in a big way on Friday. 

One year after falling to St. Thomas More 48-38 in the Class 11B state championship, Elk Point-Jefferson rolled past the Cavaliers 61-13 in this year’s title game at the DakotaDome. 

“We thought about it a lot,” EPJ senior running back Brody Van Roekel said. “We knew we could get them this year. So that really fuels the fire.”

Van Roekel, a 5-foot-10, 190-pounder, fueled EPJ’s record-setting performance on Friday. EPJ’s 61 points are the most points scored by a single team in an 11-man state championship game, breaking last year’s record of 56 points by Pierre in the Class 11AA title. 

“I don’t know if we were necessarily going for that,” EPJ coach Jake Terry said. “But for our kids to go out and achieve at the level they did, I couldn’t be more proud of our kids — regardless of what the score said.”

Van Roekel, the Joe Robbie MVP and Outstanding Back, racked up 178 yards rushing on 12 carries and scored three rushing touchdowns. Aiden Hammitt totaled 78 of EPJ’s 390 yards rushing and scored three touchdowns. Dawson Fullenkamp and Levi Hanson added rushing touchdowns for EPJ, which took all the drama out of the Class 11B rematch early on. 

The Huskies (12-0) led 14-0 after the first quarter and pulled away for a 48-6 halftime lead. EPJ rushed for 241 yards at halftime, with Van Roekel logging 104 yards rushing and three touchdowns in the first half.

“We’re a run first football team and I couldn’t be more proud of our kids to go execute a game plan on offense, defense and special teams,” Terry said. “You couldn’t have asked for a better effort out of our kids.”

On defense, Van Roekel’s pick-six put an exclamation point on a dominant first half. Van Roekel stepped in front of a Wald pass, sprinted toward the end zone and collided with Wald at goal line for the score.

“We’ve repped all their concepts all week for practice,” Van Roekel said. “I could kind of tell that Noah Wald was looking over there. So I just kind of stepped up and he just threw it right to me.”

Wald, who led STM to the state championship last season, completed 20-of-34 passes for 209 yards and one touchdown. But he was intercepted three times, with Ben Trudeau and Hammitt also intercepting passes.

“That was the best we’ve ever played,” said EPJ defensive lineman Owen Boyle, who was named the Oustanding Lineman. “We played techincally sound the whole game. We were playing as one.”

It was EPJ’s first title since 2022. The Huskies also finished as runner-ups in 2023 and ‘25.

After the game, senior quarterback Levi Hanson was overcome with emotions as he hung onto the Class 11B trophy that eluded the Huskies last season.

“All the hard work is paying off us, especially this group of seniors," Hanson said. "We knew we had this goal going in and it's paid off."