VERMILLION — Brandon Valley halted a Lincoln three-peat.

The Lynx (11-1) outgunned Sioux Falls Lincoln (10-2), 34-27, to win its third Class 11AAA football championship, and first since 2020. BV also stopped the Patriots three-peat bid, and also avenged last season’s 31-21 title game loss to Lincoln.

“It feels amazing,” said senior running back Levi Veskrna. “We’ve had this game circled on our calendar the entire year. It’s something special to us. Don’t forget about what happened last year, we had it talked about the whole entire time since fall camp.”

This season’s championship sequel was a high-scoring slugfest that had zero punts and just three drives not ending in points.

Veskrna, the game’s Outstanding Back and Joe Robbie MVP, set the tone for the game’s opening drive, rushing 11 times for 93 yards and a touchdown, a gameplan that was by design according to head coach Matt Christensen.

“That’s by design and we just know we can trust him,” said Christensen. “Some people call it child abuse, we’ve used that term but at the same time he says ‘Nope, give it to me again.’ “

A second touchdown of six yards from Veskrna was sandwiched between two Schafer touchdowns, a nine-yard toss to Everett Starks and a 48-yard scramble to knot things up at 14.

Ryder Mueller gave BV the lead once again with a 55-yard house call just after the Lincoln equalizer, but a missed PAT kept the Lynx PAT at six.

Late in the half Lincoln was forming an answer until Schafer’s pass was intercepted by Nolan Pudwill just over a minute play in the second quarter, marking the first non-scoring drive of the game.

“We were close to multiple stops and it gave our defense hope that we could get them stopped and just prevent the huge play,” Christensen said. “ We had one really big run that it’s hard to get him down on those.”

Out of the half, Schafer pushed Lincoln ahead with a 1-yard QB keeper, followed by a third Veskrna touchdown from 17 yards away.

Drives were at a premium in the 11AAA state championship, and the BV offense understood how important ball security was going into the fourth quarter.

“We knew that on offense that they were just going to try stripping the ball, they knew they only needed one turnover,” Veskrna said. “Their offense is special, Brody Schafer is a stud, he’s good.”

Schafer connected with Louison Akossi for a 5-yard TD strike for a 27-26 advantage, but wouldn’t last long with quarterback Briggs Knutson barreling in for a 5-yard touchdown run on the ensuing drive.

With five minutes to go for a state title, the Lynx defense anchored down, stuffing Schafer on fourth down to seal the championship.

“Our defense stepped up huge, I was so proud of them with that,” Veskrna said of the win. “Especially our o-line, all the yards and everything I’ve ever got, all those awards, I give them credit. I can’t do it without them.”

Veskrna ended the day rushing 39 times for 260 yards and three touchdowns, posting new championship game records in rush attempts and rushing yards.

“He is amazing, he is a complete running back of balance and strength and vision and patience and grit,” said Christensen. “He’s among the toughest people I’ve ever met. There’s a whole bunch of people who wouldn’t sign up for one carry against that team let alone 39 of them.”

And Brandon Valley overcame the adversity of last season’s championship loss to come back and beat the same time they fell to in the DakotaDome a season ago.

“Any kind of adversity is awesome when you persevere and we just constantly did,” Christensen said. “There’s a whole bunch of times a bunch of kids could’ve said ‘Heck with this, this sucks, this is getting old.’ We focused on this one and every difficult challenge we overcame. That’s really fun, it’s fulfilling and rewarding, especially to see the smiles on the kids’ faces.”