ELKTON — The third time’s the charm for the Elks.

No. 2 Elkton-Lake Benton clipped Parkston, 14-8, in the Class 9AA semifinals, advancing to its first state football championship game since 2006. 

The Elks (10-1) were on the doorstep of the DakotaDome in two of the last three seasons losing to Parkston (2022) and Hamlin (2024) in the semifinals, but finally got over the hump in 2025.

“This is an emotional one,” senior quarterback Colt Beck said. “Me and the seniors, this is our third time coming here, it’s just been in our head that we need to get over the hump and we did that. We’re really excited.”

To start the fourth quarter of a bruising 9AA semifinal, the Elks were back on its heels facing a two-point deficit. Needing a stop, ELB jarred a Gage Reichert carry loose, recovering it inside Trojan (9-2) territory and suddenly the momentum shifted back with the Elks.

Three plays later the Elks were behind the sticks with a third and 32 but were able to convert thanks to a roughing the passer penalty on Beck.

Later in the drive, Beck carried the ball five consecutive times, falling into the end zone on the fifth straight rush for the touchdown and the lead with 3:30 to play.

“We discussed as coaches to not overthink it, just give our best player the ball and let him work for us,” ELB head coach Kaleb Haas said. “The offensive line worked really hard tonight, Parkston has a great team, they were giving us a ton of troubles on offense and we were able to make enough holes and get enough yards to seal the game there.”

“I was gassed but we’ve been preaching ‘five more’ this whole year,” Beck said. “We ended up five yards short against Hamlin last year and we’re down there on the five-yard line again so that was all that was going through my head and it just drove me into the end zone.”

On the ensuing drive the Elks defense locked down the Parkston offense, forcing a turnover on downs for the third consecutive time before running out the clock for the win.

“Those (turnovers) are big time,” Beck said. “That one last drive at the half, that sucks to give that one up but I felt like we really buckled down when we needed to and got stops when we needed to.”

The Elks broke a scoreless tie on the first play of the second quarter with an 85-yard house call from Beck.

After a Parkston turnover on downs and an Elks punt, the Trojans managed a methodical 88-yard drive eating up most of the second quarter, scoring the equalizer on a 1-yard touchdown run from Mason Jervik. The junior running back gave Parkston the lead on the 2-pt try, completing a pass to Jaxon Leischner for the halftime lead.

The Elks defense  jumped on a loose football to begin the third quarter but couldn’t capitalize after Beck tossed his second interception of the game.

A second Parkston fumble of the half set up the go-ahead and game-winning touchdown from Beck later in the fourth quarter. Against a stout Parkston defense, the Elks had to take advantage of the short field when they got it.

“That 56 (Gage Jodozi) is a really good linebacker, the Jervik kid is really fast, we just had to prepare for them,” Beck said of the Trojan defense. “Their D-tackles didn’t line up exactly how we thought they would so at halftime we had to make a few adjustments.”

The Elks are running to the DakotaDome next Thursday, Nov. 13 at 7 p.m. to take on No. 1 Freeman/Marion/Freeman Academy. ELB suffered its only loss of the season to the Phoenix on Sept. 5, a 42-28 loss in Freeman.

“It feels really good, it feels really good,” Haas said. “Our kids have put in all the work and they’ve earned this moment but we know we didn’t just put the work in to make it, we put it in to go win one so we’ve got some work left to do.”

“I’m super excited, I’m going to let this feel good tonight,” Beck said. “I’m excited to play them again. They’re a really good team, they got a really good quarterback, they’re just really good all-around, I’m just happy to play against them.”