HAYTI — The Elks pulled the plug on the Chargers’ undefeated season.

Class 9AA No. 3 Elkton-Lake Benton rolled past Class 9AA No. 2 Hamlin, 46-14, in a rematch of last season’s state semifinals, a 20-16 Hamlin win.

This time, the Elks closed out the regular season with a signature win over the Chargers behind 46 unanswered points and stout defense throughout.

“It feels really good,” said ELB head coach Kaleb Haas. “Our mentality all offseason and during the season has been ‘five more’, we’ve kind of adopted that as our mantra and the kids played like that tonight, knowing we were five yards short last year.”

The heavyweight bout kicked off with some early fireworks. On its opening drive, the Chargers marched right down the field, punching it in with a 2-yard touchdown from Boden Stevenson, before the Elks responded with a touchdown of their own, a 71-yard house call by quarterback Colt Beck.

“That first drive we gave up a few pop plays and we just came over in the huddle, Haas calmed us down and we really settled in on defense,” Beck said. “Then on offense, we just never gave up.”

With the quick answer, the Elks defense started locking down the Charger offense led by returning all-state quarterback Jackson Wadsworth, forcing six consecutive stops on an offense averaging over 45 points entering Friday’s contest.

“We adjusted a little bit and we knew we were in for a heavyweight fight with these guys so we just settled in,” Haas said. “We knew they were going to swing at us and we were going to swing back, settle into the game and start doing our jobs.”

The next four ELB drives were highlighted by four Beck touchdowns, including three rushing scores and one 20-yard touchdown to Myles Poindexter on a juggling catch in the endzone.

At halftime, the Elks had scored 28 points against a defense that allowed 29 total points through seven games this season.

“It was great,” Haas said of the offense. “Last week in Britton, they were doing a really good job of kind of stifling our run game besides from our big pop plays. So we really stressed to our o-line this week that we need a minimum of 4-5 yards every play and they did a really good job of accomplishing that tonight.”

The second half kicked off with Beck’s fourth rushing score and fifth total touchdown of the game to give the Elks a 28-point lead.

The final two drives were highlighted by two Eliot Erickson touchdown runs of 12 yards and a monster 67-yard scamper to close out the offensive attack.

“We came knowing they were the No. 2 seed in polls and just had fun coming in after what happened last year both times we played them coming up short,” Erickson said. “We had that on our head and just knowing we can go win, that’s good for playoffs. We just got to stay hungry.”

The Elks came in playing with their hair on fire, and the Herd rolled to a big time win, avenging their two losses to Hamlin last season while ending the Chargers 19-game winnning streak dating back to last season, the longest active streak in the state.

“I feel like our kids carried a lot of energy into the game and they let it fuel their play for sure.”

“It was nice to come back here and be in the same spot that it ended last year before we begin our playoff run,” Haas said. “I think the kids now set that bar high for energy and execution and we’ll carry it into the playoffs.”