VERMILLION — History was on full display on Friday.

The Pierre Governors etched their name in state football championship lore at the DakotaDome, winning their seventh straight Class 11AA state championship. The 35-7 win over Yankton broke the state record set by West Central, which won six straight Class 11A titles from 2000-05. 

“I dont think it’s kicked in yet,” Pierre senior Trey Lewis said. “It is the seventh one, but all of them are very special. This one is making history. I think it just makes it a tad more special than the others.”

The historic moment was still setting in for Pierre, which finished 11-1 and won its eighth state championship since 2013. 

“No I can’t,” Pierre senior Cade Kaiser said, when asked if seven in a row had set in yet. “It was a long day, but just the thought that it could be seven in a row, it is just insane to think.”

Pierre’s latest state championship felt much like previous ones. The Governors (11-1) used big scoring plays, including a record-setting 99-yard pass play, and suffocated Yankton (10-2) on defense. 

Lewis finished with 102 rushing yards on 23 carries and scored two touchdowns. Jett Zabel and Kaiser split quarterback reps, combining for 185 yards passing and three touchdowns. Kaiser caught one pass for 99 yards and a touchdown. Zabel caught three passes for 29 yards and a touchdown. Kaiser also added 66 rushing yards. 

The teams played to a 0-0 tie early on, but Pierre used a special teams play to kick off the party. Yankton bobbled a punt return and Pierre pounced on it at midfield. 

“That was huge,” Pierre coach Steve Steele said. “It was just basically a 50-yard gain or a 40-yard gain for us when we were just backed up. So that kind of gave us a redo. That’s why we took the ball. We wanted to try to get ahead and that kind of gave us a redo to try and do that.” 

Pierre capitalized. Lewis scored his first touchdown with a spinning and juking seven-yard touchdown run with 29 seconds left in the first quarter. 

Zabel and Kaiser then put their names in the record books. The Bucks pinned the Governors deep on a punt, and false start moved them back to the one-yard line.

Zabel, a southpaw, tossed a pass to Kaiser and he corralled it in front of a Yankton defender. Then he was off to the races for a 99-yard touchdown play. It broke the record set in 2022, by Pierre’s Lincoln Kienholz to Jack Merkwan’s 92-yard touchdown. 

“We’ve been waiting all year to do it and we finally did it and it honestly worked,” Zabel said. “Good protection. Good route by Cade. So overall a good play.” 

Kaiser, who will play wide receiver at Northern State, had helped carry a bulk of the quarterback snaps this year. But showed off his trusty hands on the play. 

“I am just glad my hands still work,” he said. “It was insane.”

Lewis punched in another touchdown in the third quarter, pushing the lead to 21-0. The Governors got the ball back late in the second quarter and added another score, a Kaiser to George Stalley touchdown toss. 

After its 28-0 halftime lead, Pierre’s Spencer Easland intercepted Yankton’s Lucas Kampshoff. The Kaiser to Zabel connection struck again, and Pierre went ahead 35-0. 

Yankton scored its lone touchdown in the fourth quarter, on a Kampshoff to Carson Ness touchdown strike. 

Kampshoff finished with 171 passing yards on 17 of 30 attempts and was intercepted three times. The Bucks managed just 70 rushing yards on 21 carries. 

“Our defense helped our offense,” Lewis said. “Our offense helped our defense. We just got our guys off the field and we just kept building off of each other.”

For Pierre, it was another building block for the budding football powerhouse. The Governor faithful again packed the DakotaDome stands and were rewarded with another state title. 

“It just feels amazing we were able to bring this home and back to Pierre for this community and this community alone,” Kaiser said.