By Jon Akre

605 Sports

HURON — Huron’s Jeremy Hofer’s first career interception is one he’ll never forget.

Knotted at 7-7 with just over a minute to play with previously Class 11AA No. 1 Pierre, the Governors were attempting to mount a game-winning drive, until Hofer stepped up in a big way.

The 5-foot-10, 160-pound junior defensive back cut in front of an errant throw from Pierre’s Kaleb Lounsbury, returning it 50 yards for the go-ahead pick-six to beat the Governors, 13-7.

“I was ecstatic,” Hofer said, describing the pick-six. “There’s just not much that you can describe it with. Being able to help your team in that situation. Everybody on our team right now, we’re willing to go to war for each other.”

It was Hofer’s first career interception, and couldn’t have picked a better time to earn it against the perennial football power of Class 11AA.

“Jeremy Hofer did a fantastic job of keying his key and getting into the coverage we wanted to and then seeing him run down the field,” said Huron head football coach Dru Strand. “It’s always special to see those kids that we’re hard on have that success and being in the position to be successful.”

The Governors tried taking advantage of the quick passes throughout the game to try and move the ball. All it took was one right read from Hofer, and he was off to the races.

“Our defensive coordinator Bryce Anderson got us into a really good call and something that we had practiced was to fly down to the flats on these little plays so the call had me going down into the flats,” Hofer said. “Lounsbury kind of underthrew the receiver a little bit so I just came right up to it and it just came right to me. At that point I was like, ‘Well let’s go score this thing, right.’ ”

Following the interception and the mobbing of Hofer by his teammates, the game wasn’t over just yet. Huron’s extra point attempt doinked off the left upright to keep it a six-point game with 1:01 to play. The Govs just needed a touchdown and an extra point to escape Huron with a win.

“Just keep doing your jobs,” Hofer said of the message on the last drive. “That’s something the entire game where we had just been grinding away, keep doing your dobs, keep working hard and that’s pretty much what they told us there too. You cannot let them get back into this game.”

The ensuing Huron kick was returned to the Governor 40-yard line, and after four quick completions by Lounsbury, Pierre sat at the Huron 14-yard line with six seconds left.

Pierre had two shots to get it into the endzone with both plays targeting 6-foot-6, 240-pound all-state tight end Cooper Terwilliger, a major college football prospect. The first fell incomplete short of the endzone before the final pass break-up to seal the win.

“Sometimes you hold your breath or your heart feels like it stops just because they had a couple opportunities where Terwilliger gets his hands on the ball and you never know if he’s going to come down with it cause he’s come down with so many tough catches before as he’s progressed as a player,” Strand said.

Strand says the Tigers’ win was an important one to the program as Huron opens this season playing each of the top-3 ranked teams in the preseason prep media poll. After an opening 41-24 loss to Yankton to start the season, Strand says he could sense the team’s belief in each other going into last Friday’s game.

“We got a pretty tough schedule right away and then going into the Pierre game a lot of our kids believed that they could beat Pierre,” Strand said. “We believed in each other and they just held each other accountable a lot better than what we did in Week 1.”

With a win as big as this one, the Tigers gain a little bit of confidence as they head to No. 2 Tea Area on Friday.

“Coming out these first three weeks and finding a way to beat one of these top-3 teams right out of the gate, just really gives them the opportunity to really be successful and finish out their season how they want to do it,” Strand said.

Between the late game heroics from Hofer and the stout defense from Huron as a whole, the Tigers were able to get the job done.

“I thought our kids came out really well in Week 2 and really did the things we are trying to embrace as a culture here in Huron and finding a way to win the game, no matter what,” Strand said.