BRIDGEWATER — It was more of the same for the Winner Warriors.

The Class 11B No. 1 Warriors rushed for 296 yards and pitched their third consecutive shutout, a 36-0 win over Class 11B No. 2 Bridgewater-Emery/Ethan on Friday night. 

“They had one nice drive on us, but we just didn’t let it get to us and we stayed steady and did what we needed to do,” Winner senior quarterback/defensive back Blake Volmer said. 

Entering the contest, the perennial powers were two of five undefeated teams remaining in Class 11B. It was BEE’s first time being shutout since Winner blanked it 44-0 on Aug. 27, 2021, a string of 16 straight games. 

“They don’t lose here very often and much less get shutout,” Winner coach Trent Olson said. “That’s not really our goal to shut anybody out, but I thought our defense played tremendously well. They didn’t really even threaten much in the game. We were able to kind of control the game defensively and it kind of let us figure it out offensively.”

The Warriors (6-0) rushed the ball 38 times on offense and again used a stable of running backs to gash their opponents. Aiden Barfuss rushed for 110 yards on 16 carries and scored two touchdowns. Blake Volmer added two rushing touchdowns and 64 rushing yards. Jack Peters (43 yards), Karson Keiser (42 yards) and Riley Orel (20 yards) added to the rushing attack. 

“It’s kind of been a big three of Aiden, Riley Orel, Jack Peters,” Olson said. “But I thought Blake Volmer had a great night running it. Karson Keiser came off the bench in a tight game in the first half and he had two or three really big runs. So really it was five guys getting a lot of carries and doing a lot of stuff.” 

Winner set the tone on its opening drive, chewing up close to four minutes off the clock and using eight running plays to punch it in. Barfuss capped off the drive with a three-yard touchdown plunge. 

“They were doing things defensively I’ve never seen BEE do and that’s not what we practiced all week because they always do the same thing against us,” Olson said. “They came out with something different, but the kids did a nice job of adjusting early. Whenever you score that first touchdown, it takes a little pressure off and you are kind of in control of things.”

The Seahawks (5-1) recovered a fumble on Winner’s second drive, but couldn’t capitalize on it. Barfuss added a 12-yard touchdown run in the second quarter and the score stayed at 14-0 until halftime.

In the third quarter, Blake Volmer rushed for a touchdown and hit Ethan Bartels for an eight-yard touchdown strike. Volmer tacked on a 19-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter.