AVON — Two years ago, Avon’s dreams of playing in the Class 9B football championships were dashed on the last play of the game against Dell Rapids St. Mary. 

On Friday, behind five rushing touchdowns from Aziah Meyer, the Pirates left no doubt as they defeated De Smet, 46-19.

“It’s unbelievable and I’ve dreamt about this moment since I was in second grade,” Paxton Bierema, Avon senior quarterback said. 

Avon (9-2) advances to Thursday’s 9B championship game where they will take on Faulkton Area (10-1). 

An emotional first-year coach Justin Lukkes talked about the win moments after the game. 

“I’m super proud of these kids and they’ve worked so hard all year long,” he said. “A lot of kids stepped up that didn’t get a lot of playing time last year. I knew we would have a very good team but this is something awesome. I’m from Avon and it’s been 10 years since we’ve gone to the Dome so I’m glad we are going back.” 

Avon jumped out to a 14-0 lead on the strength of touchdown runs of two and five yards from Meyer. A sluggish De Smet offense took a hit early in the second quarter when starting quarterback Britt Carlson went down with a leg injury.

Meyer scored on a five-yard touchdown run with just over five minutes remaining in the half as the Pirates led 22-0. 

The De Smet offense finally got untracked late in the half behind backup quarterback Trace Van Regenmorter. The senior hit Kadyn Fast for a seven-yard touchdown pass with 1:09 remaining until the half. 

Any thoughts of momentum from the De Smet team were quickly squashed as Avon, aided by a 20-yard halfback pass from Meyer to Tyler Tjeerdsma, went up 30-7 at the half after Meyer’s fourth touchdown run of the first half. 

“To win like we did tonight feels great for the seniors,” Bierema said. “We lift together, we play basketball together, we do everything together.” 

Meyer added an 11-yard touchdown run on the first possession of the third quarter. Bierema hit Landon Thury with a 12-yard touchdown pass to round out the scoring for Avon. 

“I thought if we could control the line of scrimmage on offense and defense we would have a good night,” Lukkes said. “We were a little bigger and I figured if we came out and ran hard we would wear them down a bit and I think we did that.”

Lukkes called Avon a football town and said it was nice to get the win in front of the home crowd. 

“Home field was nice but now we just have one more step to go,” he said.