By Rich Winter

605 Sports

VERMILLION — For a second consecutive season the Todd County football team claimed the All-Nations Class A football title. 

The Falcons rushed for 272 yards and rallied around the timely passing of quarterback Chris Elllert, who tossed four touchdown passes to top Winnebago, Nebraska, 28-13.

“This is one of the funnest teams that I’ve ever coached,” Todd County coach Bob Kornely said. Every day they came to work, they worked hard, they were fired up, they hustled and they challenged each other in practice.

Todd County junior Ty Valandra rushed for 169 yards in Saturday’s game. Valandra finished the season with 1,768 and was named the Offensive Most Valuable Player Saturday. He talked about the repeat and how the Falcons (9-0) rallied around one another this season. 

“I put in more work than last year and I trusted my teammates and we all did our part,” Valandra said. “Every day in practice if someone was having a bad day I always challenged them to have the next play mentality and to pick your teammates up when they are falling down”

Despite controlling the football in the first quarter, miscues kept the Todd County offense out of the scoring column. After a fumble recovery from the Winnebago defense, running back Cashus Kearnes scored on a 61-yard touchdown run after sweeping right and turning on the jets for a score.

Known for running the football Todd County dialed up a pair of second-quarter touchdown passes from Chris Ellert to Wakinyan Sa Selwyn and Drake Espinoza. 

Todd County led 14-7 at halftime.

Turnovers felled Winnebago all night and a forced fumble by Jaycob Kornely and recovery from Cayde Valandra led to Ellert finding Sa Selwyn for a 37-yard touchdown and a 22-7 lead with 6:45 remaining in the period.

Late in the period Winnebago’s Antrell Harlan found Kearnes for a 51-yard touchdown for the Indians. The two-point conversion failed and Todd County led 22-13.

Ellert tossed his fourth touchdown pass of the game, an eight-yarder to Teshaun Marshall for the final score. 

“I think this one was a little bit sweeter,” Kornely said “Everything went right last year and this one was tough. Winnebago is a heck of a football team and they made great improvements throughout the year.”