By Gary Thomas

The highly-talented Reeltown Rebels rolled into Glenn Daniel Stadium with their 11-1, No. 3 ranked 2A football team Friday, and completely destroyed the home-standing Luverne Tigers, 57-14 in the second round of AHSAA playoffs. Coming off of a thrilling 23-19 first-round win over the JU Blacksher team, the Tigers had hopes of pulling off a high upset over the Rebels, but this would not be the case.

After receiving the opening kickoff to start the game, the Tiger offense moved the ball out to midfield, but were forced to punt. From there, the Rebels recorded their first score of the game when quarterback Sam Biden ran 27 yards to give the visitors an 8 to 0 lead with 9:22 in the first quarter.

Again the Rebel defense stood strong and forced a Tiger punt. This time, Ty Roberts galloped 16 yards to give Reeltown a 14-0 lead. The Tigers punted the ball down to the Rebels’ 11-yard line. From there, the Rebels slowly marched 89 yards in 15 plays for their third touchdown in the game to build a 22-point lead. They went on to score two more touchdowns in the second quarter to go into halftime leading 36 to 0.

By the fourth quarter the Tigers were running behind 57 points when Elliot Harris scored two touchdowns. The final score read Reeltown 57, Laverne 14.

Reeltown amassed 537 yards for their offense, while the defense held the Tigers to 179 total yards. The Tigers concluded their 2024 gridiron season at 6-and-6. All six losses were to highly ranked teams.

The rebels will continue their drive into the third round of playoffs as they host the 12-and-0 second-ranked Cottonwood Bears this Friday.