Photo by Tonya Harrison: Southeast Valley’s Bryce Harrison cuts upfield against Manson NW on Friday in Manson.

MANSON — Southeast Valley head coach Mike Swieter is counting on this year’s Jaguars to be a big-play football team.

He saw plenty of that in a 34-13 road win over traditional early-season rival Manson Northwest Webster on Friday night.

Behind junior quarterbacks Mason Bahr and Casey Hanson, the Jaguars piled up 243 yards through the air and four scoring strikes to take the wind out of a large crowd cheering on the defending Class 1A, District 2 champion Cougars.

“We got going quick, which is what we wanted to see,” Swieter said. “We want to be a big-play team, and we saw some flashes of that.

“We just need to keep working every week.”

SV opened a 20-0 halftime lead, as Bahr and Hanson each lobbed touchdown passes to junior standout Logan Jaeschke from 48 and 8 yards, respectively.

MNW head coach Zach Noffsinger noted the slow start was difficult to overcome.

“We just said ‘Hey guys, we need to get going,'” Noffsinger said. “We were so flat to open the game. We cannot have that.”

The second half looked similar to the 2024 thriller in Gowrie, which MNW won with a last-second hail mary. Junior running back Coy Moline found the end zone from 15 and 6 yards out to cut the deficit to 20-13.

“I knew we could hang with them when we got our offense rolling,” Noffsinger admitted. “But they have plenty of offensive firepower, too, and caught us quickly on a big play in the fourth quarter.”

It was Hanson rolling to his left quickly and hitting junior wide receiver Bryce Harrison, who found the corner and was off the races for a 74-yard score just two plays after the second Moline TD. The Jaguars then put the finishing touches on the season-opening win, recovering a fumbled kick return which Hanson turned in six points hitting Jaeschke from twenty-nine yards out.

“It was good to see us rebound from Manson Northwest Webster’s run in the second half,” Swieter said. “I must give a lot of credit to Coach Noffsinger and his team. They had us reeling for a while.”

Southeast Valley welcomes perennial power Emmetsburg on Friday for its home opener, while MNW travels to Maple Valley for a clash with MVACOU.

SEV MNW

First downs 13 14

Rushes-yds. 22-82 43-186

Passing yds. 243 59

Total yds. 325 245

Return yds. 67 62

Penalties-yds. 7-47 7-40

Fumbles-lost 2-1 4-0

Punts-avg. 6-35.8 6-26

SE Valley 14 6 0 14 — 34

Manson NW 0 0 7 6 — 13

Scoring Summary

Southeast Valley — Jaeschke 48-yard pass from Bahr (kick failed)

SV — Drew Temple 1-yard run (Spencer Peterson kick)

SV — Jaeschke eight-yard pass from Hanson (Peterson kick)

MNW — Moline 15-yard run (Wyatt Lahr kick)

MNW — Moline six-yard run (kick blocked)

SV — Harrison 74-yard pass from Hanson (Peterson kick)

SV — Jaeschke 29-yard pass from Hanson (Peterson kick).

Individual statistics

Rushing — SEV: Temple 9-28; Hanson 7-37; Bahr 5-18; Jaeschke 1-0; MNW: Cameron Wood 8-37; Dawson Marine 2-18; Tegan Thoma 8-38; Moline 17-125; Isaiah Daggett 4-(-21); Jackson McGuire 4-(-1).

Passing — SEV: Bahr 10-18, 129 yds., one touchdown; Hanson 3-5,114 yards, three touchdowns; MNW: Daggett 5-8, two interceptions, 59 yards.

Receiving — SEV: Jaeschke 6-117; Harrison 7-126; MNW: Jack Hoeppner 2-35; Mason Anderson 2-9; Moline 1-15.