Photo by Jake McNeill: Lakeview wide receiver Braylon Breyfogle (3) runs past the defense for a 62-yard touchdown during the third quarter of a Section 4A football tournament quarterfinal game against Lac qui Parle Valley on Tuesday in Cottonwood.

COTTONWOOD — After a two-year hiatus following its run to the 2022 section championship game, the Lakeview football team is back in the postseason win column after earning a 4A quarterfinal win on Tuesday. Hosting the No. 6 Lac qui Parle Valley Eagles, the No. 3 Lakers scored a touchdown on three of their four first-half possessions as they rolled to a 41-0 win.

Lakeview finished its last season with a record of 3-6, but has flipped that number on its head this year as it picked up its sixth win of the season on Tuesday. That shift can largely be attributed to the Lakeview seniors’ leadership trickling down to the underclassmen, Lakeview head coach Scott Hanson said, adding that he feels that the team is full of players that push each other in practice every day and that he was happy to have the seniors go out with a win on their home field.

“I’m just hoping this carries on in the coming years,” Lakeview senior offensive lineman Jackson Staab said. “I just really hope it carries on. People keep on working, and it just gets better and better every year.”

Hanson and Lakeview senior Braylon Breyfogle both emphasized the team’s effort in the weight room as also being big factors in the team’s leap forward this year, and that those offseason efforts have paid dividends.

“One year ago when we lost in the first round of the playoffs, our kids started the next day in the weight room and they’ve been there ever since,” Hanson said. “That’s October, November, December, all the way until this October. They’re in the weight room in the mornings before school. It’s in the mornings in the summer. It’s just the dedication to the weight room and getting faster and stronger.”

Big plays were at the core of the Lakers’ success in the game. Lakeview had four touchdowns of at least 40 yards in the game, including two in the first quarter from Garrett Schafer and Braylon Breyfogle.

Schafer’s touchdown came on the Lakers’ first possession of the game as he worked his way down the left sideline for a 44-yard go-ahead touchdown. On the next drive, Breyfogle broke off a 41-yard run and Schafer caught a pass on the flat to score the 2-point conversion for a 14-0 lead.

The first-quarter touchdown was far from Breyfogle’s only big play of the day. The senior wide receiver scored the first touchdown of the second half on a 44-yard touchdown to bring the score to 26-0, and he shed a pair of tackles before taking a carry to the house for a 62-yard touchdown in the same frame to make the score 34-0 after another Schafer 2-point conversion.

“I’m just telling myself run, baby, run,” Breyfogle said of his house calls. “There’s people chasing me, I’m just running.”

Breyfogle finished the day with four carries for 146 yards and three touchdowns. He was also the lone Lakers with a reception on the day, with quarterback Logan Herrick finding him on one of his four pass attempts.

Beyond Breyfogle, the Lakers’ run game as a whole was working. Lakeview out-rushed Lac qui Parle 396-129 in the game. Chance Kosel took 12 carries for 90 yards, Schafer had 10 attempts for 82 yards and Gage Dimmick took over in the fourth quarter and toted the ball eight times for 53 yards, including an 18-yard third-down conversion run.

“I think it’s just our camaraderie,” Staab said of the team’s success in the trenches. “We work really well together. We’re all big guys, I think that’s what really helps us. We all put a lot of work in over the offseason, and I think that’s really worked and helped a lot.”

Staab stands at 6-foot-3 and 315 pounds, while Cody Helmke brings in another big body to the front lines at 6-foot-4, 250. In addition to Dustin Schlenner and Landyn Listul, standing at 5-foot-11 and 6-foot-flat, respectively, the Lakers also added the 6-2 Jordan Olsen to the line on Tuesday night for his first appearance of the season.

The senior left guard missed the entire regular season after sustaining an injury in the preseason. Still, he was able to make an immediate impact in his senior-year debut as the Lakers dominated the line of scrimmage for a win.

“We’re finally very healthy in our O-line, and we’ve got three good, quality backs in Chance, Braylon and Garrett,” Hanson said. “When you execute those blocks up front and we get those guys to the second level, you can see what they can do.”

Defensively, Staab and Schlenner each also made plays with a sack each. Schlenner also recovered one of three fumbles on the day from the Lakers, the other two being scooped up by Blake Peltier and Tucker Anderson.

Anderson made the fumble recovery that effectively iced the game. Leading late in the fourth quarter, Anderson read an outside run by the Eagles and jumped the pitch to the left side. Anderson dove on the loose ball to give the Lakers possession with under 90 seconds remaining, allowing Lakeview to ice the game with a pair of knees.

The Lakers’ secondary also made big plays in the game, limiting the Eagles to three passing yards on six attempts. Jackson Fernholz completed one of his six attempts for LQPV, while Conner Moseng and Breyfogle each came down with an interception.

Breyfogle’s pick came when he dove forward while jumping a route in the fourth quarter. The turnover set up a Dimmick-heavy drive, in which the Lakers ran the ball and the clock before Beau Laleman punched in a two-yard touchdown for a 41-0 lead.

Leading late in the second half, Chance Kosel converted a third-and-8 with a 13-yard run to keep a Laker drive alive to the LQPV 29-yard line. Lakeview continued to march down the field until a 15-yard touchdown from Kosel brought the score to 29-0.

Schlenner, Helmke and Peltier each made four solo tackles for the Lakers, as well as four assisted tackles for Schlenner and a tackle-for-loss each by Helmke and Peltier.

Lakeview improves to 6-3 on the year with the win and next goes on the road to take on the No. 2 Dawson-Boyd Blackjacks, fresh off a 73-12 win over Yellow Medicine East in its quarterfinal matchup.

“It gives us a lot of motivation to come after them. We’ll get jacked up again and we’ll be ready for them,” Breyfogle said.

When the Lakers and Blackjacks met in the regular season on Oct. 10, the Blackjacks ran away with a 42-15 win in Cottonwood.

Lakeview and Dawson-Boyd’s semifinal matchup is scheduled to kick off in Dawson on Saturday at 3 p.m.

“Our goal every game this year is always to be one-and-oh,” Hanson said. “We want to be one-and-oh each week, and the first round of the playoffs is no different. Now you go to the second round of the playoffs, it’s a short week on a Saturday against a very good football team, and we have to be prepared. We’ll get prepared and we’re excited for Saturday.”