WOLSEY —The Wolsey-Wessington Warbirds, who finished as the top-ranked team in the Class 9AA South Dakota Media Poll, is one of three teams remaining in the division’s postseason with an unblemished record.
The Warbirds, who are 9-0, and Arlington/Lake Preston, which is also 9-0, both finished with 46.500 power points.
However, Wolsey-Wessington earned the top seed heading into the quarterfinals on a tiebreaker, which was determined by the average power points of each team’s opponents.
With the top seed, the Warbirds earned the right to host eighth-seeded Irene-Wakonda, which is 7-2 following a 51-0 victory against Tripp-Delmont/Armour/Andes Central/Dakota Christian in the opening round. The game is slated for 7 p.m. today in Wolsey.
It’s going to be nice to be able to play at home in the playoffs this season,” said Warbirds coach Gordon Hooks about the prospect of being at home. “I don‘t think it will have anything to do with the game, but it is nice to not have to travel.”
In the other 9AA quarterfinal matchups, second-seeded Arlington/Lake Preston will host No. 7 Kimball/White Lake (6-3) at 7 p.m. today in Arlington; third-seeded Garretson, which is also 9-0, will host No. 6 Webster Area (7-2) at 7 p.m. today; and fourth-seeded Bon Homme, which is 8-1, will host No. 5 Gregory (7-2) at 7 p.m. today in Tyndall.
Wolsey-Wessington owns wins this season against three of the eight teams in the quarterfinals. The Warbirds defeated Bon Homme 38-36 on Aug. 24 in Wolsey; inked a 42-14 win against Kimball/White Lake on Sept. 21 in Kimball; and dispatched Gregory 34-13 to close the regular season on Oct. 5 in Wolsey.
Irene-Wakonda, which finished the regular season as the third seeded in Region 3, got off to a 4-0 start this season. The Eagles then suffered back-to-back losses to Class 9A teams Howard and Canistota/Freeman, before closing the year with two more victories.

“We’re going to need to stop Irene-Wakonda’s quarterback Trey King while we are on defense,” Hooks said.
King, a 6-foot, 2-inch, 200-pounder has been a dual threat for the Eagles this season. He’s thrown for 2,685 yards and 37 touchdowns and only five interceptions, as he is 124-183 through the airwaves. When he drops back, his favorite target is 6-0, 165 pound senior Brannon McDonald, who has 46 receptions for 1,064 yards and 12 scores.
King has also run the ball 113 times, for 1,248 yards and 17 touchdowns.
Hooks said that the Warbirds will need to take care of the ball, make sure they pick up the Eagles’ blitz and just play their game.
That game involves a solid running attack, keyed by the one-two punch of Lynden Williams and DeVante Luellman.
Williams is a 6-1, 195-lb senior, who has rushed for 1,594 yards on only 87 carries, for a gaudy 18-yard-per carry average, with 12 touchdowns. WIlliams also has 505 receiving yards, for a total of just short of 2,100 all-purpose yards.
Luellman, a 5-8, 190 pound senior, has 1,392 yards on the ground, on 83 carries, and has hit paydirt 20 times for Wolsey-Wessington. Senior backs Diedrich Offt (43 carries for 304 yards) and Mark Hamilton (18-360) have the ability to break the long play and keep defenses honest by giving quarterback Skylar Zomer other options.
Zomer has run 42 times for 377 yards and has completed 49 passes in 78 attempts for 734 yards and four touchdowns. The passing game has not been the focus for the Warbirds, as they haven’t needed it much, since they have amassed more than 4,600 yards on the ground this season.
“I expect that we will have an exciting game,” Hooks said.
The winner of tonight’s game between Wolsey-Wessington and Irene-Wakonda will meet the winner of the Bon Homme and Gregory game in the semifinals on Nov. 2.
The other semi-final matchup on Nov. 2 will pit the winner of the Arlington/Lake Preston and Kimball/White Lake game against the winner of the Garretson and Webster Area game.
The Class 9AA championship game is slated for 1 p.m. on Nov. 8 at the DakotaDome on the University of South Dakota campus in Vermillion.