Edmunds County Tribune -

You can't say that the high school fall sports teams in our neck of the woods didn't have a solid schedule.

Ipswich/EC faced and was defeated by Kimball/White Lake during the regular season and now that team will be in the Class 9AA playoffs' championship game with an 8-3 mark against Bon Homme (10-1). That confrontation in the Dome at Vermilion starts at 1 p.m. on Thursday.

But before that, the entire weekend in the Dome will kick off with a 10 a.m. Thursday 9A game and that's the class that Ipswich/Edmunds Central was in this year. And the Tigers earned a playoff opportunity, losing in the first round to Canistota/Freeman (now 10-1), which then advanced all the way to a Dome appearance versus Howard (8-3). That latter record might be a little deceptive, though, because Howard thrives on good old-fashion defense, which can be somewhat of a rarity in the nine-man ranks. And Howard took out a Lake Region Conference member Warner by a narrow 8-7 verdict and then held off the defending champion 9A champs Britton-Hecla by a 12-8 verdict last Friday.

There are just those two 9-man games on Thursday with a Class 11A clash set for Thursday evening at 7:30 p.m. between Tea Area (10-1) and Dell Rapids (7-4).

Friday morning will feature the remaining 9-man title game beginning at 10 a.m. and that's in the smallest class -- 9B. And something has got to give here, because both teams are undefeated at 11-0. Sully Buttes from the Yellowstone Trail Conference secured its Dome trip with a 48-14 win over LRC member Faulkton Area, coached by IHS grad Shayne Geditz and the Chargers' opponent will be Colome, which rolled up 74 points last Friday. This Friday's next game (11B) will kick off at 1 p.m. with 10-1 Bridgewater-Emery/Ethan (10-1) vs. Sioux Falls Christian (9-2). The evening session on Friday will feature a 7:30 p.m. confrontation in the 11AA ranks with Pierre T.F. Riggs (9-2) vs. Huron (6-5).

And a Saturday 11AAA game at 7:30 p.m. between Brandon Valley (9-2) and Sioux Falls Washington (9-2) will wrap things up for 2018.

Meanwhile, there were three LRC volleyball teams that played on Tuesday with a trip to the State B at stake. They were Northwestern Area, Warner and Faulkton. And Sully Buttes from the YTC is the remaining area Class B girls' volleyball team that played on Tuesday.