Storm Lake lights up Braves in rivalry rout

A hard to swallow 28-22 loss gave the Braves the trophy in 2009, but Friday night's 46-14 rolling of Cherokee brought the axe back to Storm Lake as the Tornadoes were dominant on offense, defense and special teams in their season opener.

"I'm really pleased. Offensively, defensively, special teams, all around we did a very good job," said Storm Lake head coach Bill McCabe. "We started off a little rough, made some mental mistakes, but all around it was a heck of a ball game."

On a night where they would rumble for over 250 yards, the Tornadoes got the ground game going early on, driving on the Cherokee defense before penalties eventually caused the drives to stall out.

Storm Lake got plenty of opportunities to build up some offensive momentum as a swarming green and white defense held the Braves without a first down and to negative total yardage for the first three quarters.

"They just them them down," said McCabe. "We put a lot of pressure on their quarterback, our d-backs did a good job of covering up. We were there to make plays. They didn't really have anything going, just two drives against our second and third team.

A fumbled snap by Cherokee QB Nate Seliger gave SL the ball in scoring position at the end of the first. After switching ends, SL QB Michael McCabe connected with Connor Richards on a 15-yard completion, setting up McCabe's diving 1-yard run for the 6-0 lead at the 10:30 mark.

Read more of this story in the August 28 Pilot Tribune.

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