Let’s take a peek at South Dakota’s Friday Night Stars: Week 6

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Like every Friday night in South Dakota, we see some players stand above the rest in the performance that they put on and this week is no different. So, let's look at some players who balled out last night under those Friday Night Lights. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='101172' first='Reed' last='Rus'] - RB, Mt. Vernon/Plankinton</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Rus was running up a storm last night and he sure did it well, being a key part in his team's overpowering win over Tri-Valley last night. Rus had a great defense playing on his back last night and he seemed to do the rest on the offensive front with most of the points for his team coming from him. Rus was elite last night and his numbers sure back it up with having 22 carries overall tallying 259 rushing yards and a crazy four touchdowns. He went off for quite a few big runs throughout the game which lead him to get those scores that he had, simply put when he got going, no one was able to bring him down. Without a doubt, he was his team's MVP last night and had his best performance of the year so far. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Shane Veenhof - WR, Madison</span></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>I am more than happy to have a Freshman on this list of players who balled out last and you should check out what Veenhof did last night. Veenhof playing at the varsity level in and of itself is something that should be praised, but he was his team's top wideout last night in a close loss that they had. Veenhof while a bit undersized was a great slot wideout who caught some quick passes and used his speed to do the rest. He racked up 6 total catches with that going for 113 yards in total. Averaging 18.8 yards per catch is something that most receivers would love to have in a game but it is great to see Veenhof do it at this age. He had a touchdown to add on to this and was the focal point of his team's offense last night having the most impact on their offense output. Hopefully, we can see Veenhof do this again and again and this is just one performance of something to come. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Benjamin Swatek - LB/RB, Elk Point-Jefferson </span></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Swatek did a little bit of everything for his team last night and was a crucial part of their win for everything that he did do. On the defense side of the ball, he was all around a solid player for his defense, leading them to hold strong throughout the game. On the stats front he had 6 tackles and 1 TFL but what he did does not show up on the stat sheet at times. He played some great coverage and helped shut down the passing game for the opposing team which allowed his defensive teammates to stuff the run up the middle. On the offense, he was great too, tallying 5 total rushes in the game with that going for 79 yards, and adding a touchdown to round out his offensive output. He played great on both sides of the ball and did just about a little bit of everything this game, something that every team needs to be good, and it was great to see Swatek fill that role. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Gage Gilbert - WR/PR, Harding County/Bison</span></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Gilbert functioned as a speedy and tough weapon to contain in this game and he did that on quite a few fronts as a whole. Gilbert to start played pretty well as a punt returner and every time his defense forced a punt, more often than not he set them up with great field position. This field position set up his team's offense pretty much every time they could have a chance to score and more often than not they did. When he was catching passes he only had 4 total catches but had 132 receiving yards as a whole. When he got the ball in his hands he was not coming down and went off for big gains pretty much every time that he could. Add on two touchdowns and making defensive backs look twice when they see him line up against and Gilbert played great. Averaging a high 33 yards per catch showed how this entire game no matter what he was doing, he was setting his offense up to score any chance that they get. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->