The first play of the fourth quarter felt all too parallel with how the whole of Week 1 had gone for the Battle Creek offense.
Tegan Thompson modeled a hitch before blowing by his Valentine cornerback covering his route. He was a full pace-and-a-half in front of his man when quarterback Tyan Thompson’s ball sailed through the air.
The spiral fell harmlessly to the turf and just out of reach, modeling in a way the third-quarter pass that might have broken the zero of the Braves’ side of its home scoreboard a week earlier.
Teams might have shut down after a play like that, no matter the score. Battle Creek, in the midst of a must-have series down 26-13 at the start of the final quarter, bounced back that same series with the freshman wideout recording his second receiving touchdown of the game in another win of one-on-one coverage.
It was the first of three fourth-quarter touchdown drives to score 18 unanswered points and beat the Badgers 32-26 on the road, the Braves first leading the game with just 16.2 seconds to go on the clinching four-yard Hunter Kruse rushing score that also gave the Braves their first 30-plus point performance since November of 2024.
Tyan Thompson, shouldering a tough shutout loss the week before, bounced up to tip away the final hail mary pass of the game and jumped in the air, waving his hands as much as he had when Kruse crossed the scoring plane to make the comeback complete.
The starting Braves quarterback was enjoying a more comfortable day of passing, completing 13-25 attempts for 255 yards and three scores.. Two of those were reeled in by the freshman Tegan Thompson, who ended his second varsity game with his first career five catches, 111 yards and those aforementioned two scores.
The first of those scoring connections gave Battle Creek its first points of the new season. Pristine route running by Braylen Witzel on his slant route helped the freshman Thompson gain an extra half-step on his corner and go. The ball sailed right into his hands as his stride carried him over the goal line, the 35-yard Thompson to Thompson strike making the score 12-7 with 3:11 remaining in the half.
Valentine executed on its subsequent twominute drill drive to make it 18-7 at the half, but Battle Creek answered quickly in its opening drive of the third quarter.
On a play action pasing play with four different routes running from the center to the right side of the field, Kruse emerged along the visitor sideline. The pass made it by the only safety in the area, and Kruse went untouched 59 yards into the endzone with his only catch of the night.
The Badgers responded with its first drive of the third quarter too, and the Braves were held at a 26-13 deadlock up until the fourth quarter.
The Braves converted two fourth downs on the drive that made it just a one-score contest. The defense kept the Badgers at bay to get the ball back with 5:46 left in the game.
That drive had its own challenges, but the Braves again answers on their own miscues. A penalty forcing a first and 20 from the Valentine 33 led to a gutsy on-field play. Tyan Thompson hit Tre Higby on a quick slant, but one sophomore pitched the ball to another, and Barrett Koehler moved the chains on a drive concluded with a quarterback sneak score to tie it up.
Yet the time on the clock first played an advantage for Valentine, who began marching downfield to try its hand at winning the ballgame first. Tegan Thompson then recorded his biggest catch of the game, stealing away a third-and-ten screen pass and rolling down to the grass with the ball and with 1:24 seconds on the clock.
A 43-yard fullback run by Koehler set up the go-ahead score.
Battle Creek (1-1) prepares now for a home date with Bishop Neumann (2-0). The two teams met last in the 2024 state semifinals, which the Cavaliers won 6-0.
Friday, September 4
Battle Creek 0 7 7 18 — 32 Valentine 6 12 8 0 — 26 PASSING: Tyan Thompson 15-23 255 3 0 RUSHING: Tre Higby 1 5, Tyan Thompson 6 9 1, Hunter Kruse 23 107 1, Barrett Koehler 6 60. Totals: 36 181 2.
RECEIVING: Tre Higby 2 18, Tegan Thompson 5 111 2, Breylin Witzel 3 19, Kamden Showalter 2 17, Hunter Kruse 1 59 1, Barrett Koehler 2 32. Totals: 15 256 3.
Tackles: Tre Higby 7, Tyan Thompson 4, Tegan Thompson 1, Kamden Showalter 3, Kason Kemp 1, Ashton Kuchar 8, Kyler Jeffrey 2, Hunter Kruse 8, Barrett Koehler 2, Joshua Otis 1, Rilee Sellin 5, Levi Mahlin 2, Tommie Wemhoff 7. Totals 51.
