ONIDA, SD — Sully Buttes stayed ahead of Canistota in the second half Friday night 34-28 to win a Class 9B semifinal playoff game and advance to the state championship game.

After both teams drove the court for most of the game, No. 8 seed Canistota made a key fourth-down defensive stop from its own 20 with 5:37 left, trailing by six points. The Hawks put together a long drive to the Charger 15-yard line, but were stopped on a fourth-and-5, sending Sully Buttes to the DakotaDome.

The Hawks pulled within six points on a 26-yard touchdown run from Easton Miller with 8:54 remaining, one of three touchdowns on the day for the junior receiver. He returned a 10-yard touchdown pass from Wesley Wittler to Gavin Colson with 10:50 left, which put Sully Buttes ahead 34-20.

The two teams traded scores in the first half, with Wesley Wittler running from 6 yards out to score and later hitting Gavin Barber on a 70-yard touchdown pass, while Canistota completed a 50-yard touchdown run from Easton Miller on his first play from scrimmage and Miller then scored on a 4-yard toss from quarterback Brady Scott to tie the game 12-12 after one quarter.

Wittler scored twice in the second quarter on runs of 9 and 46 yards to help the Chargers take a 28-12 halftime advantage. The Hawks responded with 4:51 left in the third quarter on a reverse pass from Blaise Showers to Prayden Acheson on 4th-and-4 to score from 39 yards out and bring Canistota within eight points.

The Hawks finished with 245 total yards, including 156 rushing yards on 34 carries. Miller had 12 carries, 111 yards and two touchdowns, while Scott rushed 15 times for 35 yards and also threw for 50 yards. Acheson was the leading receiver with 42 yards and two catches. Adam Kleinsasser had six tackles for Canistota, while Prayden Acheson had 5 1/2 tackles for the Hawks, who also had five tackles and a sack of Levi Schroeder.

For Sully Buttes, which had 411 yards of offense, Wittler completed 9 passes in 19 days for 220 yards, finding Barber three times for 106 yards. Wittler also rushed 15 times for 104 yards and Barber totaled 51 yards on 11 rushes.

Sully Buttes, which was the No. 5 seed in the bracket, improved to 10-1 and will face No. 2 Faulkton Area at 11 a.m. Thursday in the state title opener in Vermillion. Canistota’s season ends at 7-4.

Marcus Traxler is an associate editor and sports editor for the Mitchell Republic. A past winner of the state’s Outstanding Young Journalist and 2023 South Dakota Sports Editor of the Year, he has been with the newspaper since 2014 and covers a wide variety of topics. A Minnesota native, Traxler can be reached at [email protected].