Fifth-rated Aberdeen Central relied on a tried-and-true recipe for success Friday night – Karson Carda eating up yards and clock on offense and the defense doubling down in the second half.

The end result was a convincing 20-3 Eastern South Dakota Conference football win over No. 4 Brookings at Golden Eagles Field, marking Central’s fourth-straight win following an 0-3 start to the year.

After closing the first half with nearly as many turnovers (four) as points (six), Central allowed Brookings just one possession in the third quarter, forced a 3-and-out on the Bobcats’ first possession of the fourth quarter, and generally made itself a nuisance on defense for the entire second half.

“The defense played great,” said Central coach Justin Briese. “They’ve been playing great for quite a few weeks now. They do a great job of getting third-down stops and getting turnovers, being physical and putting them in third-and-long situations. The defense does a great job all-around. Can’t say enough about them.”

In fact, the Golden Eagle defense held Brookings under 100 yards of total offense and sacked Bobcat quarterback Justin Cofell seven times, five of which came in the second half. Cofell finished the game 13-for-34 for 90 yards and an interception, but was just 2 for his final 14 attempts in the game.

Senior Aiden Heimann was a big piece of that final stretch, batting away some deep pass attempts and then picking off Cofell’s final pass of the night.

“It feels great,” Briese said. “We had a rough start, but to continue to come out and grow as a team and play together as a team, that’s really what we’re doing. We played a complete, physical four quarters.”

Meanwhile, Central’s offense stumbled a bit out of the gates. The Golden Eagles gave up three interceptions and a fumble in the first two quarters, but still managed to take a 6-3 lead into the locker room thanks to Drew Salfrank’s 35-yard touchdown run off a direct snap in the first quarter.

Brookings’ lone points came after Ethan Houtman picked off a Dustin Hermansen pass and returned it 34 yards deep into Golden Eagle territory. The Central defense, however, was able to hold the Bobcats to a field goal in the red zone.

The Golden Eagles then turned to Carda who ate up yardage in chunks in the second half.

“We had a touch stretch at the beginning of the season,” Carda said. “I think that put a chip on all of our shoulders. Everyone thought we were just going to be a pushover. That drove us to be a better team overall.”

Carda finished with 28 carries for 180 yards in the game and averaged 7.8 yards per carry in the second half, including touchdown runs of 17 and 20 yards.

“He runs hard,” Briese said. “He’ll be the first to admit that his O-line does a great job. One of those touchdowns he ran, he didn’t get touched by anybody. He was looking for contact, and there was nobody to hit. The offensive line does a great job of moving bodies and making things easy for him sometimes.”

Hermansen was 6-for-11 for 50 yards. Three of those completions went to Carda for 10 yards and two others to Salfrank for 26 yards. Salfrank also had seven carries for 66 yards.

Brookings is now 4-3 on the year after back-to-back losses to Yankton and Central. The Golden Eagles head to Yankton next Friday.

“It feels great,” Carda said of the win. “I know we’re going to celebrate this, but we’ve got to move on to next week and stay focused.”

Brookings 0 3 0 0 – 3

Aberdeen Central 6 0 0 14 – 20

First Quarter

AC – Drew Salfrank 35 run (kick failed), 5:35

Second Quarter

BRK – Jared Erickson 28 field goal, 5:33.

Fourth Quarter

AC – Karson Carda 13 run (Tayden Brownson kick), 11:17.

AC – Carda 20 run (Brownson kick), 7:18.

OFFENSE: Brookings rushing 25-7 (Israel Caldron 12-32, Justin Cofell 10- -37, Tyson Brandt 3-12), passing 13-34-1 for 90 yards (Cofell 13-34-1 for 90), receiving (Brandt 8-46, Jackson Hoffmann 1-20); Aberdeen Central rushing 45-263 (Carda 28-180, Salfrank 7-66), passing 6-11-3 for 50 yards (Dustin Hermansen 6-11-3 for 50), receiving (Carda 3-10, Salfrank 2-26, Cooper Eisenbiesz 1-14).