BROOKINGS – Aberdeen Central coach Scott Svendsen had a message for his Golden Eagle football squad as it began its playoff preparations last week.

“This is our revenge tour,” he told them.

Stop one, Brookings and Dana J. Dykehouse Stadium, the very spot where Central’s early-season momentum began to crumble as a 3-0 start turned into an 0-6 finish. And while the Golden Eagles had every logical reason to hang their heads, Svendsen wouldn’t let them.

“We had some games early on that we were fortunate to win, then we hit a streak where it was back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back, just tough opponents every week,” Svendsen said. “I kept telling our guys, if we play a complete ball game, we can beat anyone in the state.”

And they did. Central marched into Brookings as the No. 7 seed Thursday night and marched out with a 42-34 victory over No. 2 Brookings in the quarterfinal round of the Class AA playoffs. The win is the first in postseason play for the Golden Eagles since at least 2013.

It goes down as an upset, of course, a seven-seed upending a two-seed and the defending state champions. But Svendsen, for all his excitement, did not sound surprised by his team’s growth and development since that September loss to the Bobcats.

“If you go back and watch film, we weren’t executing (our blocking schemes) the way we were supposed to,” Svendsen said.

The result was nearly 400 yards of rushing offense alone, more than half of which came on the legs of Karson Carda, who rushed for 248 yards and found paydirt four times in the win. Sam Rohlfs also topped the 100-yard mark on the ground and passed for a pair of touchdowns, as well.

Gaudy numbers, to be sure, but Svendsen pointed to the offensive and defensive lines as the reason for those stat lines.

“They stepped up big tonight,” Svendsen said. “They were leading and challenging each other and challenging guys on the sideline. They made it possible to execute the game plan.”

Central also ate up big chunks of the game clock with long, extended drives, particularly late in the third quarter that kept the ball out of Brookings’ hands. The Golden Eagles also came up with a pair of key turnovers on back-to-back defensive stands near the end of the first half.

“Those were big plays for us,” Svendsen said of those turnovers. “Before the end of half and starting the second half, that’s an important part of the game. Our defense stepped up, and not only did it give us momentum, it gave our kids a belief that we can play with these guys.”

Central’s reward is another stop on its tour of vengeance, as the Golden Eagles head to Pierre next week for the semifinal round of the playoffs. Pierre, the No. 3 seed, was a 38-9 winner over No. 6 Watertown on Thursday.

OFFENSE: Aberdeen Central rushing 46-395 (Karson Carda 34-248, Sam Rohlfs 9-141), passing 3-8-1 for 26 (Rohlfs 3-8-1 for 26), receiving (Alec Voegele 2-20, Jacob Merxbauer 1-6).