Football season ends on high note

A tough season ended on a high note for the Custer High School football team last Thursday in Pine Ridge, as the Wildcats dominated the Lakota Tech Tatanka 50-0 to close out the 2025 campaign.
“It’s a great way to finish the season on a positive note,” head coach Russ Evans said. “A lot of reps, a lot of good things happened. It’s a combination of everything we have been talking about all season. We stay together, win or lose. We play hard, learn from our mistakes, continue to work hard, continue to get better.”
The Wildcats had a 43-0 lead at halftime before closing out the game via mercy rule early in the third quarter.
“To play a game like this shows there is constant improvement throughout the season,” Evans said.
The Wildcats didn’t have a turnover on offense, and on the defensive side of the ball got three takeaways while also pitching the shutout.
“We can’t ask for a much better scenario other than making the playoffs and competing to go to Vermillion,” Evans said. “It was a good way to finish considering what we’ve been through and the injuries we have had to overcome throughout the season.”
Among the highlights of the game were the 130 yards rushing on only seven carries by senior running back Danny Immormino, an average of 18.6 yards per carry. Included in that was a 63-yard touchdown run.
Immormino’s big game saw him eclipse 1,000 yards for the season. As a team, the Wildcats rushed for 299 yards, including 53 from senior fullback Blaise Arp and 46 from Brady Virtue on a single carry.
“Our running game was going. As a coach, that’s what you dream of,” Evans said. “(The opponent) can’t stop the running game and we sprinkle in a throw to keep the defense honest.”
One of those sprinkled throws was a 70-yard touchdown reception from Virtue.
Quarterback Kawika Johncour, David Lewis and Arp all visited the end zone in the game, and tackles were spread out evenly on defense as all of the Wildcats had a chance to get into the game. Carter Kern picked up the Wildcats’ lone sack of the game.
The Wildcats finish the season at 2-7, having to have played with low numbers and young players that resulted in some big losses to larger teams. Evans said he was proud of the way the Wildcats bounced back from tough situations.
“We kept the message positive throughout the year,” he said. “There were signs and glimpses that we were a good team. The kids stayed together and that’s the thing I’m most proud of. It would have been easy to point fingers, to quit, to give up. These guys didn’t do that.”
The Wildcats lose five seniors—Virtue, Immormino, Logan Olson, Zayden LaPlaca and Arp—but Evans said there are some younger players ready to step into those roles, such as freshman Will Kimball for Virtue at safety and junior Riley Trout at running back for Virtue.
For them—and the rest of the players, for that matter—to be succesful, however, Evans said it’s imperative they get in the weight room and become more of the hammer and less of the nail.
“That’s been the message all along since I got here is we have got to get in the weight room,” he said. “To me that is the cornerstone of every successful program. Get in the weight room, and get in there together. Let’s go together and work together.
“It’s been a fun season with these guys. If we continue to have this kind of team culture, it makes coaching a lot of fun.”