Skip to content

Mounders find a way to earn fifth win

DOVER-EYOTA, MN — It wasn’t a pretty game, and in fact it was downright ugly, according to Elk Mound coach Dan Pedersen, but despite committing six turnovers, the Mounders came home from Minnesota with a 34-21 win over the combined schools Dover and Eyota last Friday night. The win leaves the Mounders with a 5-0 record, 3-0 in conference play as they head to Colfax this week.

Three fumbles and three interceptions usually don’t result in many wins for a team, but Elk Mound had enough offense to score three times in the second quarter. They went up 14-0 on a Jordan Klemp 57 yard scamper and a 39 yard TD pass from Nick Heit to Dakota Tarnow as Ryan Mueller booted both extra point kicks. They went on another long drive with Klemp taking the ball down to the four yard line but a D-E Eagle picked off Heit’s pass and took it to the house for a 94 yard touchdown. With 27 seconds left in the half, Klemp found his way to the endzone from 17 yards out and Mueller’s kick put the score at 21-6 at the half.

Elk Mound’s leading receiver for the game, Nate Mack snared a 32 yard pass from Heit for a score in the third quarter and Mueller’s kick made it 28-6 before D-E recovered a fumble and went on a long drive to score on a pass play with 16 seconds left in the quarter. The Eagles took advantage of recovering another Mounder fumble in the fourth quarter and drove down field for another score on a 13 yard passing play, bringing the score to 28-21 for the Mounders. But Will Miller crossed the goaline on a one yard run for six points with 6:25 left. Mueller missed the final kick but the Mounder’s finally put things together to hold on for the win.

“We pretty much stopped ourselves on a lot of nice drives,” Pedersen said. “Our defense was not real crisp and we didn’t play very physical, especially the first half. We have to get back to fundamentals this week and work on taking care of the ball. We were fortunate to win this game with the mistakes we had. We head to our big rival Colfax next week, and one thing I have learned in all my years of coaching is, records don’t mean a thing when you play a rival team in your conference,” he added.

Despite the three interceptions, Heit still had a pretty good game, completing 17 of 29 passes for 235 yards and two touchdowns. Mack collected eight of those passes for 99 yards, Tarnow caught four for 72 yards and Adam Gottschalk snagged four for 57 yards. Klemp rushed for 204 yards on 26 carries to lead the ground game.

According to the Wissports Coaches Poll, Elk Mound is ranked sixth in the state in Division 5 this week.