Viking’s losing streak continues at Mondovi

MONDOVI — The woes continue for the Colfax football team as they dropped their seventh game in a row, by way of a shut out no less, when they lost 22-0 to the Mondovi Buffaloes last Friday night Oct. 12.

Although the defense came up with their share of big plays, the offense was stagnant yet again as their two biggest pass completions of the game came in the first quarter but didn’t lead to any points. On the first play from scrimmage, Dillon Lloyd connected with Cody Zivcic for 20 yards but the Vikings had to punt on fourth down. Lloyd’s punt pinned the Buffaloes on their own five yard line, but their pounding runners moved it the length of the field in eight plays and Nick Van Vleet ran it in from a yard out and Colter Dziekan added a two point run for an 8-0 lead. On the Viking’s next possession, Lloyd found Ethin Kiekhafer one on one against a smaller defender and connected with him for a 22 yard pass play, but again the drive stalled.

Mondovi moved ahead 14-0 in the second quarter when Ian Scott scored from three yards out, but the conversion run was stuffed by Trevor Secraw, who perhaps had his best game of the season as he was involved with 14 (or more) tackles. The Vikings failed to gain any ground on their turn with the ball, but after punting it away, the defense stood tall and forced a Buffalo punt which went almost 60 yards, pinning Colfax on their own one yard line.Unlike last week, in their game against Stephenson when they were nailed for a safety in the same situation, this time they dug themselves out with help by a pass interference call on Mondovi and a 17 yard Lloyd to Kiekhafer pass completion. A four yard run by Jeremiah Wait was all they could add on and they punted yet again. Colfax took control of the line and stopped the Mondovi passing game when they forced two incomplete passes and Logan Sikora stuffed a receiver for a short gain, giving Colfax the ball back with eight seconds left in the half. Lloyd was sacked and lost the ball on a fumble, but Michael Hover picked off the last second Mondovi pass in the end zone to end the threat.

The Buffaloes took the second half kickoff at their own 35 and used exactly half of the quarter to move the ball down field in 12 plays with Van Vleet adding another score from five yards out and Dziekan ran in the two point conversion for a 22-0 lead. That was it for the scoring though as Colfax forced Mondovi to turn the ball over on downs three times with a punt in between those possessions. Kiekhafer was involved with five tackles, including two for lost yardage while Secraw came up with back to back tackles more then once. Sawyer DeMoe, Wait and Hover all broke up pass attempts and Devon Utpadel, Devon Rice and Ben Kragness all got in the action with some big tackles themselves.

Colfax had their longest run of the game late in the fourth quarter when Noah Pretasky broke free for a 59 yard scoot down the left sideline to the Mondovi 34 and they got as far as the 20 but a Lloyd interception ended their chance of putting some points up with just over two minutes left.

“After we gave up the early scores, our defense was pretty solid,” Colfax coach Mark Maloney said. “We held them to just three for 12 on third down conversions and three for seven on fourth down. And our offense dug themselves out of a hole when we were on our own one yard line. We had some nice blocks to get us some breathing room. We just couldn’t finish off any drives.”

Colfax finished with 97 rushing yards with Pretasky picking up 82 of them on 12 attempts while Wait added 17 on six carries. Lloyd was four of 15 passing as Kiekhafer was his favorite target again with three catches for 40 yards and Zivcic caught the other one.

Colfax will end the season with a game against Chippewa Falls McDonell Central this Friday night at Dorais Field in Chippewa.Falls.

“We had a chance to play an extra game and this will allow our seniors to finish off their high school careers on a nice field with artificial turf. It will also allow some of our younger kids to see some varsity action so they will know what to expect next year. It should be a real competitive game and happens to be on my old stomping grounds where I was an assistant coach for many years,” he added.