Mounders’ football slips to 0-2 after home loss to St. Croix Central

By Cara L. Dempski

ELK MOUND — The Mounders have found themselves in a position they have not been in for a couple years.

Two weeks into the 2017 prep football season, and Dave Lew’s Elk Mound squad has yet to win a football game. Before Mounder fans start to worry too much, the losses were an excellent learning experience for the team.

“I wanted them to have a tough schedule,” Lew explained after the game.

The Mounders lost their home opener last Friday, August 25 to the St. Croix Central Panthers 42-7. The lopsided score might be worrisome to a lot of fans until they take into consideration the fact that SCC brought back a substantial portion of last year’s Division 4 state championship team, which is a division higher than Elk Mound plays in.

Despite the loss, the game was good preparation for when the Mounders head to Glenwood City later this week to take on the Hilltoppers in the Dunn-St. Croix opener for both squads.

Central got on the scoreboard first with a three-yard run from Ryan Larson at the 4:26 mark of the first quarter and a point-after kick courtesy of Derek Myer for a 7-0 lead over the home team.

The Mounders responded.

Elk Mound capitalized on a well-caught kickoff and 85-yard scoring return from Ben Lambele to put the Mounders on the board the very next play. Gaelen Young’s kick was good and knotted the game up at seven with 4:19 left to play in the opening quarter.

Unfortunately, that was all the scoring Elk Mound would muster.

St. Croix Central controlled much of the remainder of the contest as it went on a 35-0 scoring run. It was not until late in the fourth quarter, that Elk Mound was again able to put toghether  a concerted drive toward the end zone.

St. Croix Central scored three times in the second frame with touchdowns runs of a yard and 32-yards by Keagan Berg and Ryan Larson respectively and a 79-yard scoring pass from Panthers’ quarterback Colin Nelson to Austin Kopacz – Central’s only completion in the game.

The Panthers added  a rushing touchdown in each of the final two quarters – a four-yard keeper by Nelson in the third quarter and a two-yard push by George Vondriska in the fourth. 

For the second week in a row, the Mounders spent a good amount of time in the red zone, but had difficulty getting off passes and were stuffed for losses each time they started to heat up. 

The game started to turn around for Elk Mound after quarterback Dylan Black took some extra time on the sidelines with assistant coach Brandon Powell to discuss different offensive tactics.

Things started to move quickly after that, and the Mounders were on the Central 17-yard line when they realized they were running out of time. Elk Mound could only get another nine yards in the final two minutes of the game, to give the Panthers the win.

The Mounders covered 151 yards on the ground and 33 in the air. Black connected on two of 11 pass attempts, and junior Brady Redwine led the rushing attack with 102 yards.

Blake Rosenthal is credited with the game’s only interception.

Elk Mound, as noted above, will take on the Hilltoppers at Glenwood City September 1 before hosting a non-conference contest against Osseo-Fairchild September 8.

ST. CROIX CENTRAL 45, ELK MOUND 7
St. Croix Central………..7  21  7  7 — 45
Elk Mound………..……..7  0 0 0 — 7

First Quarter
SCC – R. Larson 3-yd. run (D. Myer kick), 4:26; EM – B. Lambele 85-yd. kick return (G. Young kick), 4:19.

Second Quarter
SCC – K. Berg 1-yd. run (D. Myer kick), 11:20; SCC – R. Larson 32-yd. run (D. Myer kick), 4:08; SCC – A. Kopacz 79-yd. pass from C. Nelson (D. Myer kick), 1:28.

Third Quarter
SCC – Nelson 4-yd. run (D. Myer kick), 1:31.

Fourth Quarter
SCC – G. Vondriska 2-yd. run (D. Myer kick), 9:02.

Individual Statistics

Passing (att-comp-yds-int) – SCC (4-1-79-1) – C. Nelson 4-1-79-1; EM (11-2-46-0) – D. Black 11-22-46-0.

Rushing (att-yds) – SCC (49-339) – C. Nelson 12-106, K. Berg 11-42, A. Fischer 8-64, A. Kopacz 2-17, G. Vondriska 2-14, M. Steinmetz 3-10, R. Larson 11-86; EM (28-162) – D. Black 4-16, C. Ward 2-5, B. Lambele 4-14, C. Lee 1-3, B. Todd 1-0, B. Redwine 14-98, W. Muzynski 2-26.

Receiving (comp-yds) – SCC (1-79) – A. Kopacz 1-79; EM (1-32) – T. Brantner 1-32.