Boyceville football pirated at home by Gilman

By Cara L. Dempski

BOYCEVILLE — Bulldogs are known as tough, tenacious creatures with the ability to bite onto quarry and lock their jaws.

Historically, this has given them status as excellent guard dogs in addition to being loyal family pets.

Pirates, on the other hand, are known for the element of surprise, successfully raiding their hapless victims.

The football game that played out on Boyceville’s Evenson Field last Friday, September 1 gave the advantage to the visiting Gilman Pirates, who smashed the Bulldogs with a 59-14 loss. 

 Their second consecutive loss dropped the Bulldogs to 1-2 as they head into Dunn-St. Croix play later this week.

Boyceville senior quarterback Bryce Boda passed for 285 yards, favoring Brendan Sempf and Cooper Boesl as his targets. The Bulldog running game garnered just 20 yards in the game, forming a stunning contrast to the 455 yards Gilman garnered on the ground. The Pirates also threw for 110 yards to finish with 565 yards of total offense compared to the Bulldogs’ 294.

Despite the disparity in final yardage, it was the host Bulldogs that held the advantage after the initial 12 minutes of play.

While Gilman put together a touchdown and conversion run in the first quarter, the Bulldogs took a 14-8 lead into the second quarter after Bryce Boda connected on a 12-yard pass to Jayson Gonzales and a 33-yard pass to Brendan Sempf for the team’s only two touchdowns.

Boyceville took the game’s opening kick and marched the ball 68 yards in 11 plays for the first score capped by the Boda-to-Gonzales scoring pass at 7:42. Boda tacked on the conversion run from eight yards out to give the home team an 8-0 push.

Following an exchange of punts, Gilman scored the equalizer as Tyler Boie scored on an 8-yard run and Zach Person made good on the conversion to knot the game at eight all with 1:15.

The Bulldogs quickly countered with a six-play, 63-yard drive that used just 1:02. Boda found Sempf open on the 33-yard scoring pass with just 13 seconds left in the first quarter. Although the conversion pass fell incomplete, Boyceville held a 14-8 advantage going into the second quarter.

The momentum may have momentarily been in Boyceville’s favor, but Gilman was, unfortunately, just getting warmed up.

The Pirates chalked up another two scoring drives in the second quarter to carry a 24-14 lead into halftime.

Boyceville missed a golden opportunity to score early in the second quarter just after Gilman took its first lead at 16-14 on another Tyler Boie scoring run.

Boda connected on a first-down pass to Brendan Sempf for 84 yards and a first-and-goal a the Pirates two yard line. But an incomplete pass on first down was followed by a false start penalty, two more incompletions and just a 1-yard gain on fourth and goal as the Bulldogs turned the ball over on downs.

The Bulldogs would not get a sniff of the end zone for the remainder of the contest.  

Gilman put another 35 points on the scoreboard in the second half, adding two touchdowns in the third quarter to make the score 38-14, and then scored three more times in the game’s closing 12 minutes to cap the 59-14 victory.

Boyceville never recovered from Gilman’s 51-point splurge over the final three quarters of play.

Boda’s 84-yard pass to Sempf accounted for nearly a third of his 285 yard passing tally as he logged 15 completions on 29 attempts for the two touchdowns. Conner Sempf had five completions out of eight attempts for eight yards and three picks.

Cooper Boesl edged out Brendan Sempf with 122 receiving yards on ten receptions to Brendan Sempf’s three catches for 119 yards. Gonzales recorded 52 yards on six receptions.

Ty Gundlach led the Boyceville ground game, rushing for 13 yards on three tries against the Pirates.

Zach Person led the Pirates ground game as he raided the Bulldogs’ defense for 203 yards for three touchdowns (18, 19 and 36 yards) and five two-point conversions on 18 carries. Kade Kroeplin and quarterback Gabe Gunderson each added a score and finished with 65 and 57 yards respectively. Gunderson also tallied 110 yards passing on an efficient 6-of-9 performance.

The teams combined for six turnovers – three a side. Gilman had a pair of lost fumbles and an interception in the first half and Boyceville was intercepted on its final three drives.

The Bulldogs headed into practice this week with their eyes on their first Dunn-St. Croix match-up this Friday, September 8. They will welcome the Durand Panthers to their home field as they get their conference season underway.

GILMAN 59, BOYCEVILLE 14
Gilman…………………….6  16  14  21 – 59
Boyceville…………….…14    0    0    0 – 14

First quarter

BV – J. Gonzales 12-yd. pass from B. Boda (B. Boda run), 7:42; G – T. Boie 8-yd. run (Z. Person run), 1:15; BV– B. Sempf 33-yd. pass from B. Boda (pass failed), 0:13.

Second quarter

G – T. Boie 5-yd. run (Z. Person run), 10:46; G – Z. Person 18-yd. run (Z. Person run), 2:53.

Third quarter

G – Z. Person 19-yd. run (kick failed), 8:36; G – Z. Person 36-yd. run (Z. Person run), 1:54.

Fourth quarter

G – G. Gunderson 15-yd. run (Z. Person pass from M. Birkenholz), 11:59; G – K. Kroeplin 5-yd. run (L. Zach kick), 10:03; G – E. Person 1-yd. run (kick failed), 0:34.

Individual Statistics

Passing (att-comp-yds-int) – G (6-9-110-1) – G. Gunderson 6-9-110-1; B (20-37-274-3) – B. Boda 15-29-285-0, C. Sempf 5-8-8-3.

Receiving (rec-yds) – G (6-112) – Z. Person 1-7, C. Ogle 1-(-2), T. Boie 2-71, D. Tallier 1-17, M. Birkenholz 1-17; B (20-297) – J. Gonzales 6-52, B. Sempf 4-119, C. Boesl 10-122.

Rushing (att-yds) – G (54-455) – G. Gunderson 9-56, K. Kroeplin 5-64, Z. Person 18-203, C. Ogle 5-38, T. Boie 8-43, K. Thompson 3-29, E. Person 3-13, B. Boie 3-9; B (14-20) – B. Boda 9-5, B. Sempf 1-(-1), T. Gundlach 3-13, N. Stuart 1-3.