Elk Mound upsets unbeaten Durand
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ELK MOUND — Durand is unbeaten no more!
Thanks to its stingy defense and a balanced offensive attack, Elk Mound upset and upended that once unbeaten Panthers of Durand 29-8 in a crucial Cloverbelt football contest played on the Mounders’ home field last Friday, October 30.
The Mounders’ scary good defensive unit treated Durand to its first loss of the season, holding the Panthers to just 219 yards – 109 passing and 110 rushing – in the contest.
The win helped Elk Mound even its season record at 3-3, good for 5th place in the 8-team conference, while Durand fell to 5-1.
Elk Mound’s offense scored 29 unanswered points while the defense held Durand scoreless until the final half minute of the contest.
The resurgent Mounders’ offense collected 161 yards through the air as Ryan Bohl hit on 12 of 20 pass attempts including a 32-yard, mid-second-quarter strike to Ben Heath that gave Elk Mound a 16-0 halftime lead. The running game added another 134 yards to the offensive total of 295 as Avery Kaanta led the way with 68 yards on 20 carries for a pair of second-half touchdown runs. Nate Lew chipped in for 50 yards rushing on just a half dozen carries and Ethan Levra provided 14 yards on five hauls, which included the game’s and Mounders’ first score – a one-yard TD dive in the first quarter.
Levra’s score came with 5:42 to play in the first stanza. A two-point conversion pass from Bohl to Carson Steinhorst made it an 8-0 contest in the Mounders’ favor.
Bohl would go to the air for Elk Mound’s next score. He found an open Ben Heath who completed the catch and play for a 32-yard touchdown with 8:11 left in the first half. Bohl and Heath then connected for the two-point pass to make it a 16-0 lead for the hosts.
That was the score at half.
Kaanta then broke free for a 10-yard touchdown run at 8:32 of the third quarter. Although the two-point run failed to break the goal line, Elk Mound had a commanding lead over the reeling squad from Durand.
That lead would grow larger in the final quarter, when the Mounders got a second touchdown run from Avery Kaanta. The 11-yard scoring run came with just 2:23 left in the game. Bohl booted the PAT to put the Mounders in front 29-0.
With just 31 ticks remaining on the scoreboard clock, the Panthers were able to avoid the shut out as Panthers’ quarterback Joseph Biesterveld passed to Dawson Kurth for a 30-yard touchdown. Kurth ran in the two-point conversion to make the final 29-8.
Biesterveld finished with 109 yards passing but completed just 8 of his 25 attempts. Panthers’ running back Simon Bauer tallied 100 of the visitors’ 110 rushing yards on 19 attempts.
Elk Mound will conclude the regular season this Friday, November 6 when it travels to Osseo to face the 1-5 Thunder of Osseo-Fairchild, who were pummeled 49-12 this past Friday by Stanley-Boyd.