Glenwood City crushes Colfax, moves into WIAA playoffs
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TEAM TACKLE — Glenwood City seniors Collin LaValley (#57, left) and Carter Clemens (#50) combined to bring down a Colfax ball carrier during the Toppers’ Homecoming game last Friday, October 15. Glenwood City won the game 55-0. —photo by Jacob Maes Photography
by Marlys Kruger
Sports Correspondent
GLENWOOD CITY — The Glenwood City football team needed one more win in Dunn-St. Croix Conference play to be assured of getting into the WIAA playoffs.
In their final regular season game, which happened to be on Homecoming night, the Hilltoppers made sure there was no doubt they would achieve that goal when they thrashed the 1-7 Colfax Vikings 55-0 to bring their record to 4-3 in conference play and 5-4 overall.
The Toppers will travel to Turtle Lake for a Division 7, Level 1 playoff game this Friday night. Glenwood City defeated Turtle Lake 24-12 back on September 3.
The Vikings had been having a pretty rough season with two of their losses coming via forfeits due to COVID issues early in the season and they never seemed to recover from missing two weeks of practice. So it was pretty fair to say this game was determined on the opening kickoff when Max Janson took the ball at his own 14 and ran right up the gut of the Viking defense for an 84-yard touchdown. Marcis DeSmith booted the extra point and before many of the fans even found their seat it was 7-0 with just 13 seconds off the clock.
On the Vikings’ first possession, they ran twice and picked up a first down, but on the next play they fumbled and Brady McCarthy recovered for the Toppers on the Colfax 39 yard line.
McCarthy, Janson and Gabe Knops all took turns running the ball and with a Colfax penalty they eventually moved to the two yard line. Janson then passed to Mitchell Bliese for the TD and another DeSmith kick made it 14-0 midway through the first quarter.
The Vikings decided to keep the ball on the ground and had some success against the Topper defense, moving the ball from their own 20 to the Topper 41, but a pair of penalties on them and a quarterback sack by Glenwood City forced them to punt.
Moving into the second stanza, the Toppers started with the ball at their own 43 and ate up almost six minutes on the clock with their ground game culminating in a two-yard score by Janson. DeSmith’s third kick went through the uprights for a 21-0 lead with 6:44 on the clock.
HEADED FOR PAYDIRT — Glenwood City senior Justin Moe (#23) is shown running toward the endzone for one of his two touchdowns runs against the Colfax Vikings in last Friday evening’s home football game. Moe finished with eight rushes for 64 yards as the Hilltoppers shutout the Vikings 55-0 to win their annual Homecoming contest. —photo by Jacob Maes Photography
The Vikings were without their starting center after he went out on an injury on their prior possession, and on this possession the backup center hiked the ball over his quarterback’s head on a third-down play. McCarthy tackled the quarterback for a loss and Colfax punted the ball away.
Starting on another short field, Janson, Knops and McCarthy all ran the ball and Janson took it up the middle from 26 yards out for yet another Topper TD. The kick put the score at 28-0 with 3:37 left in the half.
The Hilltoppers weren’t done yet however, after forcing another Viking punt, McCarthy did a little shake and bake and ran for a long gain and Bryce Wickman took it to the house from 15 yards out and the kick put the score at 35-0.
It was all Hilltoppers in the second half (again) as the Vikings chose to try and keep running the ball, resulting in very few positive yards. Another short punt by them gave the Toppers good field position again at the Colfax 35. Justin Moe eventually found the endzone from seven yards out and a kick put the Topper advantage to 42-0 halfway through the third quarter.
Another bad snap by the Colfax center resulted in a fumble on their next turn with the ball and Thomas Moede recovered for the Toppers at the Colfax 24. But Colfax recovered a Topper fumble two plays later. And yet another bad snap by the Vikings put the ball on the ground and the Toppers Brady Klatt picked it up and ran it in for six more points. The kick made it 49-0 to end the quarter.
Moe finished off the scoring with a nine-yard run with 6:53 to go in the game as DeSmith missed his final kick.
The Toppers rushed for 264 yards in the game as Janson collected 91 of them. Moe ran for 64 and McCarthy 60. Janson threw just one pass and completed it for two yards and a touchdown.
Bliese was credited with four tackles and Noah Brite two while Bryce Wickman and McCarthy each had an interception and Moede had two quarterback sacks. (Stats from Wissports.net)