Panthers pounce on Mounders
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ELK MOUND — Elk Mound knew it faced a stiff challenge when it hosted Durand-Arkansaw last Friday for the annual homecoming game.
Entering the September 23 Cloverbelt football contest, the Panthers sat in third place with just one loss in conference play while the Mounders had just one win thus far this season which they achieved just the previous Friday in Osseo with a 15-0 blanking of the Osseo-Fairchild Thunder.
Looking to make it two straight victories, Elk Mound stayed with Durand-Arkansaw through three quarters trailing just 8-6 heading into the final 12 minutes of game action after playing to a scoreless tie at halftime.
But, the Panthers scored a pair of touchdowns in that final stanza to spoil the Mounders’ homecoming, 21-6.
With the setback, Elk Mound dropped to 1-3 in Cloverbelt play, which puts it in a fifth-place tie with Neillsville/Granton, and 1-5 overall with just three regular season (all in conference) games remaining.
Neither team was able to put points on the scoreboard in the first half of Friday night’s conference battle.
With exactly five minutes left in the third quarter, Durand-Arkansaw finally broke the scoreless deadlock on a three-yard touchdown run by Eli Whitman. Ethan Hurlburt then tossed a two-point conversion pass to Dawson Hartung to put the Panthers in front 8-0.
But, just over a minute later Elk Mound would stick the football in the end zone for the first time when senior offensive lineman Tate Anderson took the handoff from his quarterback, Logan Jerome, and bulled his way to pay dirt from just a yard out. The Mounders conversion pass was unsuccessful and they still trailed the Panthers, 8-6, with 3:56 left in third quarter.
The Panthers completed just four of their 10 pass attempts for a mere 40 yards but one went for 27 yards and a touchdown when Hurlburt slung the score to Troy Cloud at the 8:49 mark of the fourth quarter. Eli Whitwam kick the extra point to increase the Durand-Arkansaw advantage to 15-6.
The Durand-Arkansaw ground game, which accumulated 254 yards against Elk Mound, then put the game out of reach when Dawson Hartung took the handoff and scampered 20 yards for six points with just 2:35 remaining in the game. The PAT was no good making the score 21-6.
That would be the final tally as Elk Mound was unable to add a score in its last possession of the game.
While Durand-Arkansaw finished just shy of 300 yards of offense with a total of 294 led by Dawson Hartung’s 27-for-166 yard rushing performance, Elk Mound managed just 114 yards with 77 coming via its passing game.
Three Mounders threw passes in the game with Kaden Russo finishing 2-for-2 for 15 yards, Logan Jerome completed 7 of his 18 tosses for 62 yards and Nathan Svee threw an incompletion. Brady Amble led the Mounder receiving corps with a trio of catches for 44 yards, Carter Garnett added two receptions for 11 yards and Sam Wenzel had one for ten yards. Carter Vieth led the Mounders, who finished with just 37 yards on the ground, with 10 rushes for 23 yards.
Elk Mound will close out the regular season by playing two of its three games on the road beginning this Friday in Fall Creek.