Mounders derail Spooner in home football opener, final score 25-14
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ELK MOUND — After losing at Spooner by eight points in last year’s season opener, the Elk Mound football team was able to flip the script in the 2023 opener at home.
Senior running back Carter Vieth piled up 165 rushing yards and a touchdown on 25 carries while backfield mates, junior Parker Dutzle, added 75 yards on the ground and two scores and junior signal caller, Logan Jerome, finished an efficient 6-for-9 through the air for 114 yards and another score to help the Mounders beat the Rails 25-14 in non-conference action last Friday, August 18.
The Mounders finished with an advantage in total yards tallying 248 yards on the ground and 114 passing for 362 in all. Spooner also ran the ball well as it gained 253 yards but was held to just 10 yards on 2-for-12 passing by the Elk Mound defense.
The Rails struck first as their offense chugged into end zone on a 2-yard run by Conner Melton with 5:29 left in the first quarter of play. The PAT was good and Spooner led 7-0.
With under a minute remaining in the first period, Elk Mound knotted the contest. A 2-yard jaunt to pay dirt courtesy of Parker Dutzle with 49 ticks remaining followed by Kaden Russo PAT kick pulled the Mounders even at seven all.
Much of the second quarter would go by before Elk Mound broke the deadlock on a nine-yard touchdown by Dutzle, his second of the half, with 2:32 left in the first half. The Rails stopped the two-point conversion run which left the Mounders with a 13-7 halftime advantage.
Most fans had hardly taken their seats for the start of the second half when Spooner scored its second touchdown and kicked the extra point to take a 14-13 lead as just 21 seconds had expired from the score clock thanks to an 84-yard kickoff return by Owen Dernovsek, who also led the Rails ground game with 110 yards on just six hauls.
Over eight minutes would tick away before Elk Mound retook the lead for good.
A nifty 14-yard toss and catch from quarterback Logan Jerome to senior end Brady Amble resulted in a touchdown at 3:22 mark of the third. It was Amble’s only catch in the game. Trying to extend their lead to seven, the Mounders went for two points on the conversion but the Rails once again stopped the run short of the goal line. Still, Elk Mound led 19-14.
The home team salted away the contest midway through the final stanza when Vieth broke off a 39-yard run for his second and final touchdown scamper of the game with 7:47 to play. Despite Russo’s miss on the PAT kick, Elk Mound was now ahead by 11 points, 25-14.
That is how the game ended.
Sam Wenzel topped the Mounder receivers with 53 yards on a trio of catches while Dutzle added a catch for 42 yards to go with his 75 rushing yards.
Spooner’s Conner Melton complimented Dernovsek 110-yard rushing effort with 97 yards of his own.
Elk Mound (1-0) will finish off its non-conference schedule this Friday with a trip to Hammond to face St. Croix Central who whitewashed host Spencer/Columbus Catholic 70-0 last Friday.
The Mounders will open Cloverbelt play on Thursday, August 31 when they host defending Division 7 state champion Eau Claire Regis. The Ramblers were shut out 26-0 in Prescott this past Friday evening.