Mounders clipped by Cards; prepare to host Bloomer in playoffs

By Cara L. Dempski

SPRING VALLEY — The Elk Mound football team traveled to Spring Valley October 14 with hopes of taking back home a share of second place honors in the Dunn-St. Croix standings.

But the Cardinals had no intentions of sharing the silver with the Mounders as they pulled out a 20-14 win in the regular and conference season finale last Friday night in the shadow of the Eau Galle Dam.

Instead, Elk Mound finished fourth right smack in the middle of the conference’s final standings with a 3-3 record and were 5-4 overall. Spring Valley, last year’s conference champ, had to settle for second place with a 5-1 mark just behind Durand, who won the Dunn-St. Croix with a perfect 6-0 mark. Glenwood City finished third at 4-2.

Despite the loss, the Mounders still qualified for post-season play thanks to their .500 conference mark. Elk Mound was awarded the fourth seed in the WIAA Division 5 Northwest sectional at this past weekend’s seeding meeting and will host the Bloomer Blackhawks this Friday, October 21 in level one competition. Ironically, the two schools faced one another last year in a Division 5, level one contest which the Blackhawks won 20-6.

Senior running back Hunter Adleman provided most of the Mounders’ ground yardage by rushing for 133 yards, while tight end Chandler Schreiber led the team in passing yards with 20 yards on a single attempt.

Junior Dylan Black was Elk Mound’s starting quarterback against the Cardinals. He replaced senior Dane Lew who is still recovering from a shoulder injury he suffered during the October 7 game against Durand.

Black had four completions for nine attempts, and recorded eight yards. He was intercepted twice.

The Cardinals got on the board in the first with a run from Sam Verges. Brock Bune’s PAT was good, and Spring Valley grabbed the 7-0 lead with 6:16 left in the first.

The Mounder defense held Spring Valley in check for the rest of the first and for most of the second. Then Sean Borgerding completed a 29-yard sprint for another touchdown. Brock Bune’s kick was good, and made the score 14-0 in favor of the Cards with 2:24 left in the half.

Elk Mound finally provided an answering score when two tight ends combined for the score. Black handed the ball to Schreiber, who fell back and fired a pass to Hunter Johnson, who ran the ball the final 11 yards to the end zone for the Mounder score.

Dane Lew took the field for the PAT, and his kick was good to make the score 14-7 with 1:03 left in the half.

Spring Valley put up another six in the third quarter after Borgerding punched through the Elk Mound defense to put up another six. Bune’s kick was no good, and the Cards lead grew to 20-7 with 10:34 to go in the third.

The Mounders stepped up again in the fourth quarter and narrowed the deficit to six points after a three-yard touchdown run from Adleman and a successful PAT from Lew with 10:54 left in the game.

Elk Mound was threatening a score again late in the fourth when Noah Zurbuchen was pushed out to the sidelines by Cardinal defender Jaydon Nyeggen.

Zurbuchen and Nyeggen stepped out of bounds at the same time, but were not able to untangle from each other before Zurbuchen flipped over the ropes marking the field boundaries. Medical staff and coach Dave Lew, who focused on his right knee, checked out Zurbuchen.

He left the game and was assisted from the field by coaches and fellow players with the right knee wrapped in ice. His status for the playoff game is uncertain as of Monday’s press time.

The Mounders’ drive ended shortly thereafter when the Cardinals’ Seth Schlegel intercepted a Dylan Black pass attempt to clinch the Valley victory.

SPRING VALLEY 20, ELK MOUND 14
Spring Valley……………..7   7   6   0 — 20
Elk Mound………………..0   7   0   7 — 14

First Quarter

SV — Uncredited run (B. Bune kick), 6:16.

Second Quarter

SV — Uncredited 29 run (B. Bune kick), 4:39; EM — H. Johnson 20 pass from C. Schreiber (D. Lew kick), 1:03.

Third Quarter

SV — S. Verges 1 run (B. Bune kick fails), 7:00.

Fourth Quarter

EM — H. Adleman 56 run (D. Lew kick), 2:45.

Individual Statistics

Passing (comp-att-int-yds) — SV (6-8-0-89) — S. Borgerding 6-8-0-89; EM (5-10-2-28) — C. Schreiber 1-1-0-20, D. Black 4-9-2-8.

Rushing (att-yds) — SV (36-127) — S. Verges 19-103, S. Schlegel 5-18, S. Borgerding 11-4, T. Kado 1-2; EM (38-190) — H. Adleman 14-133, N. Zurbuchen 20-46, B. Lambele 1-6, C. Schreiber 1-3, D. Black 2-2.

Receiving (rec-yds) — SV (6-89) — S. Schlegel 2-45, Z. Larson 1-34, T. Kado 1-8, B. Bune 1-1, S. Verges 1-1; EM (5-28) — H. Johnson 1-20, C. Schreiber 2-8, N. Zurbuchen 2-0.