Hilltoppers run over Frederic Vikings in season, home opener

By Cara L. Dempski

GLENWOOD CITY — Last Friday night was not the prettiest football game Glenwood City has ever played, and head coach Shane Strong was aware of it.

“You always make mistakes in that first game,” Strong acknowledged of the Hilltoppers’ home and season opener. “We played much better on defense in the second half.”

In fact, the Frederic Vikings only scored once in the first half of the August 18 match-up. They put six on the board with 7:21 to go in the half, but then did not score again until the fourth quarter.

By then, Strong had put in some of his junior varsity players to give them some field experience.

Glenwood City went on to prevail 45-22 over their non-conference foe.

The one decidedly dim outcome of last Friday’s game was the loss of senior Darian Multhauf on Frederic’s first offensive series of the game. The Hilltopper injured his knee after a twisting fall onto the slippery field surface and was assisted to the bench by Strong and the athletic trainer.

He left the game at halftime to seek medical treatment.

Despite the shadow of Multhauf’s injury and a few “come to Jesus” moments for the defense, the Toppers pushed out to a 30-8 lead in the opening 24 minutes.

The game started with a bang for the Toppers when Carson Strong pulled in a pass from quarterback Pete Hill and ran across the goal line for six with 10:57 still on the clock in the first. The senior-to-senior connection covered 44 yards. Tanner Davis’ kick was no good, but the Toppers still had a 6-0 lead.

Jacob Kopacz struck pay dirt exactly ten minutes later to give Glenwood City to 12-0 at the :57 mark for the first quarter. Following his four-yard scoring run, Kopacz took the hand-off from Hill a second time for the two-point conversion to make the score 14-0.

Powered by the running of back Jeret Corty and quarterback Colin Jeske, Frederic ground away at Glenwood City’s defense in the opening minutes of the second quarter. The Vikings’ offensive play caller eventually scored the Vikings’ first points of the game on a two-yard carry that tacked Frederic’s first six on the scoreboard. Brenton Nelson blasted through the Hilltopper line for two points, making the score 14-8.

Glenwood City then went on a 16-point scoring run courtesy of Kopacz, Jacob Nelson, Ethan Kahler and Dakota Dean-Immerman to wind away the final seconds of the opening half with a 30-8 lead.

Kopacz, who led all runners with 139 yards, capped a short 3-play Toppers’ drive with a 75-yard run to the end zone for his second and final touchdown jaunt of the game. Jake Nelson punched in the conversion run and Glenwood City extended its lead to 22-8 with 6:55 remaining in the first half of play.

But Glenwood City was not done.

After stopping a promising Frederic drive and forcing a punt, the Hilltoppers took over on its own seven yard line with 38 second left in the second quarter.

It took just one play and 15 seconds for the Toppers to hit pay dirt for the fourth time. Hill rifled a pass completion to an open Ethan Kahler, who raced 93 yards for the touchdown with just 23 seconds left on the first half clock. A good two-point conversion run by Dakota Dean-Immerman gave the Toppers a 22-point cushion at the intermission.  

Glenwood City wasted no time in the second half, picking up  a pair of third quarter touchdowns, a two-point conversion, and a point after kick from Nelson, Kahler and Davis to lift Glenwood City to 45-8.

After shutting down Frederic’s offense to open the second half and taking over on downs at the Vikings’ 39, it took the Hilltoppers all but one play to punctuate the end zone once again. Following a pass interference call against Frederic on the initial first-play down, Hill went back to the air and found Jake Nelson for a 26-yard scoring pass-and-catch that gave the Toppers a 36-8 advantage at 9:35. Ethan Kahler added two more points on the conversion run.

A little over eight minutes later, Nelson again found himself in the end zone following a six-yard run with 1:22 left in the third. Davis added the final Toppers’ point with a good extra point kick that pushed the score to 45-8.

The Vikings picked up a pair of touchdowns in the fourth thanks to Jeske, who scored on  quarterback keepers from 38 yards at 8:07 and three yards at 3:34 of the final stanza. Teammate Jeret Corty ran in the  two-point conversion on the first of Jeske’s two fourth period touchdowns.

Glenwood City quarterback Pete Hill threw for seven completions in 15 attempts for 229 yards and a trio of touchdowns. Kahler and Strong led the receiving corp with 93 and 81 yards respectively and a touchdown each, while Owen Wagner logged 23, Nelson picked up 26 on the touchdown catch, and Kopacz was credited with six.

As previous noted, Kopacz recorded 139 rushing yards and a two scores on just ten carries (13.9 yard average) to lead the Toppers, while Kahler picked up 54 yards on five carries. Ethan Hanson was credited with 43 rushing yards, Nelson picked up 29 yards and a TD on half a dozen hauls, and Dean-Immerman recorded two.

Junior QB Colin Jeske was the spark plug of Frederic’s offense, rushing 12 times for 75 yards and three touchdowns. Jeske also threw for 94 yards on a 9-for-17 effort. Jeret Corty added 55 yards on 18 rushing attempts.

In the final statistical count, Glenwood City outgained Frederic 504 (275 yds. rushing, 229 yds. passing) to 232 (138, 94).

Strong is hoping his team tackles better against the fast, physical Warriors in Amery this Friday, August 25. The Toppers will then open their conference season September 1 by hosting Elk Mound.

FREDERIC 22, GLENWOOD CITY 45
Frederic…………………..0  8  0  14 — 22
Glenwood City……..14  16  15  0 — 45

First quarter: GC — C. Strong 44-yd. pass from P. Hill (kick fail), 10:57; GC — J. Kopacz 4-yd. run (J. Kopacz run), :57.

Second quarter: F — C. Jeske 3-yd. run (B. Nelson 5 pass from C. Jeske), 7:21; GC — J. Kopacz 75-yd. run (J. Nelson run), 6:55; GC — E. Kahler 96-yd. pass from P. Hill (D. Dean-Immerman run), :23.

Third quarter: GC — J. Nelson 26-yd. pass from P. Hill (E. Kahler run), 9:35; GC — J. Nelosn 6-yd. run (T. Davis kick), 1:22.

Fourth quarter: F — C. Jeske 38-yd. run (J. Corty run), 8:07; F — C. Jeske 3-yd. run (conversion fail), 3:34.

Individual Statistics Passing (comp-att-yds-int) — GC (7-15-229-0) — P. Hill 7-15-229-0.

Receiving (comp-yds) — GC (7-232) — E. Kahler 1-96, C. Strong 3-81, J. Nelson 1-26, O. Wagner 1-23, J. Kopacz 1-6.

Rushing (att-yds) — GC (35-272) — J. Kopacz 10-139, E. Kahler 5-54, E. Hanson 7-43, J. Nelson 6-29, D. Dean-Immerman 5-9, P. Hill 2-(-2).