Vikings struggle to mount offense in Spring Valley, fall to Cards

By Cara L. Dempski

SPRING VALLEY — Last Friday’s Dunn-St. Croix opener against the Cardinals left Colfax head football coach Matt DeMoe speechless.

“There isn’t much to say,” he wrote in his game comments. “Spring Valley is a good team. We didn’t match their intensity.”

According to the Colfax coach, the Viking defense knew what to expect out of the Spring Valley offense, but was not able to put a stop to them. The shining light for Colfax came in the form of some nice offensive catches by seniors Treyton Teige and Adam Pretasky to put the Vikings on the board in the 41-14 road loss in Spring Valley September 1.

Spring Valley rushed for 358 yards which also turned out to be the Cards total as they went 0-2 passing. Colfax tallied 207 yards including 116 aerial yards, many of which came in the final quarter, and another 91 running the ball.

It didn’t take the hosts long to put up the contest’s first score.

The Cardinals’ Tyson Kado fielded Treyton Teige’s punt at his own 31 yard line and returned it 69 yards for the touchdown, just 2:23 into the game. Kado’s PAT attempt failed, but left Spring Valley led 6-0 with 9:37 to go in the opening quarter.

A little over three minutes later, Aaron Borgerding scampered 33 yards for Spring Valley’s second touchdown. Following a successful two-point conversion run by Kado, the Red Birds held a 14-0 lead with 6:04 to go in the quarter.

Spring Valley punctuated the first 12 minutes with its third touchdown. With just ten ticks remaining on the first-quarter clock, Jaydon Nyeggen ran the ball into the end zone from 24 yards out and coupled with a good kick by Kado, the Cardinals led 21-0.

Colfax’s defense showed some signs of life in the second quarter, keeping the Cards from the end zone until the 1:41 mark, when Kado again struck pay dirt for the second time, this one from 10 yards out, to make the score 27-0 going into halftime.

Spring Valley got on the board again quickly in the third quarter after Nyeggen slipped across the line on an 11-yard run for the score. The kick after was good by Kado and extended the Cardinals’ lead to 34-0.

Barely two minutes later, Jarod Rielly tacked on, what would Spring Valley’s final touchdown, with a 36-yard run. Kado split the uprights and the Cardinals’ lead grew to 41-0 with 7:43 left to go in the third quarter.

From that point on, things looked up slightly for the Vikings. They continued to put the stop to the Cardinals, and finally got on the scoreboard. 

Treyton Teige scored on a 45-yard pass from sophomore quarterback Noah Albricht for the Vikings first points with 6:35 to play. Brett Schindler carried the ball over the goal line on the conversion run to make the score 41-8.

Just a few plays before Albricht-Teige’s scoring connection, Adam Pretasky had hauled in another Albricht pass for an apparent 35-yard score but a holding call on the Vikings pushed them back ten yards and set the stage for Albricht’s 45-yard strike to Teige.

But Adam Pretasky would get that score back. With just 11 seconds left in the game, Pretasky corralled another Albricht toss and ran it into the end zone. The a 34-yard pass play was Colfax’s and the game’s final score as Albricht was stopped short on the conversion run, leaving Colfax on the short end of a  41-14 score.

Quarterback Noah Albricht finished the game with 116 yards passing, a pair of fourth-quarter touchdowns and an interception on an 11-for-19 throwing performance. Senior Brett Schindler topped the Vikings’ rushing attack with 82 yards on 22 carries.

Spring Valley’s stable of rushers enjoyed a good night led by Jaydon Nyeggen’s 134 yard, two touchdown performance on 16 carries. Tyson Kado also added two touchdowns and 93 yards while Jarod Rielly and quarterback Aaron Borgerding each had a score on 51 and 38 yards rushing respectively. 

Colfax will work to shake off Friday’s loss as they turn their attention to its September 8 home contest against the Glenwood City Hilltoppers. The Vikings are 1-2 overall, and 0-1 in the Dunn-St. Croix.

COLFAX 14, SPRING VALLEY 41
Colfax………………… 0     0      0    14 – 14
Spring Valley………21     6    14    0 — 41

First quarter
SV – T. Kado 69-yd. Punt return (kick fail), 9:37; SV – A. Borgerding 33-yd. run (T. Kado run), 6:04; SV – J. Nyeggen 24-yd. run (T. Kado kick), :10.

Second quarter
SV – T. Kado 10-yd. run (kick fail), 1:41.

Third quarter
SV – J. Nyeggen 11-yd. run (T. Kado kick), 9:33; SV – J. Rielly 36-yd. run (T. Kado kick), 7:43.

Fourth quarter
C – T. Teige 45-yd. pass from N. Albricht (B. Schindler run), 6:35; C – A. Pretasky 34-yd. pass from N. Albricht (conversion fail), :11.

Individual Statistics
Passing (att-comp-yds-td-int) – C (11-19-116-2-1) – N. Albricht 11-19-116-2-1; SV (0-2-0-0) – A. Borgerding 0-2-0-0.
Receiving (rec-yds) – C (11-116) – T. Teige 6-87, A. Pretasky 1-34.
Rushing (att-yds) – C (28-91) – N. Albricht 4-(-1), B. Schindler 22-82, M. Harmon 2-10; SV (40-358) – B. Wolf 2-3, D. Bosshart 2-17, A. Borgerding 5-38, T. Kado 6-93, C. Anderson 1-1, J. Nyeggen 16-122, J. Rielly 5-54 B. Williams 2-9, N. Fesenmaier 2-20, C. Deppa 2-6.