All Business: EM knocks off Spring Valley for Dunn-St. Croix title

By Cara L. Dempski

ELK MOUND — The look on senior quarterback Dylan Black’s face as he led the Mounders onto their home field last Friday night seemed to say it all.

There was a cool air of command and control that sent shivers down the spines of many of the people watching the Elk Mound boys take the football field at home October 13.

It was clear from the expressions and the focus with which the Mounders entered their final regular-season game that they meant business, and they would not relax their guard for a moment until the game was done.

The relaxation came just over two hours later, when the Elk Mound boys celebrated with two-liter bottles of Orange Crush before dousing head coach Dave Lew with one of the water coolers after winning a 24-20 battle over previously unbeaten Spring Valley to clinch the Mounders’ first Dunn-St. Croix football title since 2012.

The Cardinals brought an unblemished 8-0 record and the number three ranking in the most recent Wisconsin Football Coaches Association’s Division 6 poll  into last Friday’s showdown.

In addition, both teams entered the final regular and conference season clash with perfect 5-0 records in Dunn-St. Croix play.

Something would have to give, and it would be the Cardinals perfect record.

In a battle between the conference top two running back, Mounder junior Brady Redwine out ran his Cardinals’ counterpart, Jaydon Nyeggen. Redwine added to his D-Sc leading totals as he ran for 234 yards and two touchdowns on a yeoman’s tally of 46 rushes to led the Mounders to the victory. Nyeggen ran for 114 and a score. 

To say winning the 2017 championship was a big deal for the Mounders’ head coach Dave Lew might be an understatement.

“It’s one of the greatest feelings in the world,” he said. “Right up there with getting married and the birth of your children. You only have so many chances, you only have so many Friday nights. These men made the most of that tonight.”

Lew’s Mounders took a 16-12 lead into halftime, where he had his team make a few defensive adjustments to counter Spring Valley’s ability to find corners. The Mounder coach credited defensive coordinator Brandon Powell with finding ways to mitigate the Cardinals’ chances to move the ball.

Nothing in the game came easy, though, with the Cardinals keeping Elk Mound junior Brady Redwine to just 5.1 yards per carry in the matchup. But the Mounders’ ability to keep grinding and keep pushing never let up in the game, which eventually seemed to wear the Spring Valley defense down.

Spring Valley managed to get on the board first in the opening minutes of the first quarter with a one-yard run from Aaron Borgerding to give the Cards a six-point advantage after the kick failed.

The Mounders had punted the ball away on a fourth-down play to give the Cardinals another chance at the end zone when Borgerding fired a pass in the direction of Tyson Kado, only to be picked off by Elk Mound’s Black, who ran it 24 yards toward the goal line before being brought down.

The move put Elk Mound within 12 yards of the goal line on fourth down, which was enough to let Gaelen Young loose on a field goal kick that left the Mounders trailing by just 6-3.

Elk Mound took its first lead early in the second quarter after Brady Redwine punched through the goal line to strike gold on a 17-yard run. Young sent the ball down the middle of the uprights for the point after, giving the Mounders a 10-6 lead.

Not to be outdone, Spring Valley returned the favor a few minutes later with a four-yard gain from Jadon Nyeggen to lift the Cards back over the Mounders with a 12-10 lead.

The Mounders would pick up another six points before halftime when senior Will Muzynski pushed over the goal line for the score with just seconds left on the clock.

Elk Mound led 16-12 when they came back out for the third quarter, but extended it another six on an eight-yard run by Redwine before Black punched through for the conversion to give the Mounders a 24-12 edge over Spring Valley.

The Cards would pull within four again on a 29-yard run from Borgerding for six, and then a pass connection from Borgerding to junior Dylan Bosshart to make the score 24-20 as both teams moved on to the fourth quarter.

The final twelve minutes tested the defense of both teams, with the Mounders prevailing in the end for the win.

Redwine added another 234 yards to his rushing statistics for the year, and now sits at 1,918 for the season. That is 763 yards ahead of Spring Valley’s Nyeggen, who until October 13 was second in rushing yards for the Dunn-St. Croix season, and 703 yards ahead of Durand’s Josh Biesterveld, who took over second place with his performance at Colfax.

Black completed three of six pass attempts for 43 yards.

Elk Mound earned the second seed in its WIAA Division 5 sectional bracket behind Grantsburg, and will play seventh-seeded Mondovi at Elk Mound October 20. The Mounders beat the Buffaloes 49-34 in a September 22 road game. The winner of that game will play the victor in the Chetek-Weyerhaeuser/Spooner game October 27.

ELK MOUND 24, SPRING VALLEY 20
Spring Valley……………..6    6  8  0 — 20
Elk Mound………………..3  13  8  0 — 24

First quarter
SV — A. Borgerding 1-yd. run (conversion fails); EM — G. Young 22 1-yd. field goal.

Second quarter
EM — B. Redwine 17 1-yd. run (G. Young kick); SV — J. Nyeggen 4 1-yd. run (conversion fails); EM — W. Muzynski 1 1-yd. run (conversion fails).

Third quarter
EM — B. Redwine 8 1-yd. run (D. Black run); SV — A. Borgerding 29 1-yd. run (D. Bosshart pass from A. Borgerding).

Individual Statistics

Passing (att-comp-yds-int): SV (9-2-33-1) — A. Borgerding 9-2-33-1; EM (6-3-43-0) — D. Black 6-3-43-0.

Rushing (att-yds): SV (30-156) — J. Nyeggen 22-114, A. Borgerding 4-30, T. Kado 4-12; EM (63-278) — B. Redwine 46-234, W. Muzynski 8-29, B. Lambele 4-8, C. Lee 3-1, D. Black 2-(-4).

Receiving (rec-yds): SV (2-33) — C. Anderson 2-33; EM (3-43) — B. Redwine 1-26, W. Muzynski 1-10, A. Benson 1-7.