Turnovers, mistakes hurt Fall Creek, help Eleva-Strum
Fall Creek caught a huge break taking on No. 1 ranked Eau Claire Regis last week on a stormy, rainy night Thursday, Sept. 19 at Carson Park in Eau Claire on the opening kick-off. The Ramblers fumbled the ball, setting up the Crickets at Regis's 17-yard line.
However, the Crickets couldn't advance the ball to score on their first drive, unable to take advantage of Regis' turnover. The Ramblers, on the other hand, scored off of three Fall Creek turnovers, including a pick-six on their way to a 26-0 victory.
The fumbled kick-off was the Ramblers only turnover of the ballgame.
The unbeaten Ramblers went on a long drive that took up much of the first quarter for their first D, a 16-yard run by senior running back Everett Tait. Their next score came in the second quarter when, after the FC had stopped Regis on downs at the Fall Creek 27-yard line and went on a long drive, the Crickets fumbled on the Rambler 24-yard line and Regis responded with a nine play, 56-yard drive just before halftime capped by a 24-yard TD pass from senior quarterback Owen Weisenberger to junior tight end Tyler Gehling on a fourth down and three play.
Fall Creek fumbled again on its first drive of the second half which results on a three-play 46-yard scoring drive for the Ramblers capped off by Tait's 20-yard TD run. Then in the fourth quarter, with the Crickets on the Regis 17-yard line after a pass interference penalty and a first down, Tait snagged an interception on the very next play and returned it 84 yards for a score.
Neither team passed much in the driving rain that night. Regis rushed for 212 yards led by Tait's 77 yards on 12 carries while FC junior running back Cullen Kramer rushed for 118 yards on 23 carries as the Crickets had success at times running the ball for 176 yards. Senior linebacker Gus Pranckus led FC with 13 total tackles junior linebacker Lincoln Burr had 11. Gehling led Regis with 10 tackles.
Speaking of not being able to get out of their own way, the Whitehall Norse set a prime example in its game with Eleva-Strum last week Friday, Sept. 20 in Whitehall. Despite outgaining the Cardinals 340 to 278 in
total yards and at times gashing the Cardinal defense on long runs and pass plays, three turnovers and two apparent touchdowns wiped out by penalties, including one in overtime, helped E-S escape with an important 26-20 win.
The contest went back and forth between both teams. E-S's Luis Kinser had TD runs of 23 and 28 yards in the first half and teammate and fellow running back took on the running load in the fourth quarter when Whitehall seemed to have the edge and scored a late TD on a short-yardage run plus his TD in the extra session. He finished with 106 yards rushing while Kinser had 72 and quarterback Brennan Hanner had 57 yards. These numbers plus the Norse mistakes helped offset an 18-for-20 for 197 yards passing effort by the Norse's Mason Pientok plus 132 yards rushing from teammate Bo Killian. Leading E=S on defense was senior linebacker Tylor Iverson with 10 total tackles while senior lineman Landen Nordeen had nine and Ty Fjelstad forced a fumble.
It's Homecoming week for both Eleva-Strum and Fall Creek capping with their respective football games this Friday, Sept. 27. The Crickets have a critical Cloverbelt Conference contest with Elk Mound for their playoff hopes while Eleva-Strum can clinch its first playoff berth since 2019 with a win over Augusta. The Beavers remain winless as they fell behind Cochrane-Fountain City at home last week Friday, Sept. 20 33-0 at halftime and lost 40-0. C-FC was led by Reed Schmidkneckt's 173 yards on eight carries and two touchdowns.
