E-S ground game, defense help Cards crush Indees
by Beth Kraft
The Eleva-Strum football team had to share the Dairyland Conference title with Independence/Gilmanton last season, but when the two teams squared off on Friday night, Sept. 4, the Cardinals weren’t even willing to share the ball.
E-S dominated on the offensive end, racking up 421 yards on the ground en route to a 35-6 victory at Independence last week.
Though the Cards didn’t allow the Indees many opportunities on offense, they did share the ball with each other as six E-S team members logged significant yardage led by Quinn Olson with an eye-popping 183 yards on just seven carries. The junior recorded three touchdowns for the Cardinals, scoring on big-time runs of 74, 44 and 34 yards in the first and second quarters to help E-S go up 28-6 at the half. Olson also returned two kicks for 57 yards that evening.
Senior quarterback Jake Matchey put the Cardinals on the board first, finding a hole for a 74-yard touchdown run at the 10:35 mark in the first quarter. The Indees responded as quarterback Ian Pfaff connected with Isaac Pape a few minutes later to put six points on the board, but that was all I/G could muster on offense for the game.
That’s when Olson notched his trio of touchdowns for the game to give the Cardinals a big lead. Junior Ryan Ostertag capped off the scoring for the game with a 17-yard run at the 7:29 mark in the third quarter to put the game well out of reach.
In addition to Olson’s big yards, Matchey and Dustyn Topper added 79 and 78 yards on the ground, respectively, followed by Tyes Balk with 38 yards on three carries.
The Cards’ formidable rushing corps was extremely efficient against the Indees, legging out an impressive average of 13.6 yards per carry. On the flip side, the Indees rushed 10 times and managed just 33 yards thanks to the E-S defense.
Pfaff completed 7 of 12 passes for 49 yards with threw three interceptions against E-S.
Eleva-Strum (2-1 overall) will look to build off a positive start to its conference schedule when the Cards travel to face Blair-Taylor this Friday, Sept. 11.
