ELGIN — Playing their home opener Friday night, Elgin Public-Pope John fell behind by 20 points to Humphrey St. Francis in the first half and ended up on the short end of the score, 40 to 12.
Flyers’ freshman Gavin Gellenkirchen scored three touchdowns and sophomore Carson Wessel added two more to secure the victory.
The Wolfpack (1-1) never led in the game as the Flyers scored on their first two possessions in the first quarter. Wessel scored on the Flyers’ opening drive on a 10-yard run. After getting the ball back, the Flyers again went down the field and scored on a quarterback sneak from one yard out.
The Wolfpack couldn’t answer back, struggling to mount any kind of offense. The Flyers’ defense held EPPJ without a first down till midway through the second quarter when quarterback Kellan Hoefer connected with Dylon Lueking for 16 yards. Senior Gage Thiessen gave EPPJ another first down when he ripped off an 11-yard run down to the HSF’s 33-yard line. Then, after a pass interference penalty moved the ball down to the 19-yard line, the Wolfpack gave fans something to cheer about when quarterback Hoefer found a wide-open Lueking for a 19-yard scoring strike.
Down 20 to 6, the game turned on one pivotal play. The Wolfpack were called on a face mask penalty with two minutes left in the half when Wessel was tackled out of bounds on a third down play. The flag flew in from the back judge far away from the play whereas the other officials closer to the action, did not call the penalty.
EPPJ would have forced a fourth down play had the penalty not been called. With momentum, EPPJ could have marched down the field and potentially scored a touchdown which would have made it a one-score game. Instead, the Flyers had a first down in Wolfpack territory and three players later scored to make it 28 to 6 at halftime.
“They (HSF) have some good athletes and they kind of jumped on us early,” Coach Greg Wemhoff said. “They know how to win and they’ve been there plenty of times. Once they get you on your heels they are able to control the games.”
With the ball to start the second half, EPPJ didn’t have it for long as on the second play Hoefer was intercepted by Wessel. The Flyers proceeded to go 46 yards, all but two plays on the ground to take a 34 to 6 lead.
EPPJ answered back with a touchdown drive of their own as Thiessen scored as time expired at the end of the third quarter to make the score 34 to 12. The Flyers added back with a fourth quarter touchdown to make the final score 40 to 12.
The Wolfpack’s one fourth quarter drive looked promising as they moved the ball down to the Flyers’ four-yard line. However, the drive ended on a sour note with a fumble which the Flyers recovered.
“We just couldn’t put a drive together,” lineman Samuel Hemenway said, describing the loss. A senior, Hemenway was hobbled for much of the game, yet he had 15 tackles. Lueking had 19 tackles to lead the Wolfpack, Taylor Beckman had 14.
The Flyers outgained the Wolfpack 334 to 190.
“We’ve got to learn from it (the loss). If we don’t learn from it, then it’s a huge loss. And if we learn from it … we move on to get better,” Wemhoff said.
For more information and statistics, see this week’s Elgin Review.
