SPENCER — This rarely happens.
Elgin Public-Pope John has long dominated Boyd County on the gridiron. That was yesterday.
On Friday night, the Spartans pounded their way to a 24 to 6 victory in the season opener for both teams.
With 10 players weighing over 200 pounds, the Spartans used their physicality to dominate both sides of the line of scrimmage.
“They’re (Spartans) big size wise and physical,” Co-Coach Nick Heithoff said. “They’re happy with three to four yards, and then they line up and do it all over again. They just kinda wore us down.”
The Spartans never trailed in the game. On their first possession, they methodically marched down the field. Content to run the ball on almost every play, they went 54 yards in 13 plays. Senior Peyton Wickersham snared a seven-yard pass from fellow senior Wade Pritchett. The two-point conversion gave the Spartans the lead with 3:00 left in the first quarter.
EPPJ battled back with a 65-yard touchdown drive. Evin Pelster sped past tacklers, Gavin Kallhoff got open and quarterback Michael Selting delivered the ball for a first down near midfield.
A 20-yard completion to Max Henn put the ball near the 20-yard line. Then it was back to the ground game as six of the next seven plays put the ball on the 12-yard line where, on fourth down, Selting lofted a pass high into the right corner of the endzone to Henn who won a battle for the ball for a touchdown. The two-point conversion failed, making the score eight to six.
From that point, for the remainder of the half, the game became a ‘slobber-knocker’, a slugfest of wills. Boyd County moved the ball slowly, methodically, down the field. Inside the 10-yard line, on fourth down, Justice Blecher and Henn stopped Pritchett short of the line of gain.
The half ended with the Spartans up by two. The second half would see Boyd County hold the Wolfpack out of the endzone.
Over the final two quarters, Boyd County controlled the clock while scoring two touchdowns to ice the game.
On the first possession of the second half, they went 57 yards on five plays, all on the ground. Senior Logan Jackson scored on a seven-yard run, Pritchett added the two-point conversion to lead 16 to 8 with 9:30 left in the quarter.
EPPJ responded with a first down on a 16-yard run by Kallhoff. The drive ended two plays later when Pritchett picked off Selting at the Spartans’ 33-yard line.
Boyd County then ground out another time-consuming drive which culminated with a Ben Schmitz four-yard touchdown run.
The Wolfpack had two subsequent possessions which moved the ball into Spartan territory. The first drive stalled after a quarterback sack and two failed pass attempts turned the ball over on downs. Then, after forcing a punt, EPPJ drove down to the Spartans’ 25-yard line before again turning the ball over on downs.
Kallhoff led the Wolfpack with 17 tackles. Henn added 12 amd Blecher added 10.
On offense, Henn had four catches and scored the team’s only touchdown. Pelster led rushers with 58 yards on 13 carries.
“They always say your your biggest jump of improvement happens between week one and week two,” Coach Heithoff said. “So yeah, now they kind of got a taste of what it’s like actually under the lights. So we should know what to expect next week.”
Next up for the Wolfpack will be a Friday afternoon game against Wynot (0-1). Wynot lost their season opener to Archangels Catholic by the score of 34 to 6. The home opener for EPPJ, will kickoff at 2:30 p.m.
