ELLSWORTH — The stage was set Friday night with Ellsworth and Amery ready to take the field. Unfortunately, the Friday night lights turned out to be Friday night lightning, and the game was pushed to Saturday afternoon.

They loaded up the inflatable helmet tunnel again Saturday, and this time the Panthers got their chance to pounce. On Amery’s opening drive, a handoff miscue led to a pile of Ellsworth players there to recover it.

Ellsworth marched right down off the turnover and capped the drive with a goal line run from senior Coen Hinrichs. Early in the second quarter on a third and five, senior quarterback Jack Stoltenburg found senior tight end George Rohl after rolling out of the pocket, and Rohl used his big frame to box out the defender and make the catch for a 14-0 lead. In a 14-6 game, Stoltenburg found Parker Peterson for a 34-yard catch and run to set up Rohl for a direct snap rushing touchdown untouched on the goal line. The final touchdown of the 27-6 win came when Hinrichs bounced a run outside and picked up a nice stiff arm to score from 22 .yards out with about four minutes to play.

“Really impressed with Coach [Drew] Pechacek’s defense. Those kids continue to play a hard, tough, physical brand of football every week, and it keeps us in games,” Head Coach Rob Heller said. “Coach [Sam] Elling has been doing a good job getting the offense improving each week… Offensive line is starting to get some cohesiveness even though they’re dealing with some injuries.”

Heller has had high praise for the defense all year long, and rightfully so, as they have held back-to-back conference opponents to single digits, improving to 3-2 overall and 2-1 in conference. He called Pechacek the “Mad Professor" for the way he can break down offenses and put defenders in positions to succeed.

“I’ve been with Coach Pechacek for 11-12 years, and he just does a really good job getting the kids prepared. He simplifies the game for the kids, and the kids buy into the schemes and they go out and execute,” Heller said.

Penalties were not good on the day as Heller had them at 15-5 in Amery’s favor. He said that’s something that needs to be cleaned up, but they also handled the adversity well given the self-inflicted errors. Winning in all three phases is what Ellsworth strives for, and that’s what they did Saturday.

The postponement of the game could have been something that got in the team’s head. It’s not easy to go from amped up to play on Friday night, to cooling off and back to amped up on Saturday.

“Playing at home definitely helped,” Heller said. “It was definitely out of the routine for the kids, and I was impressed with their ability to deal with it.”

Heller said it was unfortunate for Amery as well, given they had to make two bus trips to Ellsworth in less than 24 hours. Varsity football does not often happen in the sunshine; however, the Panthers did not let it phase them.

Now, Ellsworth takes on a tough Baldwin-Woodville team that is undefeated, contending for a trip to State and has beaten Ellsworth four times in a row. The players are embracing that challenge with a chance to make a major statement.

“We’ve just got to control what we can control. Play Ellsworth football,” Heller said.