On Friday, Sept. 24, local teams including Spring Valley, Elmwood/Plum City, River Falls and the Prescott Cardinals were in action. Most notably, the Prescott Cardinals defeated Baldwin-Woodville 47-14, remaining in a tie for first place in the Middle Border Conference standings with the Ellsworth Panthers.

On Friday night under the lights, the Prescott Cardinals hosted a visiting Baldwin-Woodville team for a Middle Border Conference matchup between, statistically speaking, one of the most dominant teams in the Cardinals and one of the teams that have struggled the most this year, Baldwin-Woodville.

The first quarter contained only one scoring play. With 6:42 left in the first quarter, Prescott quarterback Grant Stanton threw a 17-yard touchdown pass to Ben Rohl to put the Cardinals up 7-0.

During the second quarter, the Cardinals’ offense found its form and scored 27 unanswered points to essentially make the second half of play a formality. The 12-minute scoring barrage included three rushing touchdowns and one passing touchdown. All four scores came from Stanton and Aiden Russell to give the Cardinals a 34-0 lead going into the half.

During the remaining 24 minutes of action, the Cardinals added another two touchdowns in garbage time, just like Baldwin-Woodville, which scored two touchdowns when the game had already been sealed away, to make the final score a 47-14 Prescott Cardinals victory.

Prescott head coach Jordan Hansen noted the importance of the win against Baldwin-Woodville and how the win is a sign that the program as a whole has turned around.

“The win against Baldwin was huge for our program,” Hansen said. “We didn’t win a conference game last year so our goal this year was to win four conference games and become playoff eligible for the first time since 2013. I’m proud of our senior group who has put in the work to get us where we are today.”

With the win, Coach Hansen and the Cardinals are in a race to finish in first place in the Middle Border Conference standings with only three weeks left in the regular season. Hansen spoke about the upcoming match with Ellsworth which will likely decide the conference champion.

“To be in this game is why coaches coach and players play,” Hansen said. “Ellsworth is the real deal and that’s why they are ranked second in the state. They haven’t lost a football game since 2019. On tape, they are one of the fastest teams that I’ve seen, so they will be tough to slow down. We’ll have our hands full, but we are excited to be in this position to fight for a conference title for the first time in a while.”

The aforementioned matchup between the Prescott Cardinals and the Ellsworth Panthers will be played on Friday, Oct. 1, at 7 p.m. in Ellsworth.

RFHS Wildcats fall to Sun Prairie 21-6

On Friday night, the River Falls High School Wildcats lost a game on the road at Sun Prairie 21-6. The loss moves the Wildcats’ overall record to 4-3 for the season.

The game against Sun Prairie was scheduled less than one week before it was played due to the initial opponent for River Falls, La Crosse Logan, being forced to cancel the game for the week. Because of that, RFHS and Sun Prairie agreed to play on Friday night in what was essentially a non-conference exhibition game.

Sun Prairie is a significantly larger school than River Falls High School. To be exact, Sun Prairie’s enrollment is more than twice as many as RFHS and is a serious Division One school that has yet to be defeated during the 2021 season.

Despite the significant difference in enrollment, River Falls put the first points on the board in the first quarter when senior quarterback Vito Massa threw a 10-yard touchdown pass to Michael Schurman. The score was followed by a missed PAT that gave the Wildcats a 6-0 lead.

Sun Prairie got on the board during the second quarter when running back Kolton Walters scored on a four-yard touchdown run. The subsequent PAT gave Sun Prairie a 7-6 advantage, a lead that they held for the rest of the contest.

The game remained competitive throughout the third quarter, as neither team could put together any offensive drives of substance. The scoring again picked up in the fourth quarter when Walters again scored in the rushing attack. Walters’ six-yard touchdown run put Sun Prairie up 14-7.

Sun Prairie added another score for good measure later in the fourth quarter on a 41yard touchdown rush by Cortez LeGrant. Although Walter accounted for two of the Cardinals’ three scores, LeGrant did the heavy lifting for their offense in terms of yardage. LeGrant had 17 carries for 262 and a touchdown. He averaged an astonishing 15.4 yards per carry that was the difference-maker in the game.

River Falls will look to bounce back from the 21-6 loss when they play on Friday, Oct. 1, at home against West Salem. That game is scheduled to get underway at 7 p.m. Both RFHS and West Salem are 4-0 in Mississippi Valley Conference play. The winner of that game will be in sole possession of first place in the conference standings with only two weeks remaining in the regular season.

Spring Valley dominates Colfax in 49-0 victory

The Spring Valley Cardinals football team improved to 5-1 for the season, including a 40 conference record, after a 49-0 victory on the road against Colfax on Friday, Sept. 24.

Spring Valley’s victory keeps head coach Ryan Kapping’s program in first place in the Dunn-St. Croix Conference standings ahead of second-place Elmwood/Plum City, which has a 3-1 conference record thus far.

The Cardinals’ impressive scoring night began in the first quarter when running back Justin Rielly scored on a 34-yard touchdown run to give the Cardinals a 7-0 lead. The second quarter was where most of Spring Valley’s damage was done. During that time, the Cardinals scored four unanswered touchdowns that came from Tristan Neisinger, Rielly, quarterback Connor Ducklow and running back Brady Bednarek.

The explosive offensive output gave the Cardinals a 35-0 lead going into the half. The third and fourth quarters, consisting of mostly younger players getting varsity experience, included two more scores from Spring Valley, making the final score a 49-0 victory against Colfax.

Quarterback Ducklow completed three of his five pass attempts for a total of 115 passing yards and one touchdown, which earned him a quarterback rating of 143.8 on a scale of one to 158.3.

The next game for the 5-1 Spring Valley Cardinals is on Friday, Oct. 1, when they travel to Clear Lake to take on the 2-4 Warriors. That game is slated to get underway at 7 p.m.

Elmwood/Plum City remains in conference championship race after 20-0 victory over Cadott

Elmwood/Plum City remains in the hunt for a Dunn-St. Croix Conference championship after a 20-0 victory against Cadott on Friday night, their homecoming game. The win improves Elmwood/Plum City’s conference record to 3-1, just one game behind the firstplace Spring Valley Cardinals.

The scoring output began in the third quarter when Elmwood/Plum City running back Trevor Asher scored on a 59-yard touchdown run to take a 6-0 lead over Cadott. With two minutes to go in the fourth quarter, Asher again found the endzone; this time it was a 10yard run that gave Elmwood/Plum City a 140 advantage.

Less than 30 seconds later Cadott had the ball and was trying to mount a late comeback. Cadott quarterback Jordan Peters’ pass was intercepted by defensive back Luke Webb and was returned 70 yards for a defensive touchdown to seal the victory for Elmwood/Plum City. Asher was the breakout star in the performance. He had 37 carries for 237 yards and two touchdowns.

The next game for Elmwood/Plum City is on Friday, Oct. 1, on the road against Boyceville, another Dunn-St. Croix Conference opponent. That game is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m.

River Falls Wildcats and Sun Prairie Cardinals struggle for control of the ball in a rainy exhibition game at Sun Prairie Friday night. TheWildcats lost to their non-conference opponent 21-6.Photo courtesy of Garvey Images