The Ellsworth Panthers continued their strong regular season performance in the Middle Border Conference with a 42-13 homecoming victory against the Osceola Chieftains on Friday, Sept. 30.

With the victory, the Panthers improved to 6-1 overall and 5-0 in Middle Border action.

Ellsworth remains alone atop the conference standings and only Baldwin-Woodville is within one game of a tie for first place. Ells worth head coach Rob Heller spoke about his program controlling its own destiny moving forward.

“With our win Friday we do control our own destiny and these guys have played themselves into a conversation of conference champions for a third straight season,” Heller said. “If we take care of business up the road on Friday we will clinch at least a share of the championship.”

Whether it was getting one step closer to a conference championship or playing in front of a raucous homecoming crowd, the Ellsworth Panthers came out firing on Friday night. Junior quarterback Grivn Blomberg accounted for Ellsworth's first two scores of the game.

The first was four minutes into the first quarter when he capped ou a long scoring drive with a one-yard touchdown run. Four minutes later, he connected with senior wide receiver Lance Gipford on a 75-yard touchdown pass. Blomberg also punched in the two-point conversion to make it 14-0 Ellsworth.

Osceola responded three minutes later with a 67-yard touchdown pass when senior Garrett Slater connected with junior running back Teagan Viebrock to make it a one-score game, 14-7, with one minute remaining in the first quarter.

However, Osceola did little to slow down the aforementioned Blomberg, who responded with another score for Ellsworth. With three minutes left in the second quarter, Blomberg broke a couple of tackles en route to a 25-yard touchdown run to make it 21-7 for the Panthers going into halftime. Heller spoke about Blomberg’s development since taking over as the starter in week three.

"Griu has been improving week to week. It has been nice watching coach Janke devel- op him and watching Griu grow as a varsity quarterback,” Heller said. “I have been really pleased with his development as a runner.

He’s no Jack Janke yet, but he is developing his game nicely. If he continues this progression we are going to be in a really good place soon.”

Even though Ellsworth had a two-possession lead going into the second half, the Panthers didn't slow down ouensively. Se nior running back Bo Hines scored the lone touchdown of the third quarter on a 12-yard touchdown run and then the opening TD of the fourth quarter with a five-yard scamper to make it 36-7, Ellsworth. By the time the clock hit triple zeroes, Ellsworth had secured the 42-13 victory over Osceola. Heller spoke about that second half and the continued dominance over the Chieftains.

“As far as the game is concerned we played a really good second half. Our defense continued to play well stopping the run,” Heller said. "Ouense got clicking in the second half and put the game away in the third quarter. I would like to see our special teams improve, we need to start having some explosive plays in that facet of our game.”

Heller spoke about the divculties that homecoming week presents, especially in terms of distractions. He also spoke about how the school and community did a great job of rallying around the team during one of the most important weeks of the year.

“I feel like I share a strong dislike for homecoming week like every other coach in the state of Wisconsin, it is a week full of craziness and distractions like no other,” Heller said. “With that being said, our high school and community do a great job with the fes- tivities, our teaching stau have a great time with our kids and we try to do our part on Friday and wrap the week up with a victory. As coaches, we just try to make sure the players are focused and ready to go on Friday night. Our last two homecoming crowds have been huge and I think our guys feed ou their energy.”

While homecoming week certainly has high stakes, so does the week eight game on the road against the Prescott Cardinals in the Highway 10 rivalry game. Prescott has stumbled in recent weeks – losing four games in a row – but anything can happen in a gritty high school rivalry game. Coach Heller spoke about the importance of that road game against Prescott.

“I feel like the last few years our players have been doing a great job of just focusing on going 1-0 each week,” Heller said. “Now that we are playou eligible, that conference championship is the next box to check on our list. We will make sure we do our best to go 1-0 this week against our Highway 10 rival Prescott who will come out swinging on Friday.”

That rivalry game is scheduled for Friday, Oct. 7, on the road against Prescott. That contest is slated to begin at 7 p.m.

The Ellsworth football team rides through the annual homecoming parade before competing in the game later that night against Osceola on Friday, Sept. 30. Photo by Sarah Nigbor