There are few if any obstacles to the motorist on their way through Spring Valley’s downtown business district en route to watch football on the old mill site. The same cannot be said for the Elmwood-Plum City Wolves’ attempt to best the Spring Valley Cardinals on Cardinal home turf Friday night.

In a hard fought 54-12 final, the Spring Valley Cardinals defended their home turf well, while the Wolves fumbled and lost the ball several times, resulting in a failure to make the most of scoring opportunities in the first half. Spending halftime outdoors as the Cardinals retreated to their Nest, the Wolves came back after the half to score two touchdowns and leave with some hard earned dignity, improving on their 54-8 result from last year against the Cardinals. The Wolves face off against Glenwood City on Friday November 6 at home, for a chance to even the playing field somewhat.

Meanwhile on Friday, the temperature outside dropped in game play from 34 degrees at kickoff to a chilly 28 degrees by the fourth quarter, leaving frosted white tips on the field grass. Overhead beside the announcer’s box, the brick ruin of the old Spring Valley mill tower rose high into the air, with colonies of grass visible on the far away top.

As to Friday night’s game play, Spring Valley started out strong after a reversal for short on down, taking over at the 41-yard line with a 56yard running touchdown made by the Cardinal’s #08 Justin Reilly with 7:17 left to go in the first quarter, though the extra field goal point following was missed. Turnover to Elmwood-Plum City following, followed by return.

Making the return for Elmwood-Plum City’s was the Wolves’ #23 Ben Luther tackled in turn by Reilly and Cardinal’s defensive lineman #75 Steve Mikla as Spring Valley fought to maintain its early lead over the Wolves. With a fumble on the 32-yard line the ball was turned over to Spring Valley, which made good use of it for much of the remainder of the game, buoyed by a strong offense that punched holes in the Wolves defense to open the way for more touchdowns, although the Wolves’ own Bryce Mark (#67) and Blake Severson (#50) managed to tackle #09 Connor Ducklow of the Cardinals, thereby holding back the Cardinal onslaught somewhat.

With a second touchdown made by Reilly for Spring Valley with 4:57 left in the first quarter followed by a successful point conversion by Ducklow, the score stood at 14-0 with the Cardinals leading as the first quarter came to an end. With plays interspersed by Halloween-themed music, the night was hard fought by Elmwood-Plum City as a near fully illuminated Moon rose in the sky above the field of battle, adding to the bright field lights that shone down from above on the old mill site.

With a third touchdown for Spring Valley coming early in the second quarter from Spring Valley’s Tyler Bowman (#12) followed by a fourth touchdown from #02 Brayden Wolf, the ball changed hands once again and a return was made for the Wolves by #15 Ethan Rupakus, leading to first and 10 for the wolves. With Wolves’ running back Trevor Asher (#21) making the return before being tackled by Spring Valley, the question of when or if the Wolves would be able to score against Spring Valley’s equally strong defense seemed very much in doubt—but score they did, and then once more , with just minutes to go in the fourth quarter.

Advancing into Cardinal territory with a series of mostly short run plays while keeping a close watch on the ball, Elmwood-Plum City put in the teamwork necessary for Asher to make it into the goal zone with 6:39 left on the clock. A second touchdown by Asher following in the fourth quarter made for a final score of 54-12.

Photo by Joseph Back.

CARDINALS

HOST AMERY FRIDAY

The Prescott Cardinals will close out their season Friday night at home against Amery. Prescott is 0-5 in Middle Border Conference play and 1-5 overall. Amery is 1-4 in league play. Prescott fell Friday night 35-0 At Saint Croix Central. At left, Prescott’s Sam Murphy looked for daylight against Saint Croix Central. At right, pictured are Cardinals (from left) Austin Fox, Benny Rohl, Cole Dravis and Shawn Thomason.

Photos by Faun Stanton.