The Spring Valley Cardinals were defeated by the Boyceville Bulldogs by a score of 30-0 in Boyceville Friday night.

On a brisk fall night, it was a one-score game until deep in the first half. With 2:20 remaining in the second quarter, Boyceville scored and pushed in a 2-point conversion to take a 16-0 lead.

The Bulldogs followed this up with a very short kick that left Spring Valley with excellent field position near the 50-yard line.

Two plays that resulted in negative yards later, and the Cardinals were looking at a 3^rd and 12 with 0:51 left on the clock. Quarterback Wyatt Goveronski rolled out and took a deep shot down the sideline into double coverage. The pass was on the mark, splitting the defenders perfectly, but the receiver couldn’t come up with the catch.

That play was sort of a microcosm of the night for the Cardinals; they did a lot of things right, but couldn’t come up with the big play when they needed it the most. On 4^th and 12, Spring Valley punted it, and Boyceville downed the ball and go into the half up by 16.

The Bulldogs got the ball first in the second half. A penalty pushed them back to a 1^st and 20, but they got all those yards back and more as two strong rushes made it a 3^rd and 1. Spring Valley’s defense came up big for them, getting a takeaway on a forced fumble and setting up their offense with a 1^st and 10 from the Boyceville 45.

The Cardinals’ run game got going as Kaden Robelia and Cade Stasiek combined to make it a 3^rd and manageable, and Goveronski converted. Robelia got the carry again to make it 2nd and 3, but that would be it for this drive as Goveronski was sacked two plays in a row on third and fourth downs and turned it over with 7:00 remaining in the third quarter.

Boyceville fumbled it again on third down, but they recovered it and lined up to punt. It was a fake, and everybody fell for it. The Bulldogs kicker tucked the ball and ran it 22 yards down field to the 36, and all the wind just seemed to come out of the sails for Spring Valley after that.

The Bulldogs broke off a 29-yard touchdown run two plays later and converted the 2-point attempt to take a commanding 24-0 lead with 2:38 remaining in the quarter.

Spring Valley began the following drive strong, pushing out towards midfield. Stasiek carried it nine yards out to the 50 before getting pushed out of bounds, and Goveronski converted as the clock expired. Robelia and Stasiek combined for 8 yards down to the 39 as the clock expired.

The fourth quarter started with a fumble at the line by Spring Valley recovered by Diego Schmitt. The Cardinals ran it right back with Schmitt, and he converted, taking it down to the 33.

Spring Valley went to the air with an attempt to Trevor Forster, but it fell incomplete. Stasiek got the carry next but was tackled for a loss, resulting in a Cardinals 3^rd and 15. This was mitigated by a Bulldog facemasking penalty, turning it into a 3^rd and 5 at the 22-yard line.

They would ultimately convert, but an errant pass into the end zone was intercepted with just 8:00 left on the clock, removing any real hope of a last-minute comeback for the Cardinals. And indeed, on the following 3^rd and 5 for Boyceville, they broke out for a 75-yard touchdown, bringing the final score to 30-0 after the missed 2-point attempt.

It was the last hurrah for a Cardinals team that is losing a number of their biggest playmakers including Goveronski, Robelia and Schmitt, who was tied for player of the year honors in the Dunn-St. Croix Conference. For Goveronski, it’s a bittersweet moment in time.

“Since our last conference game of the year, I mean it was close everything, and they're a great team, but at the end of the night, they fixed more mistakes than we did. It's all kudos to them. I mean, we tried to keep chipping away at them, but they're a great team,” Goveronski said. “You have to soak every moment in and just live everything up. In that last half of the game, I knew this was going to be it. You just gotta go balls to the walls, soak everything in. This group has been so close ever since freshman year, ever since we've been young. All the support and everything, it sucks to see it all go, but it's such a beautiful thing.”

Stasiek is the only one of the top four offensive players that will be returning. He said although they played hard, they struggled to make the big plays.

“There were a couple of plays where I think if we just had one more extra block, we could have broke one. It just happens,” Stasiek said. “I look forward to next season, we have some talent coming back. Some sophomores played this year, so it's nice that they got experience. We’ll be missing a lot of core guys like Diego Schmitt, the best player in the conference, Player of the Year. Wyatt, our quarterback, our leader, we're going to miss him, and we're going to miss the three seniors from our starting line.”

According to Head Coach Ryan Kapping, Stasiek is going to be stepping into that leadership role next season to fill the spot that Goveronski will be vacating.

“Cade was our guy that would have been the backup this year if something happened to Wyatt, so Stasiek will slide in at quarterback next year,” Kapping said. “He can do a lot of things, he's talented kid. He filled in last year for a few games at quarterback when Wyatt was injured and did well. Next year, it'll be his offense to run.”

For anybody who was wondering, in addition to playing starting quarterback next season, Stasiek will still maintain the plethora of other roles he plays in this offense, including place kicker. Although, it might be difficult for him to lead the team in receptions again.

The Cardinals will also have to replace their second leading receiver in Robelia who, more importantly to the Spring Valley style of offense, represents the last of all top four of the rushers on their team who will not be there to fill that role next season (Schmitt, Goveronski and Stasiek being one, two and three). After playing such a large part of this team over the last seasons, Robelia has gained a lot of perspective.

“I just want the younger people to know that to never give up every single play. The year goes on fast, and you should play every down like it was your last,” Robelia said. “There's really nothing else to it. Just keep on grinding, keep on going.”

Kapping has been in this situation before many times and sees the silver lining in it all.

“I am really proud of our team, we did a lot of great things. We’re going to continue to try to chip away and do the things we do so that we can be back in this position again making a playoff run a year from now,” Kapping said. “It was a tough year for some of the seniors that were in and out of the lineup because of injuries, never getting to gel and play together as a whole group all year, which is frustrating for them. But because of that, some sophomores played more than they probably would have this year. We took our lumps a little bit at times with some of those guys getting more consistent, but hopefully that'll pay dividends in the future.”