Other local football teams remain in action as the final weeks of the regular season come to a close. The Spring Valley Cardinals, following a 43-7 blowout victory against Clear Lake on Friday, Oct. 1, are now two games clear of second- place Boyceville in the Dunn-St. Croix County Conference standings and are eyeing a conference championship.

The Spring Valley game against Clear Lake was a slow and steady scoring attack that contributed to a lopsided result. All six of the touchdowns scored by the Cardinals came from the rushing attack. The first points of the evening for Spring Valley were scored by Tristan Neisinger, who punched in a one-yard touchdown run with 46 seconds in the first half to give the Cardinals a 6-0 lead.

Three minutes later, Brady Bednarek of the Cardinals scored on an eight-yard touchdown run. After fairly eventless subsequent possessions, Spring Valley scored again with 16 seconds remaining in the first half when quarterback Connor Ducklow went careening through the defensive line for a two-yard touchdown run to give Spring Valley a 22-0 lead.

The rest of the second half was essentially a formality, as the Spring Valley offense couldn’t be stopped, and the Clear Lake offense struggled to ever get any rhythm going. In the third quarter, Ducklow scored on a 35-yard run and Diego Schmitt scored on a five-yard touchdown gain to make the score 36-0.

Each team scored a touchdown in the closing minutes of the fourth quarter to make the final score 43-7 in favor of the Spring Valley Cardinals. The rushing attack for the Cardinals was a team effort. Of the seven Spring Valley players with rushing yards, five of them had over 50, and five different rushers had at least one touchdown run.

With the victory, Ryan Kapping’s Cardinal roster improves to 6-1 for the season, including a flawless 5-0 record in Dunn-St. Croix Conference play. Spring Valley has all but wrapped up a conference championship for the 2021 season. On Friday, Oct. 8, the Cardinals will host the Turtle Lake Lakers with a chance to clinch the conference title. The game against Turtle Lake is slated to begin at 7 p.m.

Elmwood/Plum City falls to Boyceville 28-0

The Elmwood/Plum City Wolves struggled to get any offense going against Boyceville on the road on Friday, Oct. 1, a game that the Wolves lost 28-0 to drop to 3-2 in Dunn-St. Croix Conference play.

The blowout loss for Elmwood/Plum City dropped theWolves into a four-way tie for second place in the conference standings with Boyceville, Glenwood City and Turtle Lake. With only two weeks remaining in the regular season, it will be essentially impossible to catch Spring Valley in first place in the conference standings.

The Wolves have struggled throughout the 2021 season in keeping up with other local highscoring teams. For example, Boyceville has averaged 29.1 points per game this season. The Bulldogs have 584 rushing yards for the season and 1,572 yards through the air attack. Elmwood/ Plum City, which is a young roster, has averaged 13.4 points per game and has accumulated 289 passing yards and 1,431 rushing yards.

TheWolves will look to bounce back against Colfax on Friday, Oct. 8. That game will be played in Colfax and will begin at 7 p.m.

River Falls High School routs West Salem 41-7 in homecoming victory

The River Falls High School Wildcats, in front of a packed, rowdy homecoming crowd, defeated West Salem 41-7 on Friday, Oct. 1, to take a commanding lead in the Mississippi Valley Conference standings that all but secured a conference championship.

The highly anticipated Friday night matchup between West Salem and River Falls featured two teams that went into the game with 4-0 records in Mississippi Valley Conference play. The winner of the game would have not only a one-game advantage in the standings but would also have the matchup tiebreaker.

In the opening minutes of the River Falls homecoming game, senior running back Cole Evavold got the scoring started with a 14-yard touchdown run which was followed by a successful PAT to give theWildcats a 7-0 lead.

The West Salem offense was quick to strike as well. A few minutes later, West Salem quarterback Brett McConkey threw a perfect 67-yard touchdown pass to junior wide receiver Brennan Kennedy. Asuccessful PAT tied the game 7-7 as the second quarter was set to begin.

TheWildcats were in full control for the next 24 minutes of game time. The second quarter saw only two scores, both of them by River Falls. The first was a two-yard touchdown run by Evavold and the second was a 13-yard touchdown pass from senior quarterback Vito Massa to senior wide receiver Michael Schurman. The back-to-back touchdowns gave the Wildcats a commanding 21-7 lead going into the halftime break.

River Falls continued its scoring barrage in the third quarter, as Ryan Scherz’s roster added two more touchdowns in the third to essentially ice the game with a 34-7 lead. An additional touchdown was added in the fourth quarter that made the final score a 41-7 RFHS win.

Following the lopsided victory, River Falls is now one game ahead of West Salem in the standings, essentially making it a two-game advantage. If the Wildcats can win one of their final two games, they will be crowned Mississippi Valley Conference champions in their first year in the conference.

TheWildcats will get that opportunity on Friday night when they travel to Onalaska in a game that is slated to begin at 7 p.m.