By Scott “Coach” StankowskiAugust 24, 2012
Stevens Point– The SPASH Panthers roared to a 28-10 victory at home against Wausau West at Goerke Field under the Friday night lights. The Panthers held the lead the entire night behind a strong showing on the defensive front.
The game started out slow offensively for both teams in the first quarter. Surprisingly, both teams aired it out plenty with nothing to show for it. The Panthers held up their defensive end of the bargain with a lot of pressure on the quarterback by junior linebackers Tyler Jaworski and Sean Van Helden. Senior defensive back Kevin Slezak seemed to be around the ball on every play. Slezak easily lead the team in tackles during the first half.
With both teams feeling searching for a comfort level on offense, it looked as though it might be a completely defensive game. That was reinforced as SPASH junior Tim Manthe recovered a Wausau West fumble on West’s 24-yard line. That seemed to be the igniter that the offense was looking for as Zach Pozorski pounded out a 19 yd run, setting up a first and goal. That led to the first score of the game behind a run from Joey Flowerette on a 1-yard power dive.
Some excellent punting and kicking, including a touchback during the game, highlighted Wausau West’s special teams. It seemed as though the punting by West may have also worked in their favor as they pinned SPASH deep in their own territory.
After two failed running plays that nearly ended in a safety, quarterback Eric Zelhofer aired one out to Scott Walder for a 55 yard gain. That was quickly followed up by a Zelhofer 20 yard option gain. With the momentum growing in SPASH’s favor, Zelhofer threw his next pass and got a little to much pinky finger on it as it was picked off in the end zone by West.
The SPASH defense came up big and picked up the offense by shutting down West once again, leading to another nice West punt. The Panthers responded by marching down the field behind some nice receptions by Flowerette and again capping it off to Walden for a 22-yard touchdown off of a bootleg in the south end zone. The score was now 14-0.
Later in the quarter with the ball again fairly deep in their own territory, SPASH would score again on a methodical march down the field ending in a Zach Pozorski touchdown run with 45 seconds to go in the half. The Panthers headed into the tunnel with a 21-0 halftime lead.
The second half started with a deep kick by West and then a sputtering SPASH offense that allowed West to regain the ball with a short march to the end zone that put 7 on the board. West seemed to be gaining some momentum after picking up a fumble and then marching it 16 yards before failing to punch it in, they would have to settle for a field goal, making it 21-10.
In the fourth quarter, SPASH would get a little kick back in their swagger as Pozorski took the ball and pounded out a couple of great runs including a thirty two yard dagger rumble into the end zone giving the Panthers a 28-10 lead. This allowed coach McAdams to switch it up as he put in Ryan Sullivan at QB, who threw an out route interception to Drew Pearson for a seventy yard touchdown return. West would add two for their PAT. The Panthers regained the ball and did not allow West to handle it again. The boys in black and red could have scored again, but ended up kneeling on the ball to take the opener 28-18.
After the game, Aaron Winch, who had two crucial sacks during the game, as well as another Tackle For Loss (TFL), said that the defense never gave up and stayed focused. He added that Kevin Slezak is the ‘dynamite’ to the defense and gets them fired up.
Winch applauded coach McAdams for bringing a ‘team’ atmosphere back into the locker room and that football was fun again. Zach Pozorski, who led the team in rushing and had two touchdowns, was also happy to get the win. He was happy that the defense did their job and guaranteed that the offense would step it up next week against Oshkosh West and bring it.
Coach Pete McAdams was happy with the outcome, citing a few things that they will need to work on this upcoming week. It was clearly evident on the sidelines that his team was well prepared and that hard work, discipline and composure would lead to fun.
“Modeling this composure for the players helps them, we all make mistakes and if we as coaches focus on that, it is no good for the kids,” McAdams said. He added that this was a great group of players he is coaching.
McAdams thought the entire team showed tremendous effort and that the defensive line opened up some big alleys for players like Van Helden to sparkle under the lights tonight. Van Helden, McAdams said is an extremely explosive, powerful player.
Official Stats:
SPASH Football vs. Wausau West at Goerke Field – Aug. 24, 2012
SPASH West
First Downs 18 3
Rushing 41-215 30-33
Passing 11-20-2 5-15-0
Passing Yards 153 46
Total Yards 368 76
Fumbles-Lost 2-1 1-1
Penalties-Yards 4-30 5-40
Punts-Avg. 4-31.0 8-38.0
Score by Quarters
1 2 3 4 Final
Wausau West 0 0 10 8 – 18
SPASH 7 14 0 7 – 28
Scoring Summary
SP – Joey Flowerette 1 run (Conner Ford kick)
SP – Scott Walder 23 pass from Eric Zelhofer (Ford kick)
SP – Zach Pozorski 6 run (Ford kick)
WW – Chris Clementi 9 pass from Jordan Huehnerfuss (Lucas Bautch kick)
WW – FG Bautch 27
SP – Pozorski 37 run (Ford kick)
WW – Drew Pearson 73 interception return (Kyle Nickel pass from Huehnerfuss)
Individual Statistics
Rushing
West – Kallen Bentz 8-3, Dalton Decker 1-3, Jordan Huehnerfuss 8-(-43), Cole Radloff 5-59, Jacob Martin 1-(-1), Kyle Zimick 6-11, Brent Hayes 1-1.
SPASH – Zach Pozorski 26-157, Eric Zelhofer 6-74, Joey Flowerette 4-11, Ryan Sullivan 1-(-6), Mark Sebree 1-0, Team 3-(-21).
Passing
West – Jordan Huehnerfuss 5-15-0-46.
SPASH – Eric Zelhofer 11-19-1-153, Ryan Sullivan 0-1-1-0.
Receiving
West – Tyler Schertz 1-(-1), Chris Clementi 2-16, Kallen Bentz 1-10, Andrew Fischer 1-10, Kyle Zimick 0-11.
SPASH – Mitch Fuller 3-28, Scott Walder 2-82, Joey Flowerette 3-30, Nick Strigel 1-14, Zach Pozorski 2-(-1).
SPASH Notes: I asked Coach McAdams about his physique and how he held up as well. He was a bit coy and finally admitted that he wasn’t moving up and down the sidelines as quick as he wanted to and will work on some possible conditioning before the next home game. Time will tell. The Panthers travel to Oshkosh West next week.
