Spartans denied playoff berth
ECN ends Superior's season with 34-20 loss
- SHS Football
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The season came to a surprising end for the Superior High School football team with a 34-20 loss to the Eau Claire North Huskies Friday night before a Senior Night crowd at Ole Haugsrud Field.
Just two weeks ago, the Spartans needed one win with two games remaining to advance to the WIAA playoffs for the third straight season. And it just happened that those two games were against the bottom two teams in the Big Rivers Conference.
But after a 28-14 loss last week at River Falls, Superior needed a win Friday night over the Huskies and they were unable to do so, thus ending its season with records of 3-6 overall and 3-4 in the BRC.
The Spartans looked good at the beginning of the game and took a 7-0 lead on their second possession as Ethan Taylor scored from 5 yards out and David Zastrow kicked the extra point with 6:08 remaining in the first quarter.
Helping set up Superior’s touchdown was a 36-yard run by Dan Quade and the blocking of Nikola Bogojevic, a 5-foot-10, 285-pound nose guard, who was put in at fullback and led Taylor into the end zone untouched.
Superior’s defense forced North to punt on its next possession, but the Spartans fumbled the kick and the Huskies recovered at the 21-yard line.
Four plays later North’s Tyler Sonsalla caught a 10-yard touchdown pass from Brett Bodenburg. The Huskies missed the extra point, leaving the Spartans with a 7-6 lead.
ECN took a 13-7 lead on another Bodenburg touchdown pass with 7:37 left in the second quarter.
Already trailing by six points, things got worse for the Spartans when they lost quarterback Kellen McCoshen to an unknown injury with less than a minute remaining in the first half.
With junior quarterback Rob Dembroski out ill, sophomore Nolan LaPorte took over for McCoshen. LaPorte went on to complete a pass for no gain and throw three incomplete passes as the first half came to an end with Superior trailing 13-7.
The Huskies took the second-half kick and took a 21-7 lead as Jordan Dickerson scored a short touchdown and Bodenburg completed a pass on the two-point conversion.
Things seemed to get worse for the Spartans as the Huskies intercepted a LaPorte pass. But just a couple of plays later Jake Turkowski got Superior the ball back with a fumble recovery.
That gave the Spartans a spark and a handful of plays later Taylor ran around the right end untouched for his second TD of the game, this one from 5 yards out. Zastrow’s kick brought Superior within 21-14 with 4:49 left in the third quarter.
The Huskies came right back and took a 27-14 lead on a 6-yard pass from Bodenburg to Grant Lokken with two minutes left in the third quarter.
Superior caught a break with a fumble recovery in ECN territory and a couple of minutes later Chad Murray scored from the 2-yard line with 6:12 remaining. The Spartans missed the extra point, leaving them trailing 27-20.
North recovered Superior’s on-side kick attempt and drove deep into Superior territory, but the Spartans’ defense held and took over on their won 24-yard line with 3:46 remaining.
The Huskies sealed their victory when Sonsalla picked off a pass and returned it 63 yards for a touchdown with 3:04 remaining. Bodenburg booted the extra point for a 34-20 ECN advantage.
SPARTAN SPIN: Even though ECN was just 3-6, 3-4 on the season, Bodenburg led the BRC in passing yards and Sonsalla went into the game with a league-high 419 yards receiving. Bodenburg passed for more than 1,000 yards this season. … The Spartans had their two-year streak snapped of making the playoffs. Prior to making the playoffs in 2007, Superior’s previous post-season appearance was in 1991. … Spartan senior Bryan Zuchowski picked up his first sack of the season midway through the second quarter.
Eau Claire North Huskies 6 7 14 7 34
Superior Spartans 7 0 7 6 20
First Quarter
SHS—Ethan Taylor 4-yard run (David Zastrow kick), 6:08.
ECN—Brett Bodenburg 10-yard pass to Tyler Sonsalla (kick failed), 3:20.
Second Quarter
ECN—Bodenburg 22-yard pass to Grant Lokken (Bodenburg kick), 11:37.
Third Quarter
ECN—Jordan Dickerson 1-yard run (Mitch DeGrasse pass to Sonsalla), 9:43.
SHS—Taylor 3-yard run (Zastrow kick), 4:49.
ECN—Bodenburg 4-yard pass to Lokken), 2:00.
Fourth
SHS—Chad Murray, 3-yard run (kick failed), 6:12.
ECN—Sonsalla 60-yard interception return (Bodenburg), 3:04.
Team stats
ECN SHS
First downs 14 8
Rushes - yards 34-54 34-115
Passing yards 211 51
Comp - att - int 21-40-0 6-23-3
Pass completions - attempts 21-40 6-23
Passing yardage 211 51
Return yards 35 84
Punts - average 4-30.8 4-29.8
TD - int 3-0 0-3
Total plays 74 57
Total offense 265 166
Fumbles - lost 2-1 2-1
Penalties - yards 8-70 4-41
Defensive sacks - yards lost 2-13 1-10
Time of possession 25:24 22:36
3rd down efficiency 5 for 17 2 for 13
4th down efficiency 3 for 6 3 for 6
Punts - average 4-30.8 4-29.8
Individual statistics
Rushing: ECN—Jordan Dickerson, 16-47; Brett Bodenburg, 7-24; Seth Hurt, 8-8; Austin Rieder, 1-(minus 1); Nick Hundt, 1-(minus 24). SHS—Dan Quade, 6-40; Chad Murray, 6-20; Zach Colvin, 6-18; Ethan Taylor, 5-17; Zach Erickson, 1-14; AJ Soland, 2-4; Nolan LaPorte, 2-3; Kellen McCoshen, 6-(minus 1).
Passing: ECN—Bodenburg, 21-39-0-211; Johon Poppe, 0-1-0-0. SHS—McCoshen, 3-8-0-35; LaPorte, 3-15-3-16.
Receiving: ECN—Tyler Sonsalla, 7-81; Grant Lokken, 5-56; Eric Hestekin, 4-34; Nick Risler, 2-17; Austin Rieder, 1-14; James Hennick, 1-9; Dickerson, 1-0. SHS—Colvin, 2-9; Mike LaValley, 1-25; Murray, 1-13; Soland, 1-4; Jake Turkowski, 1-0.
Defense
Superior
Name Tkl Ast Sac TFL Int
Taylor, Ethan 11 4 0.0 1.5 0
Turkowski, Jake 8 0 0.0 0.0 0
Colvin, Zach 8 1 0.0 0.0 0
LaValley, Mike 6 1 0.0 0.0 0
Bogojevic, Nikola 6 3 0.0 1.0 0
Gordon, Josh 6 1 0.0 0.0 0
Eisenmann, George 5 4 0.0 0.5 0
Soland, AJ 5 4 0.0 1.0 0
Zuchowski, Byron 3 1 1.0 2.0 0
Ramirez, Rafael 2 1 0.0 0.0 0
Quade, Dan 1 0 0.0 0.0 0
McCoshen, Kellen 1 1 0.0 0.0 0
Plunkett, Tyler 1 1 0.0 0.0 0
Bronson, Andrew 1 1 0.0 0.0 0
Butera, Jordan 1 1 0.0 0.0 0
#43 0 0 0.0 0.0 0
Total: 66 24 1.0 6.0 0
Eau Claire North
Lawrence, Andrew 8 1 0.5 0.5 0
#45 6 1 0.5 0.5 0
DeGrasse, Mitch 3 0 0.0 1.0 0
Wampole, Mitch 3 0 0.0 0.0 0
Hermann, Tyler 3 0 0.0 0.0 1
Eisold, Dean 2 0 0.0 1.0 0
Rieder, Austin 2 0 1.0 1.0 0
Holman, Jesse 2 0 0.0 0.0 0
Dehnhoff, Logan 2 0 0.0 0.0 0
Hundt, Nick 1 0 0.0 0.0 1
Clark, Jordan 1 0 0.0 0.0 0
Holtz, Nick 1 0 0.0 0.0 0
Hestekin, Eric 1 0 0.0 0.0 0
Severson, Kyle 1 0 0.0 0.0 0
#36 1 0 0.0 0.0 0
Brown, Ryan 1 0 0.0 0.0 0
Sonsalla, Tyler 0 0 0.0 0.0 1
Total: 40 2 2.0 4.0 3
Tags: sports, superior, spartans, football
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