Spartans blanked at ECM, 14-0

The Eau Claire Memorial Old Abes scored a pair of fourth-quarter touchdowns in a 14-0 win over the Superior High School football team Friday night in the Big Rivers Conference opener for both teams at Carson Park in Eau Claire.

After three scoreless quarters, and must of the fourth, the Old Abes scored the only touchdown they needed when quarterback Ben Everhart lobbed an 12-yard touchdown pass to Andrew Davis in the back right corner of the end zone. Carter Webster kicked the extra point to give ECM a 7-0 lead with 5:35 remaining.

Superior responded with a promising drive and moved into position to tie the game on its next possession. After a first down catch by senior wide receiver Jack Kline, a 26-yard half-back pass from Aaron Wakefield-Zubiate to Kyle Turkowski gave the Spartans a first down at the Old Abe 37-yard line.

But on the next play a botched handoff resulted in Old Abes’ Josh Thalacker recovering a fumble with a 4:30 remaining.

Six plays later the Old Abes sealed their victory with Aaron Faacks’ 16-yard touchdown run. Webster’s kick made the score 14-0 with 1:02 remaining.

With a helpful kickoff return to the Spartans’ 34-yard line by Wakefield-Zubiate, Superior tried its best to get on the board before the end of the game but to no avail.

With less than a minute remaining to create a successful drive, Superior quarterback Spencer Urban threw three complete passes downfield but the game ended with ECM’s Chas Nicolet intercepting a pass in the end zone.

“To be quite frank, we missed some execution” SHS coach Bob DeMeyer said. “We didn’t get it in there and that hurt us. We needed to focus and execute.”

The Spartans also had an unsuccessful scoring drive earlier in the second quarter, capped at Eau Claire’s 3-yard line, along with a missed field goal on the same drive.

DeMeyer added that even with the loss he gave his defense a ton of credit.

“They bailed us out of some bad situations,” DeMeyer said. “They played physical, inspired football. Memorial just found some things they could hurt us with. I don’t blame the kids at all. No plays were made off of a lack of effort.”

Each team rushed for 129 yards and Superior outgained ECM 149-127 in passing yards.

Wakefield-Zubiate led the Spartans on the ground with 120 yards on 16 carries. Quarterback Spencer Urban completed 10-of-30 pass attempts for 123 yards with Jack Kline catching five passes for 56 yards and Kyle Turkowski catching four passes for 59 yards.

The Old Abes got 104 yards rushing from Faacks and 48 more from Nathan Pientok. Everhart completed 16-of-33 passes for 127 yards. His main target was Davis, who caught eight passes for 68 yards and a touchdown.

On defense, Willie Wells and Valentine led the Spartans with 8 ½ tackles. Erickson added eight tackles and Urban had six.

Sam Glaser and Tanner Hoversholm led ECM with eight and five tackles, respectively.

The visiting Spartans had a great chance to get on the scoreboard first late in the first half when they recovered a fumble near midfield and on next play Wakefield-Zubiate carried the ball 49 yards to the Old Abes’ 3-yard line.

But after a quarterback sack, an incomplete pass and a 2-yard run, Superior missed a 22-yard field-goal attempt.

The Old Abes had their own chance to score in the first quarter when Ross Brandvold recovered a fumble at the SHS 43-yard line. But ECM could only advance the ball to the 29-yard line and after a loss of 13 yards, were forced to punt from the 41.

Poor field position hurt Superior in the second half with three of its six drives starting inside the 10-yard line and two others starting at the 29 and 27.

Superior (1-1 overall, 0-1 BRC) hosts River Falls at 7 p.m. Friday. River Falls (2-0, 1-0) defeated Eau Claire North 36-0 Friday night.

SPARTAN SPIN: Superior lost senior captain Trent Olson to an arm injury in the second quarter. The status of the linebacker and split end will be known later in the week. … Willie Wells and Nate Sanders recovered fumbles for Superior. … Anthony Valentine, Ben Erickson and Clayton Chruscielski recorded quarterback sacks. … Memorial’s Faacks intercepted a Urban pass attempt on the last play of the game in the end zone. ... ECM (1-1, 1-0) is at Menomonie (2-0, 1-0) on Friday.

Superior 0 0 0 0 — 0

Eau Claire Memorial 0 0 0 14 — 14

First Quarter

No scoring.

Second Quarter

No scoring

Third Quarter

No scoring

Fourth Quarter

ECM—Andrew Davis, 12-yard pass from Ben Everhart (Carter Webster kick), 5:35.

ECM—Aaron Faacks, 16-yard run (Webster kick), 1:02.

Team stats

ECM SHS

First Downs 11 13

First Downs: R-P-Pen. 7-4-0 4-9-0

Rushing Yards 129 129

Passing: Comp.-Att 16-33 11-36

Passing Yards 127 149

Passing: TDs-Int 1-0 0-1

Total Plays 70 66

Total Offense 256 278

Fumbles-Lost 2-0 3-0

Penalties-Yards 10-70 3-40

Def. Sacks-Yards Lost 0-0 3/-15

Time of Poss. 28:24 19:36

3rd Down Eff. 3-of-19 2-of-13

4th Down Eff. 0-of-1 0-of-1

Punts-Avg 9-39.7 8-32.3

Individual stats

Rushing

SHS—Aaron Wakefield-Zubiate, 16-120; Anthony Valentine, 1-7; Trent Olson, 4-6; Ben Erickson, 1-1; Spencer Urban, 8-(-5). Totals: 30-129. ECM—Aaron Faacks, 25-104; Nathan Pientok, 6-48; Derek Larson, 1-(-2); Stephen McDew, 1-(-5); Ben Everhart, 4-16.

Passing

SHS—Urban, 10-30-123; Wakefield-Zubiate, 1-2-26; Nick Mehlum, 0-3-0; Valentine, 0-1-0. ECM—Everhart, 16-33-127.

Receiving

SHS—Jack Kline, 5-56; Kyle Turkowski, 4-59; Valentine, 1-24; Erickson, 1-10. ECM—Drew Davis, 8-68; Pientok, 2-16; Tye McLaughlin, 2-10; Faacks, 2-(-8); Mitch Knapp, 1-28; Sam Moskal, 1-13.

Defense

SHS

Tkl Solo Ast TFL

Willie Wells 8.5 8 1 1.5

Anthony Valentine 8.5 6 5 3.5

Ben Erickson 8 7 2 3

Spencer Urban 6 6 0 0

Nate Sanders 5.5 4 3 0

Chruscielski Clayton 3 3 0 2

Jake Libal 3 2 2 0

Morgan Johnson 2 2 0 0

Nik Mattson 1.5 1 1 0

Trent Olson 1 1 0 0

Lukas Gall 1 1 0 0

Jaylon Brown 1 1 0 1

Totals 49 42 14 11

ECM

Sam Glaser 8 8 0 0

Tanner Hoversholm 5 4 2 0

TaSawn Burton 3 3 0 0

Zach Ruhland 2 2 0 0

Derek Mroczenski 2 2 0 0

Scott Thiesing 2 2 0 1

Matthew Stegge 2 1 2 0

Chas Nicolet 1.5 1 1 0

Brendan Kwick 1.5 1 1 0

Justin Lund 1 1 0 0

Mitch Knapp 1 1 0 0

Sam Moskal 1 1 0 0

Derek Larson 1 0 2 0

Ben Laube 0.5 0 1 0

Aaron Faacks 0 0 0 0

Totals 35 30 10 1

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