Superior Spartans

Spartans finish season Undefeated!

1934

Reprinted from the Superior Telegram | Story By Ken Olson:

Superior Spartans

Photo credit: Superior Telegram

The Superior High School football team put the finishing touches on an undefeated season with a 52-36 victory over the Eau Claire Memorial Old Abes Friday night at the NBC Spartan Sports Complex.

The Spartans complete play in the Big Rivers Conference with a record of 7-0. They also finish the season at 9-0 after their season-opening loss at Hopkins turned into a 1-0 forfeit victory when it was ruled earlier this week that the Royals used an ineligible player. Up next for Superior is the WIAA playoffs. The Spartans will play in Division 2 for the second straight year and will find out their opponent, date, site and time at a seeding meeting Saturday afternoon.

Friday night was a shootout from the opening kick until the final buzzer. Superior was near perfect in the first half, scoring on 5-of-6 possessions. The only time the Spartans didn’t score was when senior kicker McKenzie Schwarz hit the right upright on a 46-yard field-goal attempt as time expired.

Prior to that, Nick Mehlum was 13-of-14 passing for 252 yards and five touchdowns. For the game the senior was 17-of-21 for 302 yards and six touchdowns. Libal, who finished with six catches for 115 yards, caught Mehlum’s first two touchdown passes from 10 and 32 yards out. Beau Girard hauled in a 27-yard touchdown pass to give Superior a 21-14 lead with 7:20 left in the second quarter and Grant Hanson followed with a pair of 15-yard touchdown passes to give Superior a 35-14 halftime lead.

ECM quarterback Ben Everhart also threw a pair of touchdowns in the first half, 13 yards to Jake Ness and 57 yards to Bryce Rasmussen. The Old Abes came out on fire in the second half and quickly made it a 35-28 game on touchdown runs of 6 and 2 yards by Ness. The second score was set up when Brent Nicolet intercepted a Mehlum pass at midfield.

The Spartans put the fire out and made it a 38-28 game when Schwarz booted a 32-yard field goal with 1:23 left in the third quarter. Kyler Krob’s sack on the second play of the fourth quarter forced ECM to punt and five plays later Superior made the score 45-28 when Kennelly broke three for four tackles during his 28-yard touchdown run.

Four minutes later Girard’s second touchdown pass of the game, from 4 yards out, gave Superior a 52-28 lead. Ness scored his fourth touchdown on a 7-yard pass from Everhart with 2:29 remaining. Austin Bruce caught a pass from Everhart for the two-point conversion for the final points of the game.

SPARTAN SPIN: Schwarz was perfect on extra-point kicks going 7-for-7. … This is the third time the Spartans finished undefeated in the regular season. They went 9-0 in 1980 when assistant coach Rick Kennelly was a senior and in 1986 during DeMeyer’s senior year. … Garrett Hobson also had a sack for Superior. … Andrew Rieck and Chance Meier had sacks from ECM. … Five of the eight BRC teams made the playoffs.

Eau Claire Memorial…………. 7          7          14          8    —                   36

Superior……………………………… 7         28          3          14   —                   52

First Quarter

SHS — Jake Libal 10-yard pass from Nick Mehlulm (McKenzie Schwarz kick), 9:37.

ECM — Jake Ness 13-yard pass from Ben Everhart (David Webb kick), 3:04.

Second Quarter

SHS — Libal 32-yard pass from Mehlum (Schwarz kick), 11:54.

ECM — Bryce Rasmussen 57-yard pass from Everhart (Webb kick), 9:56.

SHS — Beau Girard 27-yard pass from Mehlum (Schwarz kick), 7:20.

SHS — Grant Hanson 15-yard pass for Mehlum (Schwarz kick), 5:05.

SHS — Hanson 15-yard pass from Mehlum (Schwarz kick), 1:49.

Third Quarter

ECM — Ness 6-yard run (Webb kick), 808.

ECM — Ness 2-yard run (Webb kick), 5:44.

SHS — Schwarz 33-yard field goal, 1:23.

Fourth Quarter

SHS — Ross Kennelly 28-yard run (Schwarz kick), 8:47.

SHS — Girard 4-yard pass from Mehlum (Schwarz kick), 4:30.

ECM — Austin Bruce 8-yard pass from Everhart (Everhart pass to Bruce), 2:29.

                                                  ECM                 SHS

First downs………………………… 18                     19

Total Yards……………………….. 354                   513

Rushes-yards…………………… 36-173             29-211

Passing yards……………………. 181                   302

Comp.-Att.-Int……………… 15-of-29-0       17-of-21-1

Punt Returns………………………. 0-0                  2-14

Kickoff Returns…………………. 6-140                5-61

Punts………………………………… 4-121                 0-0

Sacks…………………………………… 2                       2

Fumbles-Lost…………………….. 0-0                   1-1

Penalties-Yards…………………. 7-60                11-68

Time of Possession………….. 25:05                22:55

———

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING—ECM, Ben Everhart 18-94; Jake Ness 17-75; Tyson Humes 1-4. Superior, Ross Kennelly 20-142; Nick Mehlum 6-48; Mitch Anderson 1-2; Beau Girard 1-15; Tre Knight 1-4.

PASSING—ECM, Everhart 15-of-29-181. Superior, Mehlum 17-21-302.

RECEIVING—Mahlon Jones 4-33; Patrick Quigley 3-22; Nate Anderson 2-15; Austin Bruce 2-26; Ness 2-16; Everhart 1-12; Bryce Rasmussen 1-57. Superior, Jake Libal 6-115; Grant Hanson 6-85; Beau Girard 4-56; Mitch Anderson 3-46.

Defensive Tackles

Superior

………………………………………….. Tot.    Solo    Asst.

Ross Kennelly …………………….. 11        10          1

Jesse Polson……………………….. 9          7           2

Beau Girard…………………………. 6          5           1

Austin Arnovich……………………. 6          4           2

Garrett Hobson…………………… 7          5           2

Beau Reder………………………….. 5          4           1

Deshon Pleau………………………. 5          4           1

Grant Hanson………………………. 4          3           1

Kyler Krobe…………………………. 3          2           1

Blake Sharpe……………………….. 2          2           0

Josiah McDonald………………… 2          2           0

Jake Libal…………………………….. 1          1           0

Joey Miller…………………………… 1          1           0

Mitch Anderson…………………… 1          1           0

Total…………………………………… 64        52         12

Eau Claire Memorial

Jonah Barstad……………………… 1          0           1

Brent Nicolet……………………….. 1          0           0

Zach Wolfe…………………………… 4          4           0

Tate Klauk……………………………. 2          2           0

David Webb………………………… 3          3           0

Bryce Rasmussen………………… 3          3           0

Nate Anderson…………………….. 1          1           0

Michael Vanigan…………………… 1          1           0

Austin Bruce………………………… 1          1           0

Adam Krajewski…………………… 2          2           0

Andrew Rieck………………………. 1          1           0

Nick Russell…………………………. 5          5           0

Derek Mroczenski……………….. 2          2           0

Darnell Harvey…………………….. 1          1           0

Ben Laube……………………………. 3          3           0

Chance Meier………………………. 7          7           0

Ben Bergman……………………….. 1          0           0

Total…………………………………… 42        40          2




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