EPPJ Outlasts Elkhorn Valley In County Slugfest

The Elgin Public/Pope John football team grinded out a 40-32 victory over Elkhorn Valley Friday in their season opener.

"It always feels good to get that win," stated EPPJ coach Randy Eisenhauer. "It's been a couple of years in the making. I go back to the summer. These kids worked hard, harder than the past. These kids had something they wanted to do. They wanted to get that win, they battled and we went through some injuries, but so did they (Elkhorn Valley). Give them credit, they played hard as well. To get that first W is great."

"I'm completely proud of my team," commented Elkhorn Valley coach Brendan Dittmer. "We only have 12 on the team, but only 11 were eligible to play tonight. To ask the boys to stand on the football field and make the plays they did, I'm proud of them. They're going to be thinking about the one or two plays they didn't make, but I told them to think about the 25 plays they made when they didn't have the energy to make those plays. We asked a lot of these kids and they rose to the occasion. It just didn't happen to go our way."

The Falcons got off to a hot start. After picking off the first pass of the game, Josh MacFarland scored on a 13-yard TD run. 

EPPJ answered with Conor Ramold and Kyle Schumacher touchdown runs and two point conversions to take a 10-point advantage.

Following a Wolfpack turnover on downs, Braedyn Ollendick connected on a 43-yard scoring pass to Brock Schaecher, cutting the deficit to four.

Ramold responded with a 12-yard TD run to push the EPPJ lead back up to double-digits.

MacFarland found pay dirt on a one-yard run to make the score 24-20 Wolfpack at half.

Elkhorn Valley retook the lead to start the second half when Carter Rautenberg broke free for a 43-yard touchdown scamper.

"To Elgin's credit, when we intercepted them and scored, it was a huge momentum shift," Dittmer spoke. "They responded, played smash-mouth football and took it to us there for a while. We did the same to start the third quarter. We didn't say much at halftime, but we came out and played smash-mouth football and did exactly what I wanted them to."

The lead did not last, as Hunter Reestman found Adam Dreger for a 19-yard scoring pass to reclaim the lead.

"We battled adversity the whole game," Reestman remarked. "We had guys go down (get injured). We were down, but we got that gut feeling that we couldn't quit. That's why we run extra in practice. We run sprints twice for that reason. We have to finish the game."

The Wolpack appeared to ice the game with Reestman's five-yard touchdown run with under eight minutes to play.

The Falcons did not go away and came within one score after a one-yard TD strike from Ollendick to Schaecher.

"They did everything I asked of them and more," Dittmer responded. "I told some of the seniors that was the hardest football game you have ever played in your lives. Building from there, the underclassmen will always play the game of football that way because of their effort tonight."

On EPPJ's next possession, the Wolpack fumbled the ball and the Falcons pounced on it.

Facing a fourth down in EPPJ territory, Reestman made the play of the game by picking off Ollendick's pass with 4:23 remaining.

"We were in our 4-2 defense," Reestman recalled. "I saw they were rolling to the left and Josh (MacFarland) is a great player and their go-to guy. He started leaking across and the quarterback kind of flipped it. That's when I knew that ball was mine and he cannot catch that. I either had to bat it down or catch it. Once I saw that thing in the air, I knew there was no way I was going to bat it down, that thing was mine."

Elkhorn Valley never got the ball back as the Wolfpack sealed the win. Their first win in over two years.

"It's unbelievable," Reestman added. "Me and Kyle (Schumacher) worked (hard) every single day. Our freshman year, we lost our last game to Clearwater and said 'We want to come back.' For two years we didn't have the work ethic that we do now. Those guys worked as hard as they could and that's what got us this win."

A big key to EPPJ's win was its stellar running attack. The Wolpack rushed for 320 yards led by Schumacher's 157 yards and one touchdown. Ramold ran for 86 yards and two TDs, while Reestman added 56 yards on the ground.

"This summer I did a lot of thinking," Eisenhaurer noted. "The last couple of years I've tried so many different things (offensively). I went back to what got us success before. We went back to our option game and sweeps. We're going to ground-and-pound and see what happens. It worked tonight."

The potent running attack opened up the passing game for EPPJ. After throwing a pick on his first pass, Reestman ended the game going five-of-eight for 95 yards and a score.

"Hunter is something and right now I'm in love with him," Eisenhaurer continued. "Hunter had a pretty good eye mess with an injury and could hardly see. He put some good passes in, but that doesn't happen without our running game. Our kids ground-and-pound and we got one over top."

MacFarland led the Falcons with 137 yards of total offense and two rushing TDs. Ollendick passed for 147 yards and two touchdowns and Schaecher caught four passes for 82 yards and two scores.

Both teams have a bye next week.

Elkhorn Valley (0-1) travels to Niobrara/Verdigre Sept. 7.

"We have a good opportunity in two weeks," Dittmer stated. "We are hurting, but we can have that feeling of victory in two weeks if we keep the momentum of the effort we wanted to give and the reason for the emotion."

Elgin Public/Pope John goes to Chambers/Wheeler Central Sept. 7.

"First thing is first, we're going to take care of ourselves next week," Eisenhaurer concluded. "This game banged up quite a few kids. We'll work next week, come back and work on the things we need to improve on. We'll watch film, figure out things we need to work on in practice all week and get ready for CWC the following week."