Mid-County finishes strong in loss
By JEFF LAMPE
For The Weekly Post
BUSHNELL – COVID-19 protocols sidelined the Elmwood-Brimfield football team for a game and sapped the team’s energy heading into the second half of a road game vs. West Prairie. But ultimately last Saturday, COVID and West Prairie were not enough to slow E-B in a 52-36 victory.
The Trojans (2-0, 1-0 Prairieland Blue) ran for 362 yards and averaged 8.4 per carry in the win, which came after players had to spend much of the past two weeks in quarantine following a positive COVID test.
That layoff didn’t matter much early, as E-B “came out on fire’ according to Coach Todd Hollis. But it seemed to have an impact as the game wore on.
“It was a 20-minute halftime and I think when we came out it looked a little bit like some old men after a long car ride,” Hollis said.
E-B had rumbled to a 44-14 lead by intermission as Max Thompson ran for three touchdowns, Craig Ramirez had two and Westin McCormick returned an interception for a score.
But after the long intermission, E-B fumbled on its first two possessions and gave up scores both times.
“When you get tired, those are the sort of things that start to happen,” Hollis said. “Your fine-tuning stuff kind of goes away.”
E-B bounced back, though, and added a final running touchdown by Charlie Shissler in the fourth quarter. West Prairie (0-3, 0-1) scored with 14.6 seconds left.
E-B fullback Hunter Damron wound up as the team’s leading rusher with 120 yards on 10 carries.
“The thing with this group right now is they are cheering for each other when they do well and they pick each other up and pat each other on the back when something goes wrong,” Hollis said.
E-B is home Friday to face Prairieland Conference newcomer Macomb (2-1), which suffered a 48-0 beatdown against Knoxville last week. Prior to that, Macomb had twice defeated West Prairie.
“We’re not going to suddenly come out and run our guys into shape in a week,” Hollis said. “But just being on the field and active for an hour and a half a day will make a huge difference.”
Princeville 36
Ottawa Marquette 14
PRINCEVILLE – The Princes overcame six turnovers to win a frigid game last Wednesday.
“Besides the turnovers I thought we played pretty well,” Princeville Coach Jon Carruthers said. “The line did a really good job and we kind of once again opened it up and were more balanced. The passing game is really helping open up the run game.”
Ottawa Marquette (1-2, 1-2 LTC) scored first, but Princeville answered on its first play from scrimmage, as quarterback Sam Streitmatter hooked up with wideout Denver Hoerr for an 84-yard scoring pass.
Streitmatter went on to complete 12 of 21 passes for 261 yards, with the one TD and two interceptions.
“Our pass protection was really good,” Carruthers said. “We’ve been really working on that since I guess we’re kind of a passing team this year.”
Even so, the Princes still like to run the ball plenty. Senior Hunter Boland ran for scores of 30, 10 and 43 yards and finished with 154 yards on 22 carries.
Princeville also made the most of six turnovers by run-oriented Marquette, which managed just 3.5 yards per carry and was 6-for-16 passing with two interceptions.
Princeville now travels to face a United team that put up 44 points vs. Annawan-Wethersfield, which was ranked No. 2 in Class 1A.
“They have a nice quarterback and he gets the ball out quick,” Carruthers said. “It will be a big change from the power football we’ve been dealing with.”
Stark County 22, Mid-County 14
WYOMING – After falling behind 14-0, Mid-County found its stride in the fourth quarter of this chilly game.
The Cougars scored twice in the final quarter on runs by 6-foot-2, 205-pound back Seth Johnson and had their final drive end at the Stark County 36-yard line on an interception.
“We got a lot better in the second half. Just too many mistakes in the first half and it cost us,” Mid-County Coach Grant Gullstrand said. “One of our big keys was to win the turnover battle and that didn’t happen. We stopped ourselves about four times. I’m happy with our effort, we just have to execute better.”
Mid-County lost two of four fumbles, had one interception and converted just one of three fourth-down plays.
Johnson finished with 104 yards on 13 carries out of Mid-County’s new wishbone offense, which also got 76 yards from Hunter Ramage. Overall, Mid-County (0-1, 0-1 LTC) ran for 239 yards and 5.4 per carry.
But the Cougars could not contain Stark County quarterback Ethan Unhold, who completed 13 of 17 passes for 137 yards, ran for two scores and passed for one. Part of that was because, in an effort to slow the Stark County running attack, Mid-County left some receivers open on the edge.
“Stark County likes to run the spread types of offense, but they are very good at running the ball,” Gullstrand said. “They get you out of there to get numbers out of the box. We were trying to do our best to keep guys in there and stop the run. That was our main goal.”
Mid-County is home at Oneida vs. Mercer County (2-1, 2-1) on Friday.
Farmington
The Farmers had their first live practice Wednesday after missing two games due to COVID protocols. Farmington is home vs. West Prairie at 7 p.m.
