This story is sponsored by: The University of Wisconsin-Marshfield/Wood County
By Steve Pilz
For MarshfieldAreaSports.com
SPENCER – Spencer/Columbus Catholic left little doubt that it will need to be reckoned with coming off its first-ever Cloverbelt conference championship last season by pummeling visiting Osseo-Fairchild 51-20 Friday night at Ted Fritsch Field at Spencer High School in its season and Cloverbelt opener for the 2016 season.
Last year’s conference offensive player of the year Hunter Luepke galloped for 25 yards on the game’s fifth play to put the Rockets up 8-0 after a two-point conversion.
OF’s Jake Walker grabbed the ensuing kickoff at his own 15, faked a reverse and eventually wrangled his way all the way to the end zone, using much of the field on his way. The PAT failed and SC led 8-6.
From there, it was all Rockets.
Seven plays later it was Noah Zastrow crashing in from the 4-yard line and with just about two minutes gone in the second quarter it was Zastrow again, this time from 9 yards. About a minute later, Luepke scored from the three to make it 30-6 and the rout was on.
“The enthusiasm for our guys tonight was sky high,” SC head coach Jason Gorst said. “These guys love the game of football. They love to play it. I’m real proud of them.”
The Thunder had to go deep in their bag of tricks to try and make a game of it.
On the first play after Luepke’s TD, O-F ran a picture perfect double reverse with quarterback Jake Prudlick on the receiving end of halfback Jake Walkers 65-yard bomb for a touchdown.
That would be about it for Osseo-Fairchild as the Rockets used a 13-play drive that ended when sophomore quarterback Jarred Mandel hitting Zastrow with a 14-yard scoring strike.
O-F fumbled to begin its next series and Mandel hit Luepke for his third TD of the game from four yards out to put the Rockets up 44-12 at the half.
Zastrow played some quarterback to start the game, but Mandel’s play certainly figured in the scoring.
“We went with the package approach,” said Gorst in referring to his QB shuffle. “Depending on what the defense gave us; that’s how we used the QBs tonight.”
Zastrow put his night to bed, scoring his fourth touchdown near the end of the third quarter on a five-yard scamper.
“We may have made a mistake or two but we improved throughout the game,” Zastrow said. “We’re pretty young at some positions but even the young guys hit hard and played well. We just need to keep improving both offensively and defensively and we’ll be fine.”
Spencer/Columbus hits the road next Friday at Fall Creek.
Rockets 51, Thunder 20
Osseo-Fairchild 6 6 0 8 – 20
Spencer/Columbus 16 28 7 0 – 51
First Quarter
SC- Hunter Luepke 25 run (Luepke run), 9:48.
OF- Jake Walker 85 kick return (run failed), 9:22.
SC- Noah Zastrow 4 run (Zastrow run), 5:50.
Second Quarter
SC- Zastrow 9 run (Karak Bushman pass from Jarred Mandel), 9:52.
SC- Luepke 3 run (pass failed) 8:38.
OF- Jake Prudlick 65 from Walker (pass failed), 8:19.
SC- Zastrow 14 from Mandel (Luepke kick) 2:52.
SC- Luepke 4 from Mandel (Luepke kick) 2:33.
Third Quarter
SC- Zastrow 5 run (Luepke kick).
Fourth Quarter
OF- Prudlick 13 run (Prudlick run) 8:43.
Team statistics
First downs: OF 8; SC 18.
Rushing (Att-yards): OF 19-67; SC 35-280
Passing (Comp.-att-yards-int): OF 4-14-112-1; SC 4-13-32-1.
Punting (no.-avg.): OF 2-33.5; SC 1-40.
Fumbles: (total-lost): OF 2-1; SC 0-0.
Individual statistics
Rushing: OF, Prudlick 12-47, Raymond Schmidt 1-19, Walker 5-14, Kyle Sromek 2-minus 12. SC, Zastrow 15-157, Luepke 16-136, Carson Hildebrandt 6-58, Jacob Miller 1-17, Hayden Bauman 2-16, Adam Walter 3-4, Leonardo Rodrieguez 1-8, Shane Hamm 1-0, Austin Bacon 1-0, Andres Rodrieguez 1-minus 1.
Passing: OF, Prudlick 3-13-47-1, Walker 1-1-65-0. SC, Mandel 4-11-32-1, Zastrow 0-2-0-0.
Receiving: OF, Ethan Dahl 2-22, Prudlick 1-65, Walker 1-23, Jordan Draeger 1-3, Sromek 1-minus 1. SC, Luepke 2-11, Zastrow 1-14, Hildebrandt 1-7.
Fumble Recoveries (defense): SC, Guiseppe Sari.
Interceptions (defense): OF, Prudlick. SC, Lucas Ellefson.
Records: Osseo-Fairchild 0-1 overall and Cloverbelt Conference; Spencer/Columbus 1-0 overall and Cloverbelt Conference.