October 25, 2013 at 4:17 p.m.
Pointers close out year eliminating Eagles
The Pointers knocked off SWAL rival Fennimore Friday, 34-20 and kept the Golden Eagles from qualifying for a playoff berth.
Sophomore quarterback Scotty Pittz ran for one touchdown and passed for three more to guide the Pointer offense. The fifth touchdown came from the defense on a 25 yard interception return by Kane Poad.
Pittz answered a Seth Henkel touchdown that put Fennimore in the lead 7:48 into the game with a six yard run. Tommy Olson kicked four extra points, one of them that gave the Pointers a 7-6 lead at the 2:42 mark of the first frame.
After Jeff Needham gave Fennimore a 12-7 lead on a 16 yard scoring run to start the second quarter the Pointers came back with four straight scores to take the lead they never surrendered.
Tarek Oellerich grabbed a pass from Pittz and scored from 58 yards out with 9:24 to play in the first half. Ross Siegenthaler followed with a 14 yard pass play from Pittz with four minutes left in quarter number two.
Sy Staver upped the score to 28-12 when he caught a Pittz offering and scored from 20 yards out with 1:42 left in the third.
Then came Kane Poad's defensive gem with 5:23 to play when he turned an interception into six points.
Pointer coach Andy Palzkill was finally able to see his team achieve a good run/pass ratio. Pittz passed for 159 yards on a nine for 16 night and the Pointers picked up 159 on the ground.
"We always strive to be a balanced offense and after watching film we felt like we could establish the running game against Fennimore," Palzkill said. "We really have been unable to run the ball effectively starting with the Cuba City game in week five. In breaking down the game film of Fennimore we felt that we could have success running off-tackle against their defensive ends. All year we have worked on our misdirection running game with a lot of motion and it worked well against Fennimore."
He continues to be impressed with how his sophomore quarterback sees the field.
"Scotty (Pittz) is an outstanding young quarterback," Palzkill said. "I am very fortunate to be able to coach a young man like him and am very excited for the next few years with him at the helm for the Pointers. He has five receivers this year with more than 18 catches which shows his ability to see the field and spread out the football. He has progressed well this year and has a good handle on the reads in our passing game. We are fairly sophisticated in our passing attack and the way teams defend us does change how we run our route combinations. He will only get better at making decisions and throwing the ball."
Palzkill has also been impressed with how the receivers have played.
"We also have to give credit to our wide-outs," the coach said. "They are all weapons and when we go to our no back look we are able to spread the field and create mismatches in the opponent's secondary. Sy Staver, Tarek Oellerich, Kane Poad, Turner Poad, and Alec Schmitz have all been big parts of the game plan each week. We are lucky to have Steven Blume, Jordan Kittleson, and Logan Bidlingmeier as three more threats that have not been able to play as much this year. All three of these young men will be a bigger part of our offensive and defensive game plans next year."
While the offense was finding success for the night, Palzkill was also happy with the defense which for the most part kept the Eagles in check.
"Coach Leonard had a great defensive game plan," Palzkill said. "They are a run first team and their favorite plays are isolation and counter trey. Coach Leonard used a variety of well called run blitzs to stuff their plays at the line of scrimmage.
"We also had great play from our linebackers and they showed a better understanding of our defensive concepts and they hit some run through lanes from the backside which allowed us to make some tackles for losses."
The Eagles were assessed 88 yards in penalties and had five turnovers which included four interceptions. Palzkill said the penalties figured into the game but did not determine the outcome.
"Their penalties certainly did not hurt us, but I felt that we were in control of the game from the start," Palzkill said. "Our biggest problem was giving them opportunities with two turnovers in our first two possessions. We also had many big offensive plays called back due to penalties. We were able to make enough plays to overcome our own mistakes. That was the biggest difference for Mineral Point this past week."
The Pointers got some mileage out of junior running back Ross Siegenthaler who led the ground game with 86 yards on 13 carries. His abilities have impressed Palzkill and his staff.
"Ross has shown great improvement all season on both sides of the ball," Palzkill said. "He is a very talented athlete and he runs the ball very hard. We are very pleased with his development and he has done a good job of becoming a student of the game of football. We are very excited that Ross is a junior and this year will be important to allow Ross to come into next year ready to play. I expect big things from Ross next year and he will be a big part of our offense next fall."
The win was impressive because of how hard the Pointers played in a game that meant nothing more than one to end the season. He felt the players were motivated to end the season on the right note.
"I have said all year that we have excellent kids," Palzkill said. "They certainly proved that they are not the type of athletes to give up and on the contrary probably had more energy and worked harder in practice leading up to this game. This game was very important as a program building game. We showed more aggressive play and played more confidently. It was most certainly our best game of the year and was a very important game to lead us into next season and to take these athletes into their winter seasons."
He was happy that the seniors are able to go out on a winning note and feels they made a huge contribution to the future of Pointer football.
"It was a great way for our seniors to finish their careers," Palzkill said. Kane Poad, Tommy Olson, Levi Zimmerman, Lee Stephenson, Dakota James, Casey Robinson, and Greg Webber have all contributed a great deal to the Mineral Point Football program. I want to thank them for all of their hard work and the time they committed to get our weight-training and conditioning program established. They are a group that will be successful in their future because of the work ethic and character they have shown as football players.
"The future of our football program is very bright. We have put together a very good coaching staff and we have many key players returning. It is my opinion, the implementation of the BFS (Bigger, Faster, Stronger) program and our commitment to becoming better overall athletes will be important factors for our future success. We will continue to work as hard as we can to develop and maintain a good football program."
