The Spring Valley football team gave their rowdy homecoming crowd a lot to cheer about on Friday night, as the Cardinals defeated Clear Lake 12-8 to remain undefeated (4-0) in Dunn-St. Croix Conference contests this season.

Spring Valley’s annual homecoming con- test featured a low-scoring auair between two ground-and-pound teams that worked to control the line of scrimmage in a game that could have gone either way late in the fourth quarter.

Sophomore Cade Stasiek opened up the homecoming game with a methodical drive down the field in the first quarter, which he capped ou with a four-yard touchdown run to give Spring Valley a 6-0 lead with two minutes remaining in the opening frame.

After multiple defensive stops by both teams, Clear Lake put together a scoring drive late in the second quarter that culminated in a 10-yard touchdown pass from senior quarterback Jacob Burbach to sophomore wide receiver Jordan Blanchard. Clear Lake took an 8-6 lead after a successful two-point conversion.

Spring Valley head coach Ryan Kapping spoke about the low-scoring defensive battle between the Cardinals and Warriors.

“I thought both defenses were playing pretty well the other night,” Kapping said. “We did make some mistakes that put us into down and distance situations that we don’t like to be in like third-and-longs that we weren’t able to convert. We also had a couple of turnovers that cost us scoring opportunities as well.” Some of those third-and-long situations were likely harder on the aforementioned Stasiek because he hasn’t seen many of them this season. The Clear Lake game was only his second start of the year, as he took over for full-time starter junior Wyatt Goveronski after he went down with an ankle injury during the second half against Glenwood City in week four. Coach Kapping stated there is no further status update on Goveronski’s recovery timetable.

While Stasiek and the Cardinals’ ouense may have struggled in the passing game, Spring Valley returned to its bread and butter in the second half – the rushing attack. In the third quarter, the Cardinals marched down the field and regained the lead when Stasiek scampered into the endzone for a three-yard touchdown carry to make it 12-8 in favor of Spring Valley.

“Our run game was a combination of our ouensive line playing a strong game and Cade (Stasiek) and Diego (Schmitt) both doing a nice job of gaining yards after first contact,” Kapping said of the rushing attack.

A scoreless fourth quarter for both programs meant that Spring Valley had secured not only a 12-8 homecoming victory, but also another win in the Dunn-St. Croix Conference. Spring Valley improves to 5-1 for the season and 4-0 in league play thus far. Kapping spoke about homecoming and facing adversity in the game.

“I don’t know how much homecoming itself factors into excitement about the win,” Kapping said. “But we faced some adversity and were able to work through it and get a win.”

Spring Valley is slated to face ou against the Turtle Lake Lakers on the road on Friday, Sept. 30. Turtle Lake has proved to be one of the top teams in the conference this season. The Lakers are 4-2 this season and 3-1 in Dunn-St. Croix Conference games. Turtle Lake remains in a three-way tie for second place with Cadott (3-1) and Elmwood/Plum City (3-1). Kapping spoke about that upcoming matchup.

“Against Turtle Lake we will have to be much better than we were last week,” Kapping said. “Defensively they will stress us both on the ground and through the air so a key for us will be to sustain drives on ouense and finish them to help the defense out.” That potentially season-defining game on the road against Turtle Lake is slated to begin at 7 p.m. on Friday.