Cardinals slow down Asher, Elmwood/ Plum City in rivalry game

The Spring Valley defense held rival school Elmwood/Plum City and its star running back Trevor Asher to 200 yards of to- tal ouense in a 14-12 victory to secure the Cardinals’ third consecutive Dunn-St. Croix Conference championship.

For Spring Valley head coach Ryan Kapping, the 2022 conference championship is diuerent from the previous two because pre season prognosticators didn’t pick the Cardinals to win another league title. Instead, they were picked to finish in the middle of the pack.

“I think this one is special because I don’t think these guys were expected to and we were projected to be back into the pack this year and not out in the lead,” Kapping said. “It’s been a tough road with senior injuries, but the sophomores have stepped up and grown up and we just tell the kids, focus on one day at a time and get better. I think we’ve done that.”

Spring Valley’s defense was able to do something that no other team had done this season – contain Asher’s dynamic running ability and force the Wolves to have anoth- er player beat them. The Cardinals limited Asher to 155 rushing yards and six yards per carry, both a season low for him in the Friday, Oct. 14, contest.

Going into the game, Asher averaged 260 rushing yards per game and more than a dozen yards per carry. He also led the entire state in rushing yards and touchdowns. While Asher finished the game with over 150 rushing yards and two touchdowns, it paled in comparison to what he had done through – out the year. Elmwood/Plum City head coach Mike Birtzer gave credit to Spring Valley’s defense.

“They are very good at being where they

need to be and are very well coached,” Birtz- er said. “They took away our best player and that’s a credit to them. They flowed well and were always there.”

With a player as talented as Asher, Spring Valley was simply hoping to slow him down, not contain him. He got the Wolves on the board with five minutes left in the first quar – ter with an eight-yard touchdown run to make it 6-0 Wolves. The two-point conversion was stuued at the goal line.

After both teams had multiple drives stall out, Spring Valley got the ball back with just under ten minutes remaining in the sec – ond quarter. The Cardinals responded with a five-minute drive that featured steady carries by juniors Diego Schmitt and Wyatt Gove – ronski at the running back and quarterback positions. Goveronski capped ou the drive with a one-yard TD carry to make it 6-6. El – mwood/Plum City blocked the ensuing PAT.

Spring Valley broke the tie coming out of the half when the aforementioned Schmitt broke loose on a 25-yard touchdown run. That run capped ou a three-minute, 65-yard scoring drive that gave the Cardinals a 14-6 lead.

After the Cardinals’ score to start the sec ond half, both defenses began playing well, and the middle of the third quarter and start of the fourth turned into a defensive stale- mate. Then with six minutes left, Elmwood/ Plum City began a drive at their 27-yard line.

The Wolves handed the ball ou to Ash – er multiple times and slowly began moving their way down the field. Then with six min – utes left in regulation, Asher broke loose on a 36-yard touchdown run to make it a 14-12 ballgame. Spring Valley’s defense stuued El –

mwood/Plum City on the two-point conver – sion attempt to retain the two-point lead.

The Cardinals got the ball back with six minutes and change left in the fourth quar – ter. That’s when Spring Valley executed a flawless ouensive series, burned the rest of the clock and secured a 14-12 win to claim a third consecutive Dunn-St. Croix Conference championship.

The matchup between Spring Valley and Elmwood/Plum City was a strength vs. strength kind of game. Both teams have dy – namic rushing attacks and both have strong defenses. Coach Kapping spoke about win – ning and losing at the line of scrimmage.

“We felt like that (line of scrimmage) was important and (Trevor) Asher is so danger ous,” Kapping said. “One thing we thought is that we need to play at the line of scrimmage and try to make them have to move us. Our line did a good job. They only broke free on one run, otherwise, we held them in check pretty good.”

Kapping stated that they didn’t do any- thing special defensively to gameplan for Asher, instead, their players stayed home and limited explosive scoring opportunities and big creases.

“Truth be told, we tried to read our keys at the line and not focus solely on him,” Kap – ping said. “We wanted to try not to make big creases for him because he’s so patient at finding those openings. We wanted to make him have to run through tackles to get his yards.”

Limiting Asher was the key to success for Spring Valley on Friday night, as the Cardi – nals improved to 8-1 overall for the season and 7-0 in Dunn-St. Croix Conference action. Kapping spoke about the upcoming playous.

“I feel like we’re playing good football right now, so that’s exciting,” Kapping said, “We should have guaranteed ourselves a home game next week and now we take it one week at a time. We try to play football as long as we can. We want to hang around as long as we can.”

Spring Valley will have a first-round home game against Hurley on Friday, Oct. 21. As for Elmwood/Plum City, the loss drops the Wolves to 6-3 overall for the season and 5-2 in league play. They will host Boyceville on Friday, Oct. 21, at 7 p.m. The Wolves defeat –

ed Boyceville 24-21 earlier this season.

Elmwood/Plum City senior running back Trevor Asher follows blockers and looks for open space during one of his rushing attempts against Spring Valley on Friday, Oct. 14. Spring Valley’s defense held Asher to 155 rushing yards, more than 100 below his per game average this season, which contributed to the 14-12 win over the Wolves for the conference championship.Photo by Reagan Hoverman