Eagles fall to Vikings on Homecoming

ST. JOHN - Celebrating Homecoming and Senior Night for their lone senior Joe Hergert, the St. John-Endicott/LaCrosse Eagles fell to the Garfield-Palouse Vikings in football action on Friday, Oct. 18.

"Joe's leadership is pretty solid, we definitely rely on him alot," said SJEL coach Kevin Armstrong. "Joe is exactly what a senior is supposed to be. He shows up, puts the work in and stays motivated for these young guys."

Hergert said some of his favorite football memories are "Our 2022 winning football season - before we were gutted and the last time we were all together as one ... The Red and Gold game that we actually played ... End zone rolls ... Sideline tight ropes and toe-taps ... Quadruple overtime victory ... Just being with my brothers."

The game started with the Eagles receiving the kickoff. On the second play of the game, SJEL starting quarterback Jeff Mackey was taken out with a leg injury. He would not return for the remainder of the game.

Gar-Pal opened the scoring on a 17-yard touchdown pass from senior quarterback Bryce Pfaff to junior running back Kaleb Kelnhofer. The Vikings went on to score on a 75-yard run from junior Lane Collier and a 13-yard run from senior Macent Rardon.

After the Rardon touchdown, SJEL sophomore Brody Fleming gave a spark to the Eagles with an 80-yard kickoff return for a touchdown. The Vikings answered on the ensuing kickoff with an 80-yard return for a touchdown themselves by Collier.

Pfaff connected with Rardon on a 27-yard touchdown pass to give the Vikings a 38-6 lead to end the opening quarter.

"We lost two starters in the first quarter," Armstrong said. "Especially with them being young, that is such a big factor with these guys. QB1 being one of them, that's a big change throwing a couple guys in who haven't really played QB."

A bad snap on the first play of the second quarter led to a safety against the Eagles. Gar-Pal then scored two rushing touchdowns from 5-yards and 21-yards out.

With 3:30 to go before halftime, Gar-Pal blocked a punt and freshman lineman Lincoln Pfaff landed on the ball in the end zone for a touchdown. The Eagles offense drove to midfield, but the buzzer rang and the Vikings led 62-6 at halftime.

"At halftime I told them to have fun," Armstrong said. "I think given the situation, they did pretty good. Injuries hurt when you have 11 on the side. You lose two of them, that's only one player coming in the whole time. Their conditioning looks pretty great and for them to finish as strong as they did regardless of the score at the end, that says a lot about these kids."

The Eagles came out on fire to start the second half. The Gar-Pal offense tried to drive down field, but the Eagles defense put a stop to it at the Vikings 43-yard line, forcing a turnover on downs.

Halfway through the third quarter, Fleming struck again on a 22-yard touchdown run. Hergert ran in the PAT, giving the Eagles their final score of the game.

"Seeing the heart that they have, the changes they can make, the willingness and the ability to play anywhere," Armstrong said. "We even had linemen stepping back and playing running back."

Gar-Pal would score once more before the end of the third quarter on a 52-yard run by freshman Cooper Wells.

The Eagles were driving at the end of the third quarter, and even ran the ball to the end zone, but the play was called back due to penalties.

The final score came in the fourth quarter on a 12-yard run by sophomore Cooper Parzuchowski, giving the final tally of 76-14 in favor of the Vikings.

The Eagles fall to 0-6 on the season. The game scheduled for Monday, Oct. 21, against Waitsburg was canceled due to injuries. On Tuesday, Oct. 22, it was announced that the final game of the season against Waitsburg was canceled as well.

"There's going to be some great things next season," Armstrong said. "We've got a good core coming up out of the eighth grade next year and some returning juniors and seniors coming back."