Exira-EHK rolls to first round win over Stanton

October 26th, 2018 by admin

The Exira-EHK Spartans set the tone early and ran away with a first round playoff win over Stanton 51-14 in Exira. The Spartans’ Jayden Goodwin picked off a Viking pass on their second play from scrimmage and they turned it into a touchdown two plays later on a 7 yard run by Cole Burmeister. That early sequence would set the tone for the rest of the night.

On the Vikings second possession they were forced to punt and a bad snap forced Drake Johnson to reach down to try to pick up the ball and his knee hit as he pick it up. That miscue gave the ball to Exira-EHK at the Viking 15 yard line. Two plays later Jayden Goodwin found paydirt on a 4 yard run and the Spartans lead grew to 14-0.

The Spartans scored to start the second quarter on a 65-yard pass from Tyler Petersen to Trey Nelson and then immediately got the ball back on a squib quick recovery that the Vikings mishandled. The Spartans capped that possession with a 16-yard hookup from Petersen to Creighton Nelson. A two point conversion made it a 29-0 lead for the Spartans. Stanton got on the board with a 17-yard pass from Colby Royal to Easton Hultmann. The two point hookup from Drake Johnson to Keygan Day made it 29-8. The Spartans would add a 24-yard touchdown pass from Petersen to Trey Nelson and a recovered muff punt in the end zone by Nelson before half to make it 44-8.

Each team would add just one more score in the second half as the game ran away quickly with the 35-point rule in effect.

Exira-EHK improved to 9-1 with the win and will move on to the Quarterfinals next Friday night. The Spartans will host the Fremont-Mills Knights next week in a rematch of a week one game that the Spartans won 45-27. The Knights advanced with a 61-8 win over Lenox.