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After Dodgeville hung 60 points on Mineral Point last week, the Pointer football team knew what it had to do.
Improve on all levels.
So, coach Andy Palzkill and his staff put the Pointers through their paces during the week with intensifying their approach.
The result was a 54-6 win over Rio in a non-conference test.
"We spent the whole week working on our first steps and getting off the ball," said Palzkill. "We also spent a good deal of time re-teaching our offensive and defensive concepts. In general, I feel we played more confident this week and that allowed us to be faster off the line of scrimmage."
"We are a young team and gaining game experience will be valuable to our athletes as we progress throughout the season," Palzkill said.
The growing up started with Sy Staver, a junior quarterback was pressed into the signal calling duties through injury. He responded by picking his way through the Rio defense for three rushing touchdowns and throwing for three more.
"Sy is a great athlete and leader," Palzkill said. " I know what he is capable of doing for us on the football field and I am very confident in his ability. He played a very efficient game at quarterback and made excellent decisions."
Staver has been perfecting his craft in practice.
"Each day in practice Sy is becoming more and more comfortable with our offense," Palzkill said. "We will continue to rely on Sy to be a big part of our offense moving forward."
Staver scored the first touchdown of the game on a 26 yard run and Tommy Olson kicked the conversion.
After junior linebacker Ross Siegenthaler picked up a Rio fumble and carried it 55 yards to score and Olson kicked the extra point, Staver struck again. This time he sprinted 48 yards and Olson's kick made it 21-0.
The Pointers scored again in the first quarter when Staver flipped the ball to senior Kane Poad for a one yard touchdown via the pass.  Olson's kick was good for a 28-0 lead.
Staver went to the air for the first of two second quarter scores, the first a 16 yarder to Alec Schmitz at the 7:51 mark and the second a 36 yarder to Kane Poad with 4:25 left. He kept the ball for the last yard of a drive with 53 seconds left for a 47-0 lead at halftime.
Rio scored in the third quarter on a 31 yard run by Zach Homman but Turner Poad had the answer with a four yard run with 36 ticks left in the frame. Olson, who was six for seven on the night, kicked the extra point.
Staver had 92 yards on nine carries and six for 10 passing for 100 yards.
Turner  Poad had 10 carries for 67 yards.
Kane Poad corralled three of Staver's passes for 60 yards and a pair of touchdowns.  His success was a plus for the Pointers.
"Kane Poad is just a great young man," Palzkill said. "He is an athlete and he is very coachable. Kane does an outstanding job of attacking defensive backs within his route concept. He did a great job of selling his route and getting the defensive players to turn their hips the wrong way."
"It was great to see Kane have a big night and we will continue to look to him within our passing game," Palzkill added.
With the defense coming within one play of a shutout, Palzkill was pleased with the performance.
"Collectively the entire defensive unit stood out in my mind," he said. "As a group, we did a much better job of staying in an athletic position and taking care of our responsibilities. We did much less peeking into the backfield and read our keys better to help us anticipate the play."
Palzkill said Nate Cody did a great job as a defensive tackle of staying low and playing on their side of the line of scrimmage.
"I also felt Ross Siegenthaler and Blake Chambers played well at linebacker and Ross's first quarter fumble return for a score was a huge momentum play for us," Palzkill said.
Palzkill said Siegenthaler's fumble return and Staver's long run in the first quarter were big as was Alec Schmitz's touchdown reception in the second quarter.
"Defensively we held Rio under 160 total yards and offensively we had only one turnover," Palzkill said. "Our goal is to have no turnovers."
The win was much needed for the young Pointer team.
"It was an important win for our players in terms of confidence and improving our understanding of the game," said Palzkill. "We are spending a great deal of time as a coaching staff teaching football concepts and knowledge to our players. Many of our athletes had the "light bulb" turn on during this game and saw why we are teaching things the way we are teaching them. We will continue to focus on Mineral Point and what we do heading into the conference season this week. "
The Pointers start their SWAL season this week.
"We begin our conference season this week against Southwestern in Hazel Green," Palzkill said. "They are an athletic team that will run a lot of two back formations and they will also run spread concepts on offense. They have shown primarily zone defensive coverages so we will work hard this week on attacking their cover 2 look."