September 8, 2016 at 1:32 p.m.
After falling behind early, Pointers come close
The Steffes score that came on the receiving end of a four yard pass from freshman quarterback Isaac Lindsey made it 21-20 in Fennimore's favor with only a decision remaining to be made.
The Pointer coaching staff had already decided that the best option was to go for a win and that was what they did. But Fennimore stopped the two point conversion option play short of the goal line.
But the game was far from over.
The Pointers had a chance at an onside kick and that is what they did. They recovered the kick but ran out of time before getting the winning points.
In coach Andy Palzkill's mind there was no second guessing the decision.
"Having been in that situation before, it was a decision that our staff has agreed upon," Palzkill said. "My thought process is always that it is better going for the win and maybe not getting it than losing a game attempting for a tie and we wanted to give our athletes a chance for the win. Our specialist, Curtis Cox is a great kicker and I am very confident in his ability. but the decision just came down to us giving ourselves a chance for the win in regulation"
The first half of the game was all Jordan Williams, the quarterback for the Golden Eagles who threw for all three Fennimore scores. He finished the night hitting on 11 of 30 tries for 235 yards.
He opened scoring with a 24 yard strike to TJ Kenney and the Golden Eagles led 7-0 after one quarter.
Williams added two more touchdown passes the second quarter on a 35 yard pass to Trevor Neuroth and a 26 yarder to Reid Larson, With the conversions the Eagles led 21-0 at halftime.
"The three big plays that he (Williams) made in the passing game were the difference," Palzkill said. "I think he is a very good quarterback and they have a great thing going with two very talented receivers."
But when it came to the second half the Pointers refused to fold and came within an eyelash of pulling out the win.
"The best thing I can tell our athletes is that they never gave up," Palzkill said. "As the game unfolded, we were able to make enough plays to have a chance at a victory. I think the most positive thing is that we learned the hard way that you can't take anything for granted. We need to play with the technique we enforce during practice and we have to play with energy and emotion. We certainly have an opportunity to have a great season despite this loss."
The second half it was Mineral Point's turn to put up numbers.
Lindsey hooked up with Brandon Dolphin for a 39 yard touchdown pass play for the first score. The second, which put the Pointers within a touchdown and extra point, came on a five yard run by Lucas Sanchez and a two point conversion run by Lindsey.
The rest is history.
Trailing by three scores at halftime the Pointers did not feel it was time to panic.
"We really did not make any adjustments at halftime in terms of x's and o's," Palzkill said. "Watching the first half it was clear to see that Fennimore dominated the line of scrimmage. We had poor technique and were playing very slow. Simply playing with more energy and getting into a first step took care of a lot of the problems. We were unable to sustain the high level of energy that we would have needed in order to win the game. Unfortunately we learned a hard lesson that you need to play four quarters of football to beat a good team like Fennimore."
"We were all very disappointed in the loss," Palzkill continued. "I have never coached a group of athletes that took a loss this hard early in the season. Our team is very dedicated to football and the kids have a lot invested in the football program. We will certainly have plenty of motivation to bounce back and not let an effort like this happen the remainder of the way."
Bouncing back this week will mean getting past a highly rated Darlington team and Palzkill feels the Pointers are up for the challenge.
"Darlington is a good football team and we will host them this week. They have a very balanced team in terms of very few weak links. We look forward to the opportunity to play them this Friday and get better as a team," Palzkill said.
