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In a 28-21 win over a talented Darlington football team Friday, one play stood out in Mineral Point coach Andy Palzkill's mind.
That play took place in the second quarter and ended up to be very valuable in the general scheme of things as the Pointers improved to 2-0 in SWAL play.
"In my opinion, the play of the game was the pooch kick by Curtis Cox and the recovery by Kevin Eisenzimmer," Palzkill said. "That gave us an additional possession in the second quarter which led directly to a touchdown."
The coolness that led to the successful squib is something the Pointers have come to expect from Cox.
"Curtis does a great job in the kicking game for us," Palzkill said. "He puts in a lot of time in the off-season and it shows with his extra points and ability to play around with the kickoff team."
The second half of the play was key as well.
"Kevin Eisenzimmer has been impressive this year as well," added Palzkill. "He used his speed and football smarts to grab that pooch kick on the first hop. Kevin is earning more and more playing time as the season goes on.
Darlington dented the scoreboard in the first quarter when Grady Rielly traveled 49 yards to score. After a Brady McGuire conversion it was 7-0.
The Pointers scoring came in bunches and all in the second quarter. Riley Workman tied it with a one yard plunge and Cox kicked the conversion. Next it was a pair of scores from quarterback Isaac Lindsey who duplicated Workman's one yarder and added a 10 yard scamper for a 21-7 lead.
Chase Mosley's 49 yard run and McGuire's kick cut the margin to 21-14, a one-score game, but the Pointers jumped the lead back up with a 25 yard blast by Workman and a toed-up extra point from Cox.
The rest of the scoring came from the Redbirds but Rielly's eight yard gain and McGuire's kick were not enough and the Pointer seniors finally got a taste of what it is like to beat the Redbirds.
The Redbirds controlled possessions more the second half which kept the Pointers from mounting much of an attack.
"Darlington settled into a 43 cover 0 against our offense and played that front and coverage all night," Palzkill said. "We executed well in the first half, but struggled to get things going in the second half. If we would have stuck to our blocking rules, it would have given us other opportunities to score in the third and fourth quarter. I felt like


Darlington did a great job of keeping the ball away from us all night. We only had four possessions in the second half."
While wins against Darlington have been few and far between for the Pointers and for that matter most teams in Palzkill's eyes it was for the most part a quality win against a quality program.
"Darlington is a great football program," Palzkill said. "It was a very important win for us in regards to earning a win against them. This past game was just one of our nine regular season games this year and all nine are very important in terms of showing improvement and preparing for the post-season."
"The Darlington game did carry a little more weight for our athletes because these seniors have not won against them," Palzkill added. "For a week four game, it was an emotional win against a great football program."
Palzkill felt while the win is huge, the Pointers did not play their best football.
"We did not play a particularly great football game," Palzkill said. "The really good news is that we were able to earn a win while seeing many mistakes that need to be cleaned up. Our focus this week in practice will be to return to a two-a-days type of practice in terms of re-teaching our base concepts. We
always focus on individual time, but


we will have greater focus on the basic stances, first steps, and rules as we prepare for Marshall this week."
"Against Darlington we saw some great things and then we also saw some silly mistakes from our veteran players," Palzkill said. "We did leave about three interceptions on the field that would have made a difference for us. We need to play better football and just commit to doing what we teach as a coaching staff. Once our athletes come together as a team, we will see how good we can be this season."
Workman led the rushing with 113 yards on 19 carries and Lindsey added 85 with 16 attempts. Blaise Waters caught three Lindsey passes for 58 yards and Caden Jackson two for 69.
Lindsey was 10 for 19 for 180 yards and an interception.
With a break in SWAL play for the Pointers this week they are in a home non-conference match-up with Marshall.
"Our primary focus is on Mineral Point getting better once again," Palzkill said. "Marshall is an improved football team and we will need to play well to earn a victory. As mentioned earlier, we will spend this week addressing a variety of things we need to fix on offense, defense, and special teams. If we see improvement in all facets of the game, we will have an opportunity to be 1-0 this week."