Groton Area erased a 3-0 deficit with a touchdown 11 seconds before halftime and then outscored Deuel 7-6 in the second half to post a 14-9 Northeast Conference and homecoming football victory on Friday.
The win left the Tigers with a 3-1 mark heading into a conference clash with Clark-Willow Lake, also 3-1, in Clark on Friday at 7 p.m. Deuel fell to 1-3.
“This week’s game at Clark is a big matchup as both teams are 3-1 and 3-0 in conference play,” said Groton Area boss Shaun Wanner. “CWL has a good football team. They have a quarterback that can run and pass, they are sound defensively, and they do some good things on offense. It should be another fun NEC match up. We’ve had some good games with them over the past couple of years.”
On Friday in the Tigers’ homecoming contest, Deuel struck first with a 29-yard field goal with 10:12 remaining in the second period. But Groton Area got on the board just before halftime when Christian Ehresmann grabbed a 14-yard sdcoring toss from Ryder Johnson and João Nunes added the kick for a 7-3 halftime lead.
GA padded that margin with just 25 seconds left in the third stanza when Ehresmann found the end zone again on a five-yard toss from Johnson to make it 14-3 after the Nunes kick. Deuel did finally find the end zone but just 32 seconds remained and the Tigers ran out the clock.
“The kids played hard and defensively played well,” said Wanner. “We came up with some big stops when we needed to, and offensively we ran the ball well. We have to get better mixing the pass in with the run with some more play action passes. Our kids are getting better and starting to understand their roles as we approach the second half of our season.”
The Tigers ran for 172 yards, led by Korbin Kucker’s 23-112, and tacked on 62 via the airways with Ehresmann grabbing four balls for 23 yards and his two touchdowns. Deuel was limited to 40 yards on the ground and 90 passing. GA did turn the ball over twice on a fumble and pass interception.
Ehresmann also led the Tigers on the defensive side of the ball with 10 tackles and two sacks. Brevin Fliehs had seven stops and a sack, Tucker Hardy six tackles with a sack, and Kucker and Caleb Mertz had five stops apiece.
