Spencer-Columbus walks away with win versus Manawa

Last Friday night, the Spencer-Columbus (SC) Rockets traveled to Little Wolf High School in Manawa to take on the Wolves. The Rockets narrowly defeated the Wolves, 13-10, in what was mainly a defensive showdown.

The teams held each other scoreless in the first quarter. In the second quarter, Carter Luepke completed a 5-yard run for a touchdown and Mac Konieczny kicked the extra point. That was followed by a 94-yard kickoff return from the Wolves’ Dakota Stroud to tie things at 7. After that, Stroud kicked a 35-yard field goal to put the Wolves up 10-7 heading into the second half.

Thankfully for the Rockets, they put together a successful drive in the third quarter ending with a 1-yard run into the end zone by Landon Behselich. The kick was no good, but the touchdown still put SC up 13-10, and in the end that is all they would need, as neither team scored for the remainder of the game.

SC maintained control of the ball much more than Manawa, getting off 70 plays compared to Manawa’s 44. SC also had 235 yards compared to Manawa’s 93, for an average of 3.4 yards per play. While the teams were essentially equal in passing yards — SC had 88 and Manawa had 91 — the Rockets stood out in rushing yards, with SC rushing for 147 yards compared to Manawa’s 2.

SC’s leading rusher was Behselich, with 136 yards. Behselich also had 47 receiving yards. Devlin Timmler was the leading passer, with 88 passing yards.

On defense, Behselich, Gage Young and Matt Latham each had four tackles. Timmler, Kohle Hilgemann and Cal Birkhauser each had three.