Conference play begins in high school football

• football

football

Talk about it

The road to the WIAA football playoffs actually starts tonight (Friday) with conference openers across the state.

For Pierce County teams in the Middle Border it means several interesting match-ups. Ellsworth is at Amery. The Panthers broke their long losing streak against the Warriors, who went winless last season. But now they are 2-0 with wins over Unity and Hayward/LCO while the Panthers are 1-1 coming off a gutty effort against River Falls despite a 34-21 loss.

"There are things we have to clean up but we also played well in spots where we have to continue to do so," EHS head coach Claire Austin said in a radio interview on KCUE 105.9 out of Red Wing.

Prescott is unbeaten too but they take on a tough Somerset squad on the road who is also undefeated after winning a six-overtime battle with Bloomer 20-14. It was one of the longest games in Wisconsin high school football history.

"They might be sluggish to start out with and if so we have to take advantage of it," Prescott head coach Matt Smith said, "because they are head and shoulders above anyone else in our league right now. We're going to have to play near-perfect and hopefully get them to make mistakes to beat them."

The last time both Elmwood and Plum City were 0-2 at the same time was in 2002. But both squads hope to get their first wins as Lakeland South play begins. The Raiders are at Cornell (0-1) and the Blue Devils are at New Auburn (2-0).

There is one school who isn't playing a conference game and that's Spring Valley. The 2-0 Cardinals are at Grantsburg (0-2) for their final non-conference game of the season while the rest of the D-SC is in action. Valley's league opener is next week and it also happens to be their home opener as well as they take on Glenwood City.

Tags: prep football, plum city, sports, prep, prescottprescott