By Jennifer Eisenbart
Sports Editor
It took until the sixth week of the season, but the Union Grove Union High School football team finally got a “W” on the board.
Traveling to Elkhorn for the Elks’ Homecoming game, the Broncos held the Elks’ offense in check for most of the game en route to an 18-7 victory.
“That was nice. That was nice for the boys,” said Union Grove coach Scott McBride. “We played pretty well. Defensively, we held them to 24 yards rushing and 38 yards passing.
“They had four first downs. We had four takeaways,” he added. “Offensively, we played good.”
Union Grove also limited Elkhorn to just four first downs – one of which came from a penalty.
McBride admitted the Elks were probably facing some distractions on their end.
“Homecoming’s always a lot of distractions,” McBride said. “I don’t mind playing teams on their Homecoming, because it’s a lot of distractions, just like it’s a lot of distractions when it’s our Homecoming.
“But our focus was winning the game.”
The Broncos scored a touchdown in the second, third and fourth quarters. JK Witkofski scored the first on a one-yard run, while Tate Koester and Kyle Boeck each had touchdown runs as well.
Koester, just a sophomore, had a breakout game. He finished with 162 yards rushing, with a long of 51 yards (the touchdown run in the third) and an average of 9.5 yards per carry.
“I think we saw the kind of play from him that he’s capable of,” McBride said. “We’ve had real good players in the past. During their sophomore years, maybe we ask more of them than we should.
“I think that’s true of all of our sophomores.”
Koester also had five tackles, an interception, and five punt returns.
“He does a lot for us,” McBride stated.
Next up for the Broncos is tonight’s home game against traditional rival Waterford. The two teams always seem to give each other a battle, and last year, the Wolverines scored late to pull out a 33-28 victory at Union Grove.
“They’re a good team,” McBride said. “A lot of their better players were on varsity as sophomores in 2009. I kind of see some of those similarities with our team.
“They’ve got a lot of experience. They’re obviously playing very well,” he added. “We’d like to be able to establish a running game, and win the time of possession game. And we have to be able to create some turnovers, like we did last week.”
-
-
-
-
-