EH Falls to Winside
by Max Renning
October 04, 2009
"For the 2nd straight week we dug ourselves too deep a hole."
Those words by Coach Northwick summed up the night for the Pirates as they dropped their second straight district game Friday night 26-14 to the Winside Wildcats.
Winside jumped out to a 20-0 lead early in the 2nd quarter and never gave it up. Emerson scored next on a 3 yard run by fullback Michael Hassler to make it 20-6, but Winside would score again on a long pass to make it 26-6 heading into the half.
The Pirates defense showed up with a 2nd half shutout, but the offense continued to struggle. They were able to reach the end zone one more time early in 4th on another short dive by Hassler, but Winside controlled the ball and ran too much clock for Emerson to make a real run at a late comeback.
The running and passing games were both shut down all night as Scott Servine lead the Pirates with 43 yards rushing. Max Renning had 35 yards on the night and Hassler had 26 along with his two touchdown runs.
Only 2 passes were completed by Renning, one for 10 yards to Servine and another for 15 yards to Derick Lux.
Austin Gutzmann lead the defense with 13 tackles. Justin Hogan was 2nd with 11 and AJ Bormann had 10. Trent Stork also blocked a Winside punt in the 1st quarter.
The Pirates overall record dropped to 2-3, with a district mark of 0-2. With the two game road trip over, things will get a little easier this week as the Pirates take on the winless Winnebago Indians on Thursday night at 7 pm in Emerson. They will now likely have to win out to compete in the playoffs for the 2nd straight year.
