Wall Eagles knock off undefeated Philip Scotties

    The Wall Eagles Football Team traveled to Philip last Friday to take on the undefeated Philip Scotties. The Eagles rose to the challenge again and beat the Scotties 20 to 12. The Eagles went in to the game with the challenge of stopping the explosive Scottie Offense and they did. The Eagles gave a little ground but rose up to stop the explosive Dalton Kinsley and the Scottie Offense, which only gained 147 yards on the ground as a team. The defense only allowed Philip in the endzone once. The other score came on a 100 yard interception return by Cooper West.
    The Eagles did take away part of the Philip scheme but Nick Donnelly stepped up his game to cause some problems for the Eagles Defense. Donnelly gained some respect from the Eagle Defense with his 90 yards rushing. He was a tough runner! The Scottie Defense also made it tough for the Eagles but with a combination of the inside run game of Carter Elshere, Trey Elshere, Cass Lytle and the outside run game of Allan McDonnell, Tate Eisenbraun and Cooper McConaghy proved to be too tough for the Scotties.
    The story of the game was DEFENSE! The Eagles front line of Lytle, Jacob Linn and Eisenbraun did a fantastic job. Between the three of them they combined for 27 tackles and an interception return of 37 yards for a touchdown by Lytle. They also combined for three sacs on the Scottie quarterback. Behind them were three sophomores; Bradan McDonnell, Cash Wilson and Jacob Bielmaier, and junior linebacker T. Elshere. The backers combined for 30 tackles and a B. McDonnell fumble recovery. What the defensive front didn’t stop, the young linebacker crew did!
    The secondary of C. Elshere and A. McDonnell cleaned up anything that may have gotten through the first two levels of defense. C. Elshere came up and made some big hits when the back snuck through. The defense took away the explosive outside game and were forced to defend the off-tackle power all night. The Eagles Defense only allowed the Scotties in the end-zone once all night allowing the explosive offense only a total of 148 yards.
    The Eagles Offense were forced to do a few different things but still found success with their sweep offense. C. Elshere had another big night inside the tackles as he ran for 150 yards and scored two touchdowns. When defending the Eagles you need to guess what to stop. When you stop one, it’s hard to stop the others! Between A. McDonnell, Eisenbraun, C. Elshere, Lytle, who do you focus on? You also need to worry about the young guns B. McDonnell, Cooper McConaghy and T. Elshere. By the end of the night, the Eagles ran for 282 yards and ended with total offense of 291 yards. The Scottie Defense was tough, but the Eagles Offense still found success! The Eagles Offense had some mistakes but the positives outweighed them!
    The win moves the Eagles to 4-1 in conference play and 4-2 on the season. This Friday, the Eagles take on the Kougars from Kadoka for their 2016 Homecoming game. The night will begin at 5:00 with RC Christian taking on the Faith Longhorns. At 8:00, the Eagles will take on the Kougars. Why? RCC lost a game on their schedule to a Nebraska opponent so the SDHSAA allowed Faith to play them at a neutral site. So they will play prior to the Eagles game. It will definitely be a great night to watch some football!
    Reminder that stats of the game are on maxpreps.com.