By Jacob Mathias

The SPASH Panthers varsity football team ended its 2015 season Friday night after a decided 48-17 loss to the Kimberly Papermakers.

SPASH took on Kimberly in the second playoff game of the postseason following a 24-13 win over the D.C. Everest Evergreens on October 23. SPASH ends the season with an overall 8-3 record.

The top seeded, undefeated Papermakers quickly made their victory look imminent by scoring 34 unanswered points before the first half had ended.

Senior Papermaker running back Blair Mulholland scored first with a five yard touchdown run at 7:36 in the first quarter. Junior RB Hunter Selle scored shortly thereafter on a three yard run at 4:07 in the first. Wide receiver Jordan Janssen scored on a 62 yard TD pass from QB Danny Vanden Boom to end the first quarter with a lopsided score of 21-0.

Mulholland scored twice in the second quarter, bringing the score to 34-0.

Gus Turner-Zick breaks past the Kimberly defense. (Photo courtesy of Mark Vrieze)

Panther junior running back Gus Turner-Zick broke the shut out with a three yard TD run with 21 seconds left in the half. A successful extra point by junior kicker Joey Dorgan brought the halftime score to 34-7.

A field goal by Dorgan in the third quarter added three points to the Panthers’ total.

Selle and Mulholland both earned TDs for the Papermakers in the second half. Kimberly’s junior kicker Adam Stage went six for seven on extra point attempts.

The final score for the Panthers and the game came after an 84 yard run by Turner-Zick with nine minutes remaining in the fourth quarter.

Kimberly led with 490 total offensive yards, largely exceeding SPASH’s 295. Mulholland was the top rusher for Kimberly with 295 total rushing yards. Turner-Zick ran 215 yards for SPASH.

A 175 yard passing game by Kimberly also shadowed SPASH’s 50.

Kimberly continues on to game three of the playoffs and will play either the Eau Claire Memorial Old Abes or the Appleton North Lightning on November 6 at 7:00 PM.