By Robert Whitmire

What promised to be a knock-down, drag-out between the two powers in the Valley Football Association’s South Division quickly turned into nothing short of a rout with SPASH scoring a big 45-14 win over visiting Fond du Lac on Friday night.

The Panthers scored early and often lighting up the board with 10 point om the first quarter, adding 21 more in the second to take a commanding 31-0 lead into halftime.

Joey Dorgan split the uprights at the 8:09 mark of the first period to put SPASH on the board, 3-0. A Beau Rosenthal-to-Joey Hauser pass covering 51 yards set the Panthers up for their second score of the period at the 4:16 mark. Hauser teamed up with Rosenthal for a six-yard score at the start of period two and the floodgates were open for the Panther offense to flow through.

Rosenthal connected with Gus Turner-Zick on a 47 yard toss, and Colton Kizewski raced 19 yards for the final two scores of the second period.

Try as they might, the Cardinal defense was unable to find an answer to shut down Turner-Zick and Rosenthal. The senior signal caller went 7 for 10 on the night for 196 yards. Turner-Zick led the panther running attack with 15 carries for 128 yards. He also hauled in 2 passes for 82 yards.

Junior Receiver Joey Hauser returned to the Panther lineup for first time this season and pulled down 3 passes from Rosenthal or 62 yards.

Junior running back Colton Kizewski found the end zone for his second score of the night on a 16 yard scamper at the 5:04 mark of the third Quarter and SPASH rounded out their scoring late in the fourth quarter. Roth took advantage of a bad snap on a fourth down Cardinal Punt and fell on the loose ball in the end-zone with 2:47 left in the game.

The Panthers rolled up 373 total yards on 54 plays (216 passing, 157 rushing). The SPASH defense under the direction of Asst. Coach Kevin Deates put together a relentless rush that kept the Cardinals on their heels from start to finish. Fond du Lac finished the night with 237 yards on 42 plays.

SPASH improves its record to 3-0 on the season while Fond du Lac falls to 1-2. The Panthers will travel to Titan Stadium on the UW-Oshkosh campus for a 5:00 PM kick off against Oshkosh North. North remains undefeated in the VFA South with a 38-23 win over Hortonville.