The Exira-EHK Spartans had the Fremont-Mills Knights in unfamiliar territory early in their Quarterfinal round match-up on Friday night, the Knight trailed at the end of the first quarter.  Exira-EHK scored on their first two possessions of the game to lead the Knights at the end of the first quarter 14-7.  Coach Jeremy Christiansen’s Knights responded very well to the new situation. The first play of the second quarter was a 65 yard bomb from Mason Vanatta to Parker Powers that brought the Knights within one after a missed PAT 14-13. Then 40 game seconds later Powers would read a screen pass for the Spartans perfectly and step in front of the throw and take it with him 15 yards for another F-M touchdown to push it to a 21-14 Knight advantage.

Exira-EHK did answer back though on the next drive with a 46 yard touchdown run from Connor Westergaard that would get it back to a one point game after a missed PAT 21-20.  The Knights would later in the second quarter get a Mason Vanatta 3 yard touchdown run and a 2 point conversion to lift them to a 9 point halftime lead.

The third quarter really turned the momentum toward the Knights as they amped up the defense and got two early takeaways. Connor Westergaard had the ball stripped out of his hands on a fourth down play deep in the Spartans own end and Fremont-Mills would capitalize three plays later with a 22 yard touchdown pass from Vanatta to Carter Jennings.  The next Spartan possession would once again give F-M a short field after a Westergaard pass was deflected and picked off.  The Knights would convert that turnover into a touchdown as well and then never looked back. The Knights tacked on a few more scores en route to a 63-20 win.

Exira-EHK saw their season come to an end with a 7-4 overall record.  The Knights improve to 11-0 and will face Harris-Lake Park, another unbeaten team, in the semifinals.  That game will be played at 12:06pm on Thursday, November 10th.