The Eagle Grove Eagles football team returned to action on Friday night, as they made the trip west on Highway 3 to take on the Pocahontas Area Indians and the Pocahontas Athletic Complex on the south side of Pocahontas, in Class 1A, District 2 action. Eagle Grove entered at 0-7 and 0-5 in district play, while Pocahontas Area also entered at 0-7 and 0-5 in district play.
Friday started with a bang for Eagle Grove as wingback Leelan Spencer scored on a 77-yard touchdown run on the first play of the game to put Eagle Grove up 6-0. Pocahontas Area responded with a quick drive capped off by a Karson Welander 1-yard touchdown run to tie the score at 6-6. Eagle Grove answered with a touchdown drive of their own, as Brett Ascherl score on a 3-yard run on 4th down to put Eagle Grove ahead 14-6. Pocahontas would strike again, as backup quarterback Blake Bunda fired an 11-yard touchdown pass to Brayden Hudson to to bring the score to 14-12. Eagle Grove would have a response to that, as again marching down the field and capitalizing with a 5-yard touchdown run by fullback Trenton Robinson put the Eagles up 20-12. Pocahontas then went to the bag of tricks as Gabe Ehn took a reverse 51 yards for a touchdown on the first play of the ensuing drive to tie the score at 20-20. The Indians would use that to spark a run of 28 unanswered points, as following an Eagle Grove punt, the Indians scored on a 15-yard touchdown pass from Blake Bunda to Gabe Ehn to put Pocahontas ahead 28-20. Then, with under a minute left, Pocahontas blocked an Eagle Grove punt, which was recovered by Brayden Hudson in the endzone to give the Indians a 33-20 halftime lead.
Pocahontas opened the 2nd half with the football, as running back Karson Welander scored on a 43-yard run to give the Indians a 40-20 lead. Scoring would slow until the 4th quarter, as Brett Ascherl found Josh Miller for a 20-yard touchdown pass to cut the score to 40-28, but Pocahontas would fend off the Eagles from there on out to clinch the 40-28 win.
Eagle Grove racked up 267 yards on the ground, as the KQWC Player of the Game was junior wingback Leelan Spencer, who ran for 165 yards and a touchdown on 12 carries. Brett Ascherl went 6-15 for 101 yards, a touchdown and an interception, while also rushing for a touchdown. Trenton Robinson finished with 76 yards and a touchdown on 19 carries.
Eagle Grove football concludes the regular season on Friday night, when they travel to Belmond-Klemme to take on the Broncos in non-district action at Belmond-Klemme High School, with kickoff at 7 PM.