By RICK SOLEM
rick@580wkty.com
The Mississippi Valley Conference championship will be settled tonight when undefeated Holmen High School’s football team heads to La Crosse Logan.
Pregame can be heard at 6:50 p.m. on AM 580 WKTY with Dan Deicher and Mitch Reynolds. Kickoff is at 7 p.m.
Holmen (7-0, 4-0) is an almost exclusive running team led by a trio of backs. Dillon Martinez may be the most explosive with 418 yards on just 34 carries – that’s 12.3-yard average – after his 4-carry, 111-yard, 3-touchdown game last week in the shutout over West Salem, 26-0.
Quarterback Tyler Anderson has 117 carries for 583 yards and 7 touchdowns. He’s also 21-for-44 for 451 yards with 6 touchdowns and no interceptions.
Logan is coming off a 42-6 victory over Tomah, where Raekwon Williams ran for 2 touchdowns and 218 yards on just 15 carries (14.5 average). Williams leads the Rangers (6-1, 5-0) with 114 carries for 855 yards (7.5 avg.) and 12 touchdowns.
Quarterback Mitch Schreiner has thrown for 635 yards (46-for-87) with 7 touchdowns and just 2 interceptions.
Last season, these two teams met in Week 2 and Holmen took the win 29-13, but fell a game short of the MVC Title to La Crosse Central.
The Red Raiders are 5-2, 3-2 overall heading into a nonconference matchup with Merrill (5-2).
Aside from Logan and Holmen, Central is the only other MVC team that can make the WIAA playoffs, which require a winning record in conference.
Central will play at Sparta (1-6, 1-3) next Friday for a playoff bid.
Lamont Murphy leads the Red Raiders with 112 rushes for 1,072 yards (9.6 avg.) and 14 touchdowns.
Quarterback Mitchel Johnson-Martin has 419 yards in the air (4 TDs, 2 INTs) and 370 yards and 8 touchdowns on the ground.