ARGYLE — A change of venue didn’t change any other plans for Pecatonica-Argyle in their Week Six matchup against Potosi-Cassville. The Vikings knew it was going to be a grind that that the game would come down to defense.

“Our defense is just tremendous. We lean on them every week which is why we’ve run five fake punts this year,” Pecatonica-Argyle head coach Blake Bukowski said. “We run a college scheme and our kids know that and have stepped up to the challenge. We’re outscoring our opponents 10-8 on the year with our first-team defense. We play tremendously fast and we utilize the kid’s brains and speed.”

Pec-Argyle pitched its third shutout in six tries Sept. 22 and defeated the Chieftains 14-0. 

“You can credit Joe Carmody, our defensive coach. His 3-3-5 is extremely good,” said senior defensive lineman Zack Eaton. The game had been scheduled to be played in Blanchardville for Pecatonica’s homecoming, but the field was not suitable after recent rains.

When Potosi and Cassville joined forces in a co-op before the 2017 season, the rest of the Six Rivers took notice — both schools were perennial contenders for a conference title individually. After losing a heartbreaker last season, the Vikings sought redemption and pounced on it almost immediately.

“They’ve had a bad taste in their mouth for big games. I talked to them about it — we (were) 0-1 in big games this year and we were 0-3 last year,” Bukowski said.

Senior quarterback Colton Schraepfer, who broke his collarbone against the Chieftains a season ago, busted off a big run on Pec-Argyle’s opening possession, but the Vikings turned it over on a fourth-and-goal at the Potosi-Cassville 10. 

“I read the two outside linebackers. We saw in film that they like to blitz and they over-pursued and I was able to get out there and that was obviously a big momentum setter for us in the game,” Schraepfer said of the initial big run.

On their next possession, the Vikings again marched down the field, and again led by Schraepfer, who went 34-yards down the sideline on the first play of the drive. On the eighth play of the drive, Schraepfer scrambled to his left on a heavy rush and flipped a pass to the end zone that Gavin Johnson went up and got to put Pec-Argyle on the board.

Schraepfer finished the game with 97 passing yards on 12 of 15 passing and added 124 rushing yards on 20 carries. Seven different times Schraepfer took negative yardage (totaling 42 yards) on sacks and poor snaps, otherwise his positive net yardage would have nearly been 250 yards.

“Colton is a tough kid. He’s put on 30 pounds of muscle in a year-and-a-half,” Bukowski said. “He’s a great leader, a great athlete and we’re just lucky he’s on our team.”

The Vikings went into half with a 6-0 lead after forcing the Chieftains into 3-and-out drives on their final two possessions of the second quarter. Potosi-Cassville did mount an 8-play drive to open the third, but on third-and-22 quarterback Will Bierman’s pass was nearly intercepted and the Chieftains punted the ball away on fourth down.

That’s when Pec-Argyle broke the Chieftain’s back with a 15-play drive that took more than seven minutes off the clock and culminated in a 1-yard plunge into the end zone by senior Clay Ritschard. Schraepfer would connect with Ritschard on a pass for the two-point conversion moments later to make it 14-0.

“They made some plays and we made some plays, but at the end of the day it was a good game,” Eaton said.

The Vikings nearly scored again on their next drive, but the Chieftains turned the ball over on downs inside the red zone with 3:02 left in regulation.

Schraepfer, who missed the fourth down play with an injury, returned to the huddle on the defensive series and picked off a pass near midfield on the fourth play. 

“Coach Carmody, you have to give props to him for getting us ready. He does an incredible job with our defense and gives us a lot of different looks with our linebackers,” Schraepfer said. “We put up a goose egg, but they still made plays. It’s a regular rivalry game.”

Potosi-Cassville burned its remaining timeouts but forced a 3-and-out with 1:11 left. Four plays later, Pec-Argyle’s Bo Hendrickson tipped a pass from Bierman that Zack Eaton grabbed out of the air to seal the game.

“It’s just crazy, and again, it goes back to our coaches — they work to our strengths. We’re not the most disciplined and low team, (but) we’ve got some tall guys. So, if you can’t get to the quarterback, you have to get your hands up — it’s our rule of thumb. We work tip drills so if it gets tipped to you, bingo,” Eaton said.

Eaton spent most of the game pressuring Bierman and forcing Chieftains running backs Ty Bausch and Colin Esser to cut back inside. Potosi-Cassville managed just 49 rushing yards in the game and a total of 144 yards of offense compared to the Vikings’ 323 yards of offense.

“We saw that they ran a lot of power and trap, which is what they’ve been killing us on in the past. We wanted to limit those plays and make them have to try to pass deep on us,” Eaton said. “We wanted to get some pressure and get some hurries. If we stopped their dives and their powers and traps, then they’d have to beat us with their trick plays. And that’s what we did.”

Schraepfer was nearly at a loss for words after the victory.

“Last year I broke my collarbone against these guys. I tried not to think about that all week, but being able to do that (late interception) makes you happy,” Schraepfer said. “You almost get tears in your eyes. You got the goal done.”

Ritschard had 68 rushing yards on 18 carries and Johnson and Jaden Hendrickson each finished with 45 receiving yards.

Black Hawk (6-0, 4-0) leads the way in the Six Rivers with Pec-Argyle (5-1, 4-1) right on its heels. Black Hawk beat Pec-Argyle 8-6 in Week Four. The Vikings now turn their attention to Shullsburg for another Saturday game in Week Seven for Argyle’s homecoming.