ARGYLE — With Argyle hosting homecoming, the Pecatonica-Argyle football team had the first quarter that teams can usually only dream about. 

The Vikings forced four turnovers and put 27 points on the board before the second quarter against Shullsburg. 

“We started off great,” Vikings coach Blake Bukowski said. “We haven’t looked that great all year. I thought that was our most productive quarter offensively and defensively since I’ve been here.”

The Vikings came into the game ranked sixth in Division 6 in the WisSports.net Coaches poll and tied for 10th in the Associated Press Small Division poll. But after the first quarter, the offense went stale while the defense remained electric as Pec-Argyle (6-1, 5-1 Six Rivers) finished off the Miners (2-5, 1-5) 27-0 in a Week 7 game Saturday at Argyle Legion Park.

“It seemed like we didn’t really want to keep our foot on the gas,” Bukowski said. “We talked to them at halftime and thought that maybe we’d make some adjustments, but we never really seemed to get it going again.” 

On the game’s fourth play from scrimmage, Shullsburg quarterback Jacob Berendes tried to hit a receiver on an out pattern only for Pec-Argyle’s Clay Ritschard to jump the route and pick off the ball for a 46-yard touchdown the other way.

“I think it helped a lot just getting that Pick-6,” Ritschard said. “It gave me a lot more confidence for the rest of the game, which helped the team by pumping them up. Our D-Line did a great job rushing the quarterback, which forced a bad pass that I was able to take advantage of.”

On the fourth play of the Miners’ next drive, receiver Griffin Wiegel was smacked hard by defender Dalton Turner and put the ball on the turf. Three plays later, Pec-Argyle quarterback Colton Schraepfer hit Jaden Hendrickson in stride for a 41-yard TD pass. That made it 14-0.

Schraepfer would pick off a pass on Shullsburg’s third play of its third possession and bust loose up the left sideline for a 68-yard run two plays later. That set up Zander Brunker, who punched it in from 15 yards out, barreling through defenders the final five yards to make it 21-0 just 4 minutes, 25 seconds into the game. 

After the two teams traded three-and-outs, Wiegel again put the ball on the turf in his team’s territory, again giving the Vikings a golden opportunity to add to their lead. Five plays later, Schraepfer did just that with a screen to wideout Gavin Johnson who took it 15-yards to the house as time expired in the period.

The Vikings defense never let up, holding Shullsburg to -12 yards rushing on 21 carries. Berendes was 27 of 47 passing for 205 yards and remains 101 yards shy of both the school’s single season and career passing records.

“Defense played great,” Bukowski said. “We knew they were going to throw for some yards, but I feel we rose to the challenge.” 

Offensively, however, Pec-Argyle struggled after the first quarter. The Vikings’ next two possessions ended in quick fumbles and then Schraepfer through an interception in the end zone with 1:44 to play before half. 

“Once things got rolling bad, it kind of snowballed together,” Bukowski said. “With that second one (fumble) I felt that we started second-guessing ourselves and we can’t do that. We just have to make sure we execute.” 

The Vikings gained 161 yards of offense in the first quarter and 109 in the second but with three turnovers. The second half saw two turnovers on downs and a punt with 54 yards gained in the third and 86 in the fourth, 26 of which on a long jump-ball heave on third down to Johnson.

“We stalled out,” Ritschard said. “We all just have to do our jobs — know our assignments and play assignment football. It’s not the play calling or anything, we just have to do our jobs on the field.” 

Ritschard said the rest of the Vikings added an extra chip on their shoulder when they lost senior running back Mitchel Flannery to a season-ending shoulder injury.

“We’re playing for him,” Ritschard said.

Schraepfer finished with 116 yards rushing on 12 carries while Brunker had 110 on 15 carries — 12 of which came in the second half. Schraepfer was 8 of 14 passing for 156 yards. Johnson had four catches for 65 yards to lead all Viking receivers.

Next up for Pec-Argyle is the team’s final conference game — at River Ridge (2-5, 2-3) in Week 8. The Vikings will play Hurley (5-2) in a nonconference game in Week 9 at Waupaca.

“We’ve got a lot to work on this week to get ready for River Ridge,” Bukowski said.