BLANCHARDVILLE — Through two games of the 2020 football season, the Pecatonica-Argyle Vikings are struggling in multiple facets of the game, from preparation during the week to the the execution of the Xs and Os under the lights on Friday nights.

“Early on we did a couple of good things, but we struggled stopping their run game,” Pec-Argyle head coach Larry Green said after his team’s 30-27 loss to Boscobel Oct. 2 for Pecatonica’s homecoming night. It was Boscobel’s first win in nearly three years to the day. In fact, a year earlier the Vikings beat Boscobel 51-6 in a nonconference game. “We knew coming in what they were going to do, but we just couldn’t man up with them.”

The Bulldogs continually shot themselves in the foot throughout the game, mostly in the form of yellow flags. Boscobel was whistled 10 times in total for 50 yards.

Early on the Vikings took advantage of their visitor’s mistakes and went into halftime with a 20-14 lead. But a fumble early on in the third quarter changed the tide of the game entirely.

Pec-Argyle opened the second half from the plus-side of midfield and on the first play Clay Ritschard dashed ahead 33 yards to put his team into the red zone. Two plays later, a fumbled exchange gave Boscobel the ball.

“We thought we had them momentum there in that second half, and then we fumbled in the red zone. I think that was obviously the turning point in the game, because I think that cranked them up a little bit,” Green said. “There were times where we made some great plays, and there were times where we just weren’t in the right spot to make those plays.”

Despite the turnover, on the next play, Boscobel runner Amari Asamoah was hit hard on a shoulder-to-shoulder tackle and the Vikings recovered at the Bulldogs’ 26-yard-line. Pec-Argyle QB Hunter Enloe bobbled the next snap, and two flags against the Vikings — one for delay of game and another for holding, took the home team out of scoring range. A 10-yard punt by Ritschard kept Boscobel from being pinned deep.

Eight plays later, the Bulldogs scored on a run by senior fullback Rylee Bray to take a 22-20 advantage.

Bray was arguably the game’s biggest difference maker in the second half. He accumulated 81 rushing yards on 13 carries in the half, and scored both of Boscobel’s touchdowns. In the first half, Bray had just 43 yards on 9 carries.

“As far as defense, it’s a matter of our players just knowing where they need to be and where they need to go. It’s not just one person individually — it’s our group as a whole,” Ritschard said.

After falling behind 30-20 with 6:35 left in the game, the Vikings needed something to happen. On the first play of Pec-Argyle’s ensuing drive, Enloe dropped backed to pass, then scrambled quickly to evade a blitz and found an opening up the left side. He was brought down 42 yards later in the red zone. Five snaps later, Ritschard scored his fourth TD of the game. 

“He had a great read to see the field was opening and he didn’t sit around — he went right away,” Green said.

With 4:50 left on the clock and all three timeouts, the Vikings elected kick deep and get a defensive stop. It almost worked, twice.

Pec-Argyle forced Boscobel into a 3rd-and-11 from its own 12, only to give up a 13-yard run by Asamoah. Not long later, the Bulldogs faced 4th-and-6 from the 29, with the Vikings stopping the clock with their final timeout with 2:16 to play. 

Boscobel head coach Dustin Johnson elected to go for the first down to seal the win — a gutsy call from deep in his own territory. The move paid off as Asamoah broke through the line for a first down, and then carried two defenders who feverishly tried to rip the ball away for 36 yards. The Bulldogs knelt the next three snaps to run out the clock.

In the first half, Boscobel exploited the outside thirds of the field on Pec-Argyle, running power sweeps in both directions. The opening drive saw the Bulldogs score from 63 yards on nine plays. Pec-Argyle responded with an 8-play, 63-yard drive of its own, with Ritschard plunging in from the 1. 

The teeter-totter affair saw Boscobel mount a 70-yard TD drive, capped with 25 seconds left in the first quarter. Argyle tied it at 14 less than two minutes later, as Ritschard turned heads around McKellar Park.

Ritschard had a 14-yard reception and a stunning 20-yard run that featured four juke moves. He scored on a short 3-yard run.

“It was just simple reading what the defense was giving you, and then our linemen did a great job of blocking as well,” Ritschard said. “We definitely had a momentum shift taking that early lead.”

The Vikings forced a 3-and-out on Boscobel’s next drive and made it 20-14 with a short 4-play, 32-yard drive of its own. The score would not have come if it wasn’t for Ritschard’s dazzling running. On 4th-and-9, the senior caught a screen pass and broke a tackle in the backfield and another at the line of scrimmage. From there he broke free for the 30-yard score.

“Clay, he’s just got an IQ that’s great for football. He’s a very physical player and he has a desire to win like no other. It’s great to have any kind of athlete like that,” Green said. “But again, we can’t win with one guy. We need to get the rest of our team to understand all the little things they need to understand to come out and do, and that’s part of the coaching gig that you do each week.”

Boscobel received the ball with 7:05 left in the half and used the entire time, even calling a timeout with one second left when facing a 4th-and-23 in Pec-Argyle territory. Bulldogs quarterback Lukas Whiteaker threw a desperation pass into double coverage, and Vikings speedster corner Noah Krahenbuhl picked off the ball, reversed the field and ran 35 yards before a horse collar tackle brought him down. The 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty gave the Vikings an untimed down at the Boscobel 25, but a hook-and-ladder attempt to Ritschard fell incomplete.

Ritschard finished the game with 94 yards on 11 carries, while Krahenbuhl finished with 52 yards on nine carries. Enloe was 4 of 6 passing for 47 yards. Pec-Argyle had 239 rushing yards on 31 carries and finished with 298 yards of total offense. Boscobel had 367 total yards of offense, with 328 on the ground.

Pec-Argyle players knelt in silence after the game as Green talked to them about dedication, preparation and pride. Green, who coached the Vikings for more than two decades, is back in the saddle after spending three years away from the program.

“As a mindset, we need to get it into that ‘go’ mode. Everyone needs that extra ‘get after it’ and go, go, go,” Ritschard said. 

Hillsboro, Pec-Argyle’s next opponent, hasn’t played a down yet this season. The schools’ first two games were suspended after more than a dozen team members contracted COVID-19 and had to quarantine. Green said all have recovered and he expects the game to go on.