Arcadia puts up strong fight in loss to Panthers

The West Salem football team hasn’t needed to break much of a sweat during a dominant start to their season, winning their first three games by a combined score of 104-13. Though Arcadia didn’t pull off the seismic upset, they did put up the best fight of any West Salem opponent so far this season.

The Panthers (4-0, 2-0 Coulee) worked their way past a plucky effort from the Raiders (3-1, 1-1) in their conference clash last Friday at Cashen Field.

It seemed as if it would be more of the same for West Salem, which scored a touchdown on a 91-yard drive on its first drive. They went ahead 14-0 when Josiah Wolbrink broke loose in the secondary for a 61-yard touchdown catch. 

Arcadia found some success moving the ball and got themselves on the board with Carter Wegman’s nine-yard touchdown pass to Trevor Pronschinske to make it 14-6 with 7:46 remaining in the second quarter.

Another Raider drive near the end of the half reached the red zone, but a West Salem interception as time expired maintained their eight-point advantage at the break.

Senior quarterback Drew McConkey scampered in for an 11-yard touchdown run on a fourth-and-two play to give the Panthers another score on their opening drive of the second half. A fourth-quarter field goal for West Salem wrapped up the scoring for the night.

Despite the defeat, Wegman completed 14 of 27 passes for 206 yards, a touchdown and an interception, with senior Logan Breska making four catches for 87 yards and junior Khyle Updike hauling in five receptions for 64 yards.

The Arcadia rushing attack was held to only 71 total yards on 29 carries. Breska ran for 26 yards on 12 attempts. Defensively, Breska led the way for the Raiders with 10 solo tackles and 15 total tackles.

Arcadia gets another crack at knocking off a state-ranked opponent when they welcome in the Luther Knights (4-0, 2-0) for a Coulee matchup on Friday at 7 p.m. at Cashen Field.