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Vesterfelt's 4 TDs lead Parker

JANESVILLE — Joe Dye has had a stable of quality running backs in his illustrious coaching career at Janesville Parker.

From the speed of Matt Mohr, to the explosiveness of Cas Prime, to the all-around skills of Taylor Edwards, Parker High seems to mass produce blue-chip backs.

Adam Vesterfelt may turn out to be the best of the bunch.

The sophomore ran for 242 yards and scored four touchdowns Friday night to lead the Vikings to a pivotal 36-22 win over Madison Memorial on homecoming at Monterey Stadium.

Parker (6-2) moved into a five-way with Memorial, Middleton, Sun Prairie and Verona for first place in the Big Eight Conference, and the Vikings can earn at least a share of the title with a win at Middleton on Wednesday night.

After slicing through the Madison La Follette defense a week ago for 314 yards, Vesterfelt ran his two-week total to 556 yards on a whopping 76 carries.

“The (offensive) line keeps giving me a better and better push up front, and that’s creating opportunities for me to run,” Vesterfelt said. “I’m just taking advantage of the holes I get.

“And as long as we keep getting three, four, five yards a carry and keep getting first downs, we’re going to keep running the ball down their throats.”

Parker’s ball control offense did exactly what Dye had hoped for—and that was to keep the high-powered Spartan offense off the field. The Vikings finished with 317 yards on the ground, while the defense limited Memorial to 26 yards on the ground.

Memorial struck first on a 43-yard touchdown pass from Mike Moss to Lechein Neblett, but Parker responded behind the legs of Vesterfelt. The 5-foot-11, 200-pound Vesterfelt got the Vikings on the board with a 5-yard run with 3:16 left in the first quarter, and Tyler Teubert’s 24-yard touchdown pass to Calvin Nauer put Parker ahead 14-8.

The Spartans took their last lead at 15-14 early in the third quaerter, but Vesterfelt answered with touchdown runs of four and 21 yards on the Vikings’ next two drives as Memorial had no answer for Parker’s vaunted ground game.

“It comes down to executing,” Dye said. “The line’s blocking and Adam’s running hard. His field vision gets better with every game, and he’s processing what’s going on a lot quicker now.

“We talk each and every day about getting better as a football team. Tonight, we battled for 48 minutes against a very good football team.”

Battled and rode the legs of a sophomore to a date with Middleton, and a crack at a Big Eight title.

PARKER 36, MEMORIAL 22

Madison Memorial 8 0 7 7—22

Janesville Parker 6 8 8 14—36

Scoring summary: MM—Lechein Neblett, 43 pass from Mike Moss (Neblett pass from Moss). JUP—Adam Vesterfelt, 5 run (kick failed). JP—Calvin Nauer, 24 pass from Tyler Teubert (Vesterfelt run). MM—Jordan Fredrick, 6 pass from Moss (Brett Wise kick). JP—Vesterfelt, 4 run (Vesterfelt run). JP—Vesterfelt, 21 run (Creed Knutson kick). MM—Luke Galle, 8 pass from Moss (Wise kick). JP—Vesterfelt, 61 run (Knutson kick).

Statistics: First downs—MM 15, JP 17. Rushing—MM 24-26, JP 47-317. Yards passing—MM 280, JP 109. Passes—MM 42-25-0, JP 9-5-2. Fumbles—MM 4-1, JP 1-1. Penalties—MM 10-75, JP 5-31.