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Sun Prairie rallies to edge Parker

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Parker vs. Sun Prairie Football

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JANESVILLE — Janesville Parker’s football team let one get away Friday night.

After leading 14-0 at halftime and seemingly in control, the Vikings hit the skids in the second half.

Sun Prairie took advantage of a stagnant Parker High offense and rallied for a pivotal 18-17 win in a Big Eight Conference game at Monterey Stadium.

The Cardinals (5-2) clinched a playoff berth with the win and pulled into a third-place tie with the Vikings (5-2).

Parker, behind two first-half touchdown runs from Adam Vesterfelt, jumped out to a 14-0 lead and had a chance to break the game open late in the half.

The Vikings had third-and-one at the Cardinals’ 20 with less than three minutes to go in the half, but an incomplete pass on third down followed by a botched bootleg on fourth down stalled the drive.

“Give Sun Prairie some credit. They made some plays in the second half,” Parker coach Joe Dye said. “And we left a couple plays on the field in the first half, and in a situation like this, you can’t do that against a good football team.

“I can’t fault the competitive effort of our kids, but they (the Cardinals) just out-executed us in the second half.”

Trailing by 14, Sun Prairie cut the lead to two in the third quarter with a pair of touchdowns. Craig Evans, a massive 6-foot-3, 305-pound lineman, did his best Refrigerator Perry impersonation as he bulled in from two yards out to make it 14-6 with 8:19 left in the third. Nick Collins caught the first of his two touchdown passes five minutes later as the Cardinals got within two.

Parker pushed the lead back to five on Cullin Simonson’s 21-yard field goal late in the third quarter, but that was the extent of the Vikings’ scoring in the second half. Parker finished with only six first downs, and take away Vesterfelt runs of 90, 46 and 39 yards, and the Vikings had only 88 yards of offense.

Sun Prairie took the lead for good on Collins’ 19-yard touchdown pass with 8:40 left to play. Parker had two more possessions, but failed to generate any offense.

“It was definitely a tale of two halves,” Sun Prairie coach Brian Kaminski said. “We played about as poorly as I can remember us playing in a long time the first half with penalties and miscues, but I thought we played a good half of football the last two quarters.

“The win gets us in the playoffs, and that’s the most important thing.

“That’s always our No. 1 goal coming into the season.”

Dye decided to punt on fourth-and-one at his 30 with just over seven minutes to play. The move backfired, as the Cardinals were able to run out most of the clock with four first downs.

Parker got the ball back with less than a minute to play, but Decker Thompson was sacked on the final play of the game to end any hopes of a miracle finish.

“I don’t think it was a tough decision,” Dye said of punting. “We just felt like we could stop them, even though we hadn’t slowed them down yet in the second half. The only time they moved the ball in the second half was when they went to the Jumbo package, but they made plays. It’s a tough way to lose.”

Vesterfelt finished with 201 yards rushing on only 13 carries, but was a non-factor in the second half.

SUN PRAIRIE 18, PARKER 17

Sun Prairie 0 0 12 6—18

Janesville Parker 6 8 3 0—17

Scoring summary: JP—Adam Vesterfelt, 3 run (kick failed). JP—Vesterfelt, 90 run (Decker Thompson run). SP—Craig Evans, 2 run (kick blocked). SP—Nick Collins, 13 pass from Ryan Curran (pass failed). JP—FG, Cullin Simonson, 21. SP—Collins, 19 pass from Curran (run failed).

Statistics: First downs—SP 16, JP 6. Rushing—SP 47-180, JP 28-198. Yards passing—SP 128, JP 65. Passes—SP 20-12-0, JP 12-5-0. Fumbles—SP 4-3, JP 1-1. Penalties—SP 6-88, JP 11-78.