Elk River coach Steve Hamilton would like to clear up a common misconception. The Elks Wing-T offense, with its tightly-packed formations and dizzying fakes, is not a gimmick. It may be hard to figure out, as Rogers found out in a 42-34 loss to the Elks Saturday, but at its core, it’s football at its most basic.
“At its heart, it is a physical offense,” Hamilton said. “All the fakes? That’s window dressing. If we want to win, we’ve got to get off the ball.”
They did, pushing around a tough Rogers defense that had held six of its nine opponents to a touchdown or fewer. The Elks put up 468 yards of total offense, all of them on the ground. The offensive line was so efficient that the Elks has just two plays all game that resulted in negative yardage.
“The key is the guys up front,” Hamilton said, referring to his offensive line. “They have to get off the ball, they have to do it every time and they have to be relentless.”
While all of the Elk River running backs found success, the biggest beneficiary of the offensive line play was senior running back Zach Ernst. He rushed 23 times for 298 yards and three touchdowns, including scoring bursts up the middle of 72 and 52 yards on the second half on plays that seem simple to the naked eye. In truth, those plays are anything but.
“We practice every step and every step has to be perfect,” Ernst said. “If they’re not, we have to do it again until they are. And of course, our line has to do its job, too.”
Elk River, the No. 2 seed in Section 6, 5A, was nearly perfect in the first half. The offense went 80 yards for touchdowns on its first three drives, affairs of 12, 4 and 11 plays respectively, and took a 21-14 halftime lead over the Royals.
“That is such a difficult offense to play,” Rogers coach Marc Franz said. “I don’t think we could have done anything more to stop them. I thought we were ready.”
Rogers fought back in the second half, despite committing three turnovers. The Royals cut the Elk River lead to 35-34 with less than two minutes left remaining on Gunnar Bloom’s third touchdown of the game, but they failed on a two-point conversion attempt.
After recovering the onsides kickoff, Ernst sealed the victory with his 52-yard scoring run on the Elks’ first play from scrimmage.
“We were chosen to be last in the conference, and we won that,” Ernst said. “People picked against us today and we won that. We’re just happy to keep proving people wrong.”
