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Elk River moves to 4-0

By Brian Stensaas, Star Tribune, 09/23/11, 8:51PM CDT

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The Elks used a late touchdown on a rare pass to defeat Monticello

 End zone fireworks — of the literal variety, anyway — aren’t something you normally see at a high school football game. But for every home team score at Elk River, colorful bursts pour out of two cannons.

As if that wasn’t enough to make the crowd “ooh” and “ahh” Friday night, the Elks and visiting Monticello put on a show that didn’t require a permit.

Most impressive? A year after going 0-9 to extend an overall losing streak to 16 games, Elk River moved to 4-0 at the midway point after defeating Monticello 42-34 in its Homecoming game.

It keeps the Elks in step with Rogers atop the Mississippi 8 Conference.

“I’m speechless,” quarterback Corey Collins said through damp eyes.

Elk River broke a 34-34 tie with 2 minutes, 5 seconds remaining in the game when Collins hit Jordan Meyer for a 27-yard touchdown pass. Collins then ran for the two-point conversion, his third of the game.

“That was open the whole night,” Meyer said of his game-winning play. “But we called it when we needed it most.”

It was quite the decision on fourth-and-5, considering to that point Collins had just one other completion in the game.

“And that’s a lot for us,” said first-year coach Steve Hamilton, who uses a Power-T formation on offense and lives by the run.

“We took a shot with that one and made a play. I can’t be more proud of this group of kids.”

Collins ran for a pair of scores in the first half — from 5 and 13 yards out — to upstage a Magic team that had upset on its collective mind. From the first whistle, the game was a back-and-forth tilt.

The teams traded 80-yard touchdown runs as part of a 29-point first quarter.

After Elk River took an 8-0 lead on its first possession of the game, which was extended only when Monticello fumbled a punt, Magic fullback Birk Olson rumbled almost untouched the other way for the first big play.

The dust hadn’t yet settled when Moses Saygbe — part of that three-man loaded backfield for the Elks — ran for his 80 yard score on the game’s next play from scrimmage.

Saygbe added a 16-yard run in the third quarter.

For QB Collins, winning is emotional

Almost by default, the quarterback of any football team from the Pop Warner ranks on up is the de facto team leader. On the field, in the locker room and in public the signal-caller is the face of the franchise. It's not always an easy job, nor does it come without a toll.

Corey Collins showed his stuff for Elk River on Friday night, running for two touchdowns, converting three two-point conversions and lobbing the 27-yard game-winning score to Jordan Meyer with just over 2 minutes remaining. Minutes later, he whooped it up with teammates in front of an adoring Homecoming-amped student section and was vocal in the postgame huddle.

Then he was asked to put the team's 4-0 start into perspective, given the Elks had lost 16 straight games heading into this season and dealt with an ugly incident last season that went public and let to multiple suspensions.

Collins wept.

"I'm speechless," he said with a bowed head.

He got a passing hug from an assistant coach and a teammate, politely apologized - though none was needed - and tried to put it all into words.

"It just feels so good to have all these fans out here, at home, and do this for them," he said, more tears forming.

The conversation switched to the Elks' powerful two tight end, three running back formation. Collins and his mates had Monticello guessing all Friday.

"All the credit to the line, they work their [tails] off every day in practice and out here in games they never miss a block," Collins said. "It's so easy to get in the end zone when you've got that in front of you."

Collins' lone completion of the night was the game-winning pass to Meyer.

"[Monticello] wasn't expecting it," Collins said. "That's why it worked so well."

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