Soccer finishes second at tournament
By Michael S. Hoey
Correspondent
The Badger High School football team opened Southern Lakes Conference play Friday with a 24-20 road win at Burlington. The game was even at halftime, Badger outscored the Demons 10-6 in the third quarter, and neither team was able to score in the fourth quarter.
The Badgers found the going a little tougher on the ground than it had been in two non-conference wins over Kenosha Tremper and Kenosha Bradford. The Badgers rushed for 775 yards in those two wins. The Demons had a little more success slowing the Badgers down, but still gave up 228 yards rushing.
Badger’s Mason DuMez only completed two passes in eight attempts, but they were big ones, both good for touchdowns.
Burlington scored first on a four-yard touchdown run by Jack Miller. Badger answered with a one-yard scoring run by Patrick Watrous. Badger then took the lead on the first of two passing touchdowns from DuMez to Ryan Sproul, this one for 24 yards. Burlington’s Nick Klug made it 14-14 at the half by completing a 10-yard touchdown pass to Grant Tully.
Tias Larson put Badger back on top with a 41-yard field goal. DuMez connected with Sproul again on a 63-yard touchdown pass to give the Badgers a 24-14 lead. Klug and Tully answered for the Demons with a 73-yard touchdown play but the extra point was no good.
Both defenses held in the fourth quarter and Badger held on for the four-point win. Badger’s run defense was stout as it held Burlington (1-2, 0-1 SLC) to 124 yards rushing. Miller led the way with 62 yards. Klug passed for 237 yards on 14 completions in 25 attempts.
Watrous led the Badgers with 112 yards on 21 carries. DuMez added 97 yards on the ground and another 87 yards on his two touchdown passes.
Badger (3-0, 1-0) will host Westosha Central on Friday night. The Falcons lost to undefeated Union Grove 32-27 on Sept. 2.
Soccer takes second
The Badger soccer team finished second at the Big Foot-Williams Bay Soccer Classic on Saturday by winning two out of three games.
Cole Goff and Payton Aranda led Badger to a 2-0 win over Westosha Central. Goff scored on an assist from Aranda, and Aranda scored on an assist by Goff.
Badger defeated Janesville Craig 1-0. Will Hamilton scored the only goal of the game on an assist by Aranda.
Badger (4-2) lost the final game 3-1 to Big Foot-Williams Bay. Big Foot-Williams Bay led 2-0 at the half on goals by Juan Mercado Pichardo and Cory Shea. Aranda scored to make it 2-1 on an assist by Ulises Escobar, but Eder Lavariega answered for Big Foot-Williams Bay.
Badger was dominated 8-0 by Beloit Memorial at home on Aug. 30. The Purple Knights outshot the Badgers 18-3 and led 5-0 at the half. Memorial got three goals each from Alberto Martinez and Daniel Salazar. Ivan Santiago-Cruz and Juan Chavez also scored for the Knights.
Cross country competes
The Badger cross country teams competed at the Racine Horlick Rebel Invitational on Saturday.
The Badger boys finished 11th. Coach Mike Butscher said his team ran intelligently and had seven of the top eight runners finish with personal best times. He said that is rare, especially this early in the season.
The top three finishers for Badger were Gustavo Gordillo (12th, 16:42.50), Logan Koehling (44th, 17:27.9) and Mario Gomez (79th, 18:03.3).
The Badger girls finished 12th. Amara Trent came in 45th (16:51.5), Erin Wruk took 60th (17:10.7), and Cassidy Giese finished 66th (17:19.4).
