Frederick breaks school sack record
By Dan Truttschel
Sports Correspondent
For the first time this season, the ride Friday night for the Big Foot football team wasn’t always smooth.
But it also didn’t take long for the Chiefs to right the ship – and once that happened, it was business as usual.
Big Foot struggled through a scoreless first quarter before it exploded for 28 unanswered points and cruised to a 42-12 Rock Valley Conference win at Clinton.
The victory improved the Chiefs, the state’s top-ranked Division 4 squad, to 6-0 overall and 4-0 in the RVC. Clinton fell to 3-3 overall.
Uncharacteristic mistakes plagued the Chiefs early, coach Rodney Wedig said.
“We had three turnovers inside the red zone in the first half,” he said. “We executed well, we just made too many mental mistakes early on. Clinton played well on defense. Their slants and stunts kept us off balance.”
As usual, it didn’t take real long for things to start clicking, and once again the Chiefs turned to senior Tim Long to lead the way.
Long, who rushed for 240 yards on 29 carries, scored on runs of 3 and 11 yards to open the second quarter, followed by a 4-yard touchdown pass from Brett Morris to Gus Wedig that suddenly built the Chiefs’ lead to 21-0.
Long now has a team-leading 14 touchdowns this season.
“We really go the ground game going, and the offensive line started dominating,” Wedig said. “We made a few adjustments and started gaining big chunks of yardage.”
Big Foot finished the night with a school record 538 total yards, including 437 rushing on 61 attempts.
The offensive surge continued after halftime, as Big Foot added three more touchdowns to put the game out of reach.
Brandon Hausner, who is second behind Long with 11 touchdowns, scored on a 14-yard run. After Clinton finally got on the scoreboard, Morris and Wedig hooked up again, this time for a 7-yard touchdown pass to give the Chiefs a 35-6 lead.
Big Foot closed the scoring in the fourth quarter when Hausner reached the end zone from seven yards out. Clinton added a late touchdown of its own.
Even though the early going was a little shaky offensively, Wedig said he knew the defense could hold serve until things started clicking.
“Our defense was always in control,” he said. “We had a goal-line stand early after they almost took our first interception to the house, so that was never a doubt. We just had to eliminate the mistakes.”
Morris completed 11 of 14 passes for 101 yards, while Hausner rushed for 132 yards on 18 carries to go with Long’s 240. Quin Dixon made a return to the field after a couple weeks because of injury and rushed nine times for 55 yards.
Wedig was pleased to get Dixon back in the lineup.
“He has been a much-improved player this season, and we will continue to find ways for him to contribute,” he said.
Gus Wedig led the receiving corps with four catches for 30 yards, followed by Chandler Hehr with two catches for 27 yards.
Defensive leaders included Wedig with 15 tackles, Garrett Jeters with nine, Long and Collin Frederick with seven and Will Utesch with six.
Jeters was solid in the middle of the Chiefs’ defensive line, Wedig said.
“Garrett played extremely well on defense, plugging the middle and taking away their dive on the option plays,” he said. “He was helped by the play of Frederick and Utesch at the ends. They kept making the QB hand it off.”
Frederick sets mark
Along with his seven tackles, Frederick also had a sack to help him break the school record held by former standout and current collegiate player Garett Cary.
“Collin has played in 43 varsity football games,” Wedig said. “That is twice as many as most kids would play in their career. He keeps getting better and has been a force for us on both sides of the ball.”
Big Foot, which already has clinched a playoff berth, now turns its sights to this week and a home game Friday night against Whitewater, beginning at 7 p.m.
The Whippets improved to 4-2 overall and 2-2 in the RVC last week with a 49-43 shootout win over McFarland.
Wedig said he expects a stiff test from Whitewater.
“They have the most explosive offense will have faced, more speed than Delavan,” he said. “This week is going to require a lot of prep (work) because they do so many things well.”
