Chiefs ranked No. 1 in Division 4
By Dan Truttschel
Sports Correspondent
Big Foot’s Tim Long has waited patiently through the first three years of his high school football career.
Not that Long didn’t play a key role in the Chiefs’ success – because he certainly did.
But now he’s forging his own path, and if the past two weeks are any indication, he may be on the verge of a very special senior season.
For the second straight week, Long led Big Foot in rushing, this time in a convincing 35-0 road victory last Friday night at Evansville-Albany.
The win improved the Chiefs, ranked No. 1 in Division 4 by wissports.net poll, to 3-0 overall and 1-0 in the Rock Valley Conference.
“We played much better defensively (than the previous two weeks), and our offensive line took over after the first quarter,” Big Foot coach Rodney Wedig said. “We made a lot fewer mental mistakes.”
Big Foot took the lead less than three minutes into the first quarter on a 3-yard touchdown run by quarterback Brett Morris.
The Chiefs took control in the second quarter with two more scores, the first on a 2-yard run by Long, followed by a 2-yard pass from Morris to Long, that gave Big Foot a 21-0 lead at halftime.
Long battered Evansville for 198 yards rushing on 25 carries.
“We were joking around before the game that we would jump on the ‘Timmy Train,’” Wedig said. “That is sort of descriptive of his running style. Once he gets going, he isn’t going around anyone, he is going over and through.
“Tim runs every play like it is his last. He is tough to bring down, and once we got going up front, I just kept feeding him the ball. He had 18 carries in the first half, which is actually more than I would normally like because he is also vital on defense.”
Big Foot closed out the scoring with two more second-half scores. Brandon Hausner got into the act with a 3-yard run at the 3:52 mark of the third quarter, followed by a 7-yard run by Quin Dixon early in the fourth.
Senior kicker Ian Gallagher converted all five extra-point attempts.
Hausner added 82 yards on 17 attempts for the Chiefs, while Dixon had 43 yards on eight attempts.
Morris completed six of 12 passing attempts for 44 yards. Dixon led the receiving corps with two catches for 12 yards.
Big Foot finished with 327 yards rushing on 57 carries, while Evansville had just 22 yards on one carry and 130 yards passing.
Defensive leaders included Gus Wedig with 10 tackles, Collin Frederick and Long with seven, Jacob Waro with six, Hausner with five and Chandler Hehr and Dixon with four apiece.
“All 11 men on the field (defensively) were doing their job and stuck to the fundamentals that we teach them,” Wedig said. “I thought coach (Greg) Lueck and coach (Pat) Hollihan also had an excellent game plan and mixed up our blitz package well.”
With three straight victories to open the season, including two against the bigger Southern Lakes Conference, Wedig has plenty to be pleased about to this point.
“I am very happy with where we are,” he said. “We played three pretty good teams and played well in the games, but still have a lot to improve. We need to eliminate mistakes, and we need to keep getting better from top to bottom.”
Home game Friday
Big Foot is back in action Friday night when it hosts Parkview at 7 p.m. The Vikings fell to 0-3 overall and 0-1 in the RVC last week with a 45-22 loss to visiting McFarland.
Even though Parkview is struggling, Wedig knows his team has to continue to do what it does best.
“Parkview lost a lot of seniors from last season, but they run a tough offense and they do it well,” he said. “They have some pretty good speed on the edge.
“We need to keep working hard, and we need to get our younger guys some work to establish a little more depth at certain positions.”
