By Dan Truttschel
Correspondent
As the 2012 season wore on, it became pretty clear the East Troy football team was starting to feel the effects of the sport’s physical nature.
By the time the first round of the Division 3 playoffs rolled around Friday night, the Trojans were in full-out beat-up mode.
And that was something they just couldn’t overcome.
Playing without their best receiver in Nate Dodge and three starting offensive linemen among others, East Troy couldn’t keep pace with visiting Jefferson in a 63-13 defeat.
The loss ended East Troy’s season at 6-3, while Jefferson improved to 7-2 and advanced to a Level 2 game this week at Wisconsin Lutheran.
“We played hard the whole game,” East Troy coach Eric Sulik said. “That’s all you can ask for. We’re disappointed. I’d certainly like to see us at full strength.
“If we could have still had the same team from McFarland on out, I don’t know if we would beat them, but it definitely would have been a different game.”
Because of the injuries, East Troy had to use a number of reserves and underclassmen, including a handful of freshmen.
On the positive side, now the Trojans have several players with big-game experience, Sulik said.
“We had a lot of kids playing who didn’t get significant playing time (during the year),” he said. “But they got varsity experience in a playoff game against a team that won a share of the conference championship.
“I think, in the end, there were a lot more positives than negatives. You don’t like to get shellacked in your last game, especially at home. But, at the same time, for 2013, I think it was actually a good thing.”
Jefferson’s Zeke Emerick, who lit up opposing defenses all season, put the Eagles on the scoreboard first with a 16-yard touchdown run in the first quarter.
The Trojans, who defeated Jefferson during the regular season, fought back with a touchdown of their own when quarterback Brandon Matz connected on a 28-yard scoring strike to Will Iloncaie.
East Troy converted the extra point to knot the score at 7-7 – but that was as close as the game would be the rest of the night.
Emerick, who finished with 318 yards rushing on 18 carries, scored three straight touchdowns on runs of 30, 43 and 12 yards to build Jefferson’s lead to 28-6.
Sulik is among a number of opposing coaches who will be happy to see the Jefferson standout graduate in the spring.
“I’m going to give him a nice watch,” Sulik said. “He’s good. He’s not incredibly shifty, he’s not incredibly big, he’s not even necessarily that fast. But boy is he just a disciplined runner and runs behind his blocks.
“He almost runs in place until just the right time and then he just pops it. He’s the real deal, the best running back on our side of the conference. He’s tough.”
Matz put East Troy’s final points on the board in the second quarter when he scampered into the end zone from 20 yards away.
Jefferson added two more first-half touchdowns, including Emerick’s fifth on a 73-yard run, to take a 42-13 lead at halftime. The Eagles closed out the scoring with three more touchdowns in the second half.
For the game, East Troy had 15 first downs, 135 yards rushing and 146 yards passing. Jefferson finished with 11 first downs and 580 yards rushing on 43 attempts. The Eagles did not attempt a pass.
Matz led the rushing corps with 17 carries for 81 yards, followed by Nathan Nguyen with four carries for 31 yards. The Trojans’ top running back, Joey Dedick, was slowed by a leg injury and had just nine yards on three carries.
Without Dodge, who was injured the previous week, the Trojans turned to a number of receivers to pick up the slack. Matt Miller led the way with five catches for 49 yards, followed by Iloncaie with three for 36 yards and Cody Studt with three for 29.
While the loss was disappointing, Sulik said he was proud of his team’s effort and its second straight playoff berth.
And now it’s up to the returning players to pick up where the departing seniors left off.
“We’re headed in the right direction,” he said. “When you have a senior class that has had success and done it through hard work and commitment, it’s pretty easy to point to (them) and say, ‘This is what we expect now.’”
Sulik thanked the senior class for its efforts the past four years.
“The senior class was certainly the best one I’ve had, not just talent-wise, but overall with attitudes, working hard and buying into things,” he said. “It was fun to see them mature every year. A lot of them played as sophomores on the varsity.”
Results of All-Rock Conference voting and a statistical wrap up will run in a future edition.
