Trojans on the road Friday to face Elkhorn
By Dan Truttschel
Correspondent
The final result of many high school football teams often times comes down to execution.
But in other cases, the winner is determined by pure physicality – and that pretty much determined last Friday’s opener for the East Troy High School varsity squad.
The Trojans held a 7-0 lead in the first quarter, but that lasted for just 15 seconds, as visiting Delavan-Darien rolled from there in a 48-10 non-conference victory.
East Troy fell to 0-1 overall with the loss.
“Delavan was faster and (more) physical than us,” East Troy coach Eric Sulik said. “They out-played us in every phase of the game. Our effort was good, but execution was not good enough to compete.”
Senior quarterback Charlie Kutschenreuter put the Trojans on top at the 8:40 mark of the first quarter with a 1-yard touchdown run.
Kutschenreuter finished the night with 128 yards rushing and 41 passing.
The drive featured a solid mix and ended on an isolation play for Kutschenreuter that had success throughout the game, Sulik said.
“It was a solid drive with a couple nice completions and nice runs by our running back,” Sulik said. “(The touchdown) play was one that he had a lot of yards on Friday night.”
Sulik added he was pleased with the quick start.
“We always want to get off to a fast start,” he said. “We want to play at a fast pace and get a lead. Delavan matched us, and we could never recover.”
Delavan answered just 15 seconds later on a 70-yard touchdown by Fabias Shipman, and then took the lead for good on a 76-yard scoring strike from quarterback Jesse Collins to Jake Benzing with just less than seven minutes left in the first quarter.
Delavan continued its offensive onslaught in the second quarter with three more touchdowns.
Shipman, who rushed for 192 yards on 10 carries, scored on a 33-yard run, followed by a 44-yard pass from Collins to Ethan Cesarz. Collins ended the three-touchdown quarter with a 90-yard jaunt to the end zone.
Sulik was impressed with not only Collins, last year’s Southern Lakes Conference Player of the Year, but the entire Comets’ offense.
“He is a talented player, however, there is more to their offense than just the quarterback,” he said. “They have solid running game and have a couple receivers with outstanding speed.
“We were impressed with them watching their video, but even more impressed after playing them.”
East Troy put its final points of the game on the board as time expired in the first half on a 32-yard field goal by Will Iloncaie.
The Comets closed the scoring in the third quarter on a 6-yard run by Collins and another 70-yard burst to the end zone by Shipman.
“(Shipman) is an outstanding runner,” Sulik said. “He’s fast, physical and reads the line of scrimmage well.”
Other statistical leaders for East Troy were Ryan Olsen with 68 yards rushing on 15 carries and Chad Meddaugh with one reception for 41 yards.
East Troy looks to rebound this week with its second SLC opponent when it travels to Elkhorn Friday night to face the Elks at 7 p.m.
Elkhorn opened 2014 with a 10-7 non-conference win last week over Cudahy.
“The biggest improvement typically seen in a team is the improvement between week one and week two,” Sulik said. “We are dealing with some injuries and other injuries versus Elkhorn, but we still expect to compete and play better than we did this past Friday.”
