Turnovers, penalties rack up and football team records another loss
By Dan Truttschel
Correspondent
In many respects, the East Troy High Schol football team showed plenty of improvement Friday night in its Rock Valley Conference contest with visiting Clinton.
But the Trojans still couldn’t quite overcome critical mistakes that came at just the wrong time.
Clinton put a safety and three touchdowns on the scoreboard in the third quarter to overcome a three-point deficit en route to a 36-28 non-conference victory.
The loss dropped East Troy to 0-3 overall.
“We just made way too many mistakes (with) five turnovers,” East Troy coach Eric Sulik said. “I think we had nearly 100 yards in penalties. In week three, you’re supposed to be over a lot of these things, but we had a lot of self-inflicted wounds.
“It’s frustrating, because it still felt like we had a better team, but the scoreboard didn’t reflect it. Right now, we’re still making too many mistakes to win football games. Until we correct those things, we’re going to have a difficult time.”
After Clinton built its lead to 14 points early in the fourth quarter, the Trojans climbed back into to the game on a 10-yard touchdown pass from Charlie Kutschenreuter to Zach Zewiske, who finished the night with 10 receptions for 82 yards.
But the Cougars answered right back with a touchdown before East Troy made one last attempt for the win.
Kutschenreuter, who rushed for 182 yards on 43 carries and threw for 162 more, scored on a 1-yard run with 1:02 left to pull East Troy to within a touchdown.
It’s only been three games, but Kutschenreuter is starting to feel more comfortable at quarterback, Sulik said.
“He’s a real dangerous guy with the ball in his hands,” Sulik said. “He looks like a kid who played mostly receiver last year still, so he’s still settling in, but he’s making a lot of strides in the passing game.
“We’re reminding him that was makes him an exceptional quarterback is his ability to run and change the defense. The more that he runs, the more those defensive backs and linebackers have to come up (and defend him).”
But that’s where score stayed, as Clinton held on for the win.
Even in defeat, there were positives, Sulik said.
“That was the frustrating thing, is there were a lot of good thing that happened in the game,” he said. “But it was like we would take one step forward and two steps back. We were our own worst enemy.”
Cougars take early lead
Clinton struck first just a little more than three minutes into the contest before Kutschenreuter and Zewiske hooked up on a 6-yard scoring pass to cut the lead to one point.
The Trojans took their first lead of the night just three minutes later when Kutschenreuter found senior Dan Balcerowski on a 10-yard touchdown pass.
Clinton answered with a safety and a touchdown before halftime to regain the lead at 16-13.
That was a big moment in the game, as a blocked punt led to the safety, Sulik said.
“We didn’t get the best free kick off (after the safety), they go in and score and get the two-point conversion,” he said. “That was a huge momentum shift.”
East Troy didn’t score in the third quarter, but had its chances, Sulik said.
“We did some really good things in the third quarter,” he said. “Unfortunately, we also turned the ball over three times. We were moving the ball and up and down the field, but we couldn’t the ball in the end zone enough.”
The challenge gets even tougher this week, as East Troy travels to Brodhead-Juda Friday night to face the 3-0 Cardinals.
Brodhead, ranked second in the latest Division 4 poll, hammered McFarland 40-3 last week.
“They’re tough,” Sulik said. “They’re so well coached, and they’re very disciplined. They don’t necessarily ‘wow’ you with what they do, but they do what they do so well.”
