Football team shuts out Whitewater in Homecoming game
By Dan Truttschel
Correspondent
There isn’t any better medicine for an ailing team than a much-needed victory – and when that win comes on Homecoming, it’s just that much better.
Just ask the East Troy High School football squad.
Playing in front of an excited crowd, the Trojans scored early and often Friday night en route to a dominating 49-0 Rock Valley Conference win over visiting Whitewater.
The win was East Troy’s first in 2014 and improved the Trojans to 1-4 overall and 1-1 in conference play. The shutout was the first for East Troy since 2011.
“It felt pretty good,” East Troy coach Eric Sulik said. “The kids are really grasping the concept of the (new defense), tackling better doing a lot of good things. The offense got things rolling (as well).
“We cut down on a lot of the mistakes we had been doing earlier in the season. … I was really pleased with the kids’ effort.”
Even in the face of four straight losses to open the season, Sulik said he never sensed any letdown from his team or the coaches.
The Trojans just continued to put in the work, and last week, it certainly paid off.
“Had we dropped another one, it would have made it very difficult the last four weeks of the season to keep the kids (focused),” Sulik said. “They’ve had a very good attitude about things, especially our seniors.
“We had a really solid week of practice, probably our best of the season. The coaching staff did a great job preparing and the kids executed. I’m really proud of them.”
Quarterback Charlie Kutschenreuter got things started with a 4-yard touchdown run in the first quarter, and then connected on a 25-yard scoring pass to Will Iloncaie.
Kutschenreuter, threw for 181 yards and rushed for 32, added two more touchdowns on runs of 2 and 4 yards to send East Troy to the locker room with a commanding 28-0 lead.
Sulik was pleased with his offensive line’s effort that allowed Kutschenreuter time to do his thing.
“They did an outstanding job of pass blocking,” he said. “We had struggled with that against Brodhead (last week). We did turn the ball over twice, but after that, we played very mistake-free football.”
East Troy closed out the game with three more touchdowns.
Jake Remsza caught a 14-yard pass from Kutschenreuter in the third quarter, followed by a fumble recovery in the end zone by Jacob Pieper. East Troy’s final score came on a 12-yard touchdown pass from Nick Ruffalo to Noah Nyffeler.
While the offense was rolling up the points, the defense was stuffing the Whippets, as East Troy allowed just 107 total yards.
“It was the most physical I’ve seen us play in two years,” Sulik said. “They were flying around. … By the end of the game, I think Whitewater was pretty content to go home. It was a lot of fun. I was really happy for our kids, especially our senior group.”
On the road this week
East Troy hits the road Friday night to face McFarland, a 23-21 winner over Edgerton last week. The Spartans enter play at 3-2 overall and on top of the RVC North at 2-0.
Sulik is hopeful the win over Whitewater was just a steppingstone to even bigger things down the road.
“They’re coming off a big win over Edgerton,” Sulik said. “They have some good skill-position kids we’re going to have to have an answer for. Defensively, they seem to be running a lot of the same things against spread teams they have in the past.”
Sulik said a loss to the Spartans two years ago that cost East Troy sole possession of the North Division title still stings – and some of the current Trojans were on that squad as well.
And that has East Troy seeking a little bit of revenge.
“We have couple kids who were sophomores on that team who remember that,” Sulik said. “We want to make sure we go over there and do well.”
