Playoff hopes still alive, team closes regular season Friday
By Dan Truttschel
Correspondent
Scoring points has not been an issue lately for the East Troy High School football team.
But for the second time in three weeks, the Trojans put up big numbers on the scoreboard and still came out on the short end of the stick.
East Troy pulled to even at 39-39 near the end of the third quarter Friday night, but visiting Evansville-Albany regained control with two straight touchdowns en route to a 53-45 victory.
The loss dropped the Trojans to 2-3 in the Rock Valley Conference and 2-6 overall.
“We’re scoring points,” East Troy coach Eric Sulik said. “Unfortunately, we didn’t defend as well as we needed to win. We’re just making too many critical mistakes.
“We had opportunities in the first half to take at least a touchdown, possibly a two touchdown lead, and we just squandered it. You can’t afford to do that.”
Even in defeat, there were positives, Sulik said, but not enough to erase the disappointing final score.
“Our kids really went all out for our senior group,” he said. “They wanted to send these guys out as winners (in their final home game). It was just unfortunate.
“We don’t really buy into morale victories. We still felt coming off the field that we had opportunities to win. I’m not going to take credit away from them, but we certainly gave them opportunities to win and they did. Hats off to them.”
East Troy quarterback Charlie Kutschenreuter continued to be a one-man offensive show for the Trojans.
Kutschenreuter had his hand in six touchdowns, including a 26-yard run that tied the game at 39-39.
But back-to-back scores by the visitors, the first on a 2-yard run, followed by a 7-yard score, rebuilt Evansville’s lead to 14 points at 53-39.
And broke the Trojans’ back in the process.
“When they went up two scores, we knew it was going to be real difficult for us to climb out of that,” Sulik said. “We had to keep pace with them scoring. If we had gotten one stop in the second half, that could have been the difference the game. We just had a hard time doing it.”
East Troy made one last-ditch effort to rally on Kutschenreuter’s sixth score of the night, this time on a 10-yard run that pulled the Trojans with 53-45. But that was as close as they would come.
“He’s quite a special player,” Sulik said. “He’d be the first to say he’d like to have a couple of his passes back, but at the same time, you put the ball in his hands, and he’s going to do some great things.
“I don’t know how he does it sometimes. … He’s banged up a little bit, everybody is, but he’s pretty special.”
The first two-and-a-half quarters were back and forth.
Kutschenreuter put the Trojans on the board with a 5-yard touchdown, followed by a successful extra-point kick by Will Iloncaie that gave East Troy an early 7-0 lead.
Evansville answered to take a 12-7 advantage but Kutschenreuter struck again with a 2-yard score that regained the Trojans the lead at 13-12.
East Troy took its last lead of the night when Joshua Grzenia scampered 52 yards to the end zone for the final touchdown of the first quarter.
But again, Evansville had an answer, as a pair of 2-yard scores erased the Trojans’ lead and turned it into a 26-19 deficit. East Troy knotted the score before halftime when Kutschenreuter connected on a 9-yard touchdown pass to Jacob Remza.
Both teams spent the third quarter exchanging touchdowns.
Evansville broke the tie with a 4-yard score before East Troy pulled to within a point at 33-32 on a 20-yard run by Kutschenreuter. The extra point failed.
The visitors again broke the tie with a 55-yard scoring play before Kutschenreuter’s fifth score set up the game’s final moments.
Playoff hopes still alive
East Troy travels to Jefferson Friday night to close out the regular season against the Eagles.
Jefferson enters play this week at 4-1 in conference play, good for a first-place tie in the North Division with McFarland.
A victory Friday night would even East Troy’s conference record and give it a chance for a playoff berth. Teams with better than .500 records in conference are guaranteed a post-season berth, while teams that finish at .500 are entered into the playoffs to fill out the field.
That chance to play a 10th game is all the Trojans are focusing on this week, Sulik said.
“There’s a lot of motivation,” he said. “We have an opportunity to get into the playoffs, yet, and our kids are pretty motivated by that.
“Even if it doesn’t happen, (Friday) is another opportunity to compete. But you put a lot of time into this and would love to have another week of practice. We’ll see what happens Friday night, and hopefully, we can take care of business.”
