East Troy hosts Elkhorn in home opener tonight
By Dan Truttschel
Correspondent
One fact seems certain when the East Troy and Delavan-Darien football teams get together.
There’s going to be fireworks – and plenty of them.
The teams didn’t disappoint in Friday night’s non-conference season opener, as they combined for 82 points.
Unfortunately for the Trojans, they fell two short in a hard-fought 42-40 setback.
For East Troy coach Eric Sulik, the outcome seemed like déjà vu when it came to battles with the Comets.
“I was really hoping it wasn’t going to be (a repeat),” he said. “The first half, we were doing some good things and definitely putting up points.
“You can’t give up 40 points and expect to win, but we still had an opportunity to do so.”
Delavan finally took the lead late in the third quarter on a 1-yard touchdown run, but East Troy, which had built a 27-15 halftime advantage, responded.
The Trojans moved back out in front at 40-36 on a 15-yard touchdown pass from Nick Ruffalo to Noah Ryffler.
But in a back-and-forth second half, the Comets had the last laugh.
Delavan put the final points on the scoreboard on a 7-yard touchdown run by Fabias Shipman. The extra-point attempt failed, and the Trojans had one last chance to pull out the win.
East Troy drove all the way down to a first-and-goal situation in Comets’ territory, but were stopped short on fourth down to end their comeback bid.
“We were confident we could punch it in from there, but we didn’t,” Sulik said. “It was an exciting second half.”
Sulik said Delavan, which outscored the Comets 27-13 in the second half, took advantage of the absence of East Troy defensive lineman Owen Goedland, who began suffering cramps.
Goedland was a force in the first half, Sulik said, but without him in the lineup, the Comets’ rushing attack began to flourish.
“They ran for some yards,” he said. “They didn’t have an answer for him in the first half.”
Goedland put East Troy on the scoreboard first with a 3-yard touchdown run in the opening quarter, followed by a 9-yard scoring pass from Ruffalo to Jake Remsza, and suddenly the Trojans were up 13-0.
The teams exchanged scores the rest of the half, as East Troy’s Ryan Olsen posted touchdown runs of 1 and 2 yards to help the Trojans to their 12-point lead at the intermission.
“I was happy at halftime,” Sulik said. “I felt we had an answer for what they were doing.”
East Troy turned the football over on its first second-half possession, which led to a Delavan touchdown that pulled the Comets within five points at 27-22.
But Ruffalo, who unofficially passed for 316 yards, found Remsza on a 61-yard scoring strike to again rebuild the lead to 12 points before the Comets’ late rally.
For the game, Ruffalo completed 13 of 22 passing attempts with two interceptions, while Olsen led the rushing attack with 29 carries for 157 yards. Remsza caught six passes for 176 yards, followed by Zach Zewiske with three catches for 79 yards.
The offensive output was a positive, but Sulik knows it will take more than just impressive statistics to get the job done on the scoreboard.
“It was bright spot, but at the same time, our offensive coaches were like, ‘For as good as we played, we couldn’t get a yard when it counted,’” Sulik said. “The offense was rolling.
“We have to put a whole game together on defense. We just didn’t do that.”
Home opener tonight
The Trojans face their second straight Southern Lakes Conference foe tonight when they host Elkhorn at 7 p.m. The Elks, who tied for the SLC title with three other teams a year ago, fell 35-0 to Waukesha North in their opener last week.
There’s no secret on how Elkhorn likes to attack defenses, Sulik said, as the Elks will come right at the Trojans.
“They have a big offensive line,” he said. “I know they graduated a few players from their backfield, but they have a very large fullback. They’re going to come downhill, chew up the clock and play possession football.
“They’re not going to pass the ball all over the place, but they’re going to challenge (us) with the run game. We’re going to have to have an answer to stop them or slow them down.”
Sulik is confident his team can use the positives from the opener and bounce back this week.
“We can’t control their size,” he said. “We just have to control what we have. The kids were very positive on Friday. Nobody is picking us to do anything this year, which is fine.
“We’re going to have to play very well. I know they’re going to be well coached. If we can get lead early, because they do take a little while to score, I like our chances.”
