Trojans face tough contest against Jefferson tonight
By Dan Truttschel
Correspondent
The East Troy High School football team found itself in an old-fashioned back-and-forth shootout with visiting Edgerton on Friday night.
And for three quarters, the Trojans traded punches with the Tide.
But in the fourth quarter, that’s when Edgerton started to pull away – and that was the difference.
East Troy led, 28-26, heading into the final 12 minutes, but Edgerton scored three unanswered touchdowns to pull away for a 47-28 Rock Valley Conference victory.
The loss dropped the Trojans to 5-2, good for a third-place tie with Jefferson. McFarland remains perfect at 7-0, followed by Edgerton at 6-1.
“Edgerton was able to wear us down,” East Troy coach Jeff Crandall said. “They have a lot of big guys who wear on you as the game goes on.”
East Troy’s Jake Dessart gave the Trojans a 28-26 lead after three quarters on a 10-yard touchdown run. Dessart, who finished with 122 yards rushing on 20 carries, continues to lead the state in rushing with 1,665 yards, according to wissports.net.
The play started as a drop-back pass that quickly turned into a rushing attempt for Dessart, Crandall said.
“Edgerton dropped a lot of guys into coverage, and Jake stepped up in the pocket and was able to run it in for a touchdown,” he said.
Edgerton’s Devin Jorgenson, who rushed for 212 yards on 26 carries, broke the tie with a 7-yard touchdown run and the two-point conversion to give the Tide a 34-28 lead with 11:05 left in the game.
The Tide scored two more times in the fourth quarter, the first on a 13-yard run by Jaden Johnson, who rushed 34 times for 270 yards, followed by a 7-yard run by Jorgenson in the final 90 seconds.
Both Edgerton running backs were difficult to contain, Crandall said.
“They did a good job of wearing on our defense,” he said. “Both backs had good speed and were able to break tackles.”
Back-and-forth affair
Early on, the teams exchanged touchdowns and the lead on a number of occasions.
Johnson gave Edgerton the early lead with a 4-yard touchdown in the first quarter, but East Troy’s Dylan Jakscht answered right back with an 85-yard kickoff return just 14 seconds later to even things up at 7-7.
Jorgenson scored twice in the second quarter, but East Troy went to its aerial attack for two touchdowns of its own before halftime.
Dessart connected on a 45-yard scoring pass to Jacob Price with 10:09 left, followed by a 5-yard touchdown pass to Price in the final six seconds to send East Troy to the locker room with a 21-20 lead.
For the game, Dessart completed 4-of-13 passing attempts, all to Price, for 64 yards.
There wasn’t necessarily a sudden focus on the passing attack, Crandall said – that’s just how the game played out, especially late.
“We always have a passing plan in each week,” he said. “Sometimes you need it, and sometimes you do not. This week, we used it more because that was what the defense was giving us. We did pass more in the fourth quarter as well because we were down two scores.”
Jakscht was held to just 19 yards on 17 carries, as Edgerton kept the Trojans’ rushing attack in check for most of the night, Crandall said.
That may have been a product of a couple different factors.
“Edgerton controlled the clock,” Crandall said. “We did not have the ball much, so it was hard for us to get going offensively.”
Tough road contest Friday
East Troy, which already has its Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association playoff berth clinched, hits the road this week to face Jefferson on Friday night at 7 p.m.
The Eagles rolled past Beloit Turner, 33-7, last week – and Crandall knows his team will be in for a battle.
“Jefferson is always a tough game,” he said. “We need to be physical, work to improve on our technique and continue to play assignment-sound football.”
