By Michael S. Hoey
Correspondent
The Badger High School football team won a share of the Southern Lakes Conference championship by defeating previously unbeaten and ranked No. 8 in Division 2, Waterford, 14-7 at home last week. Badger and Waterford both finished the regular season 6-1 in conference play.
Wilmot (5-2) missed out on a share of the title by losing in overtime to Delavan-Darien 47-40. The Comets scored 34 points in the fourth quarter to take the lead before Wilmot tied it leading to the overtime.
After a scoreless first quarter, Badger scored first on a big defensive play by Jordan Monroe. Monroe intercepted a Sam Allen pass and returned it 16 yards for a touchdown to give the Badgers a 7-0 lead.
“Any time you can score on these guys, it is a bonus,” Badger coach Matt Hensler said. “It was big.”
Waterford answered in the third quarter with a two-yard touchdown run from Jared Krattiger and the extra point tied the game. Both defenses held serve until late in the fourth quarter when Badger’s Christian Martinez scored on a four-yard touchdown run.
“We moved the ball real well,” Hensler said. “We had 18 first downs and 293 yards of offense.”
Despite that, Badger struggled to finish drives until Martinez scored with 2:46 left.
“We were inside the 20-yard line three times and missed a field goal,” Hensler said, “But we finally finished one and capitalized.”
The Badger defense, which had stepped up big all game long, held Waterford one last time to preserve the win.
“It was big for our defense to be in that situation,” Hensler said. “They felt pretty confident they weren’t going to mount on drive on them, so it was just about not giving up the big play.”
Hensler said he thought the defense did a great job and it very much limited what Waterford was able to do on offense.
“They were physical and they really stepped up,” Hensler said. “I thought we dominated the line on both sides of the ball and the defensive backs really showed up and were aggressive.”
The Badgers rushed for 267 yards and were led by Tyler VanDeVelde’s 150 on 26 carries. Quarterback Mason DuMez added 71 yards on the ground and completed all three of his passes for 26 more yards. Badger won the turnover battle losing one fumble but intercepting Allen twice.
The Wolverines (8-1, 6-1 SLC) only managed 121 total yards against Badger’s defense. Waterford rushed for 85 yards, 65 of them by Krattiger. Allen completed four of 19 passes for 36 yards.
Badger begins the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association Level 1 playoffs at home Friday night as the No. 2 seed in its group against No. 7 seed Watertown (5-4, 5-2 Wisconsin Little Ten). Badger will play in Division 2 for the first time since 2009.
“It is what it is,” Hensler said about dropping out of Division 1. “It doesn’t really matter – there are great teams out there in either division.”
Hensler said the Goslings like to throw the ball a lot, so his defense will have to be prepared for quarterback Zeke Yaeggi, who has completed 92 passes for 1,402 yard and 11 touchdowns this season. Yaeggi has been intercepted nine times. Watertown averages 233.7 yards per game passing. Colin Schultz is Watertown’s leading rusher with 559 yards this season.
The Waterford defense has given up an average of 199.7 yards per game rushing, which could bode well for Badger’s rushing attack. VanDeVelde leads Badger with 1,114 yards. DuMez has 498.
