Win over Watertown pits Badgers against Oregon at home Friday
By Michael S. Hoey
Correspondent
The Badger High School football team battled through wet conditions and sometimes heavy rain to win its Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association Division 2 Level 1 playoff game 35-9 against Watertown on Friday. The win propels the Badgers into Level 2 at home against Oregon on Friday.
Coming into the game, Badger relied heavily on a strong running game all season with only a few passes mixed in to keep defenses honest while Watertown came in as a decidedly passing team. The wet conditions gave the Badgers an advantage.
The Goslings (5-5) had trouble throwing the slick ball all night long. The Badgers intercepted three Watertown passes and had a fourth called back on a penalty, and Watertown quarterback Zeke Yaeggi had the ball slip out of his hand at least twice while looking to pass. However, the Badgers scored twice on passing touchdowns.
“We are able to take advantage of certain situations when teams load the box,” Coach Matt Hensler said of the role of the passing game in Badger’s offense.
The Badgers only attempted three passes but two of them went for touchdowns. When defenses “load the box” in an attempt to stop the Badger run game, the Badgers can find openings in the pass game for big plays.
Despite the two scores through the air, the Badgers dominated the game with their rushing attack gaining 346 yards on the ground. Tyler VanDeVelde led the way with 104 yards on 22 carries. Christian Martinez had 72 yards on 12 carries, quarterback Mason DuMez added 69 yards on 14 attempts, and Isaac Ziervogel had 49 yards on six attempts. The Badger offense was methodical and efficient scoring on five of its first six drives and converting all five fourth-down attempts including a fake punt. Badger scored on two 12-play drives and one 15-play drive that chewed up the clock.
“I think our offensive line is getting better each week,” Hensler said. “Their pad level drops a little each week and they are starting to understand our offense just a little bit better each week.”
Hensler also credited the offensive line for converting all five fourth-down conversion attempts.
“They really controlled things up front,” Hensler said.
Badger won the opening toss but deferred to the second half. The Badger defense came up big, forcing a three-and-out on Watertown’s first possession. The Badgers stuffed the Gosling offense all night long. Watertown managed just 28 yards rushing. The Goslings gained 172 yards passing but completed just 12 passes to Watertown receivers on 32 attempts.
Hensler said the defense played very well.
“Our front seven did a great job taking away the run and making them one dimensional,” Hensler said. “Our defensive backs played as physical as I have seen them play.”
After getting the ball back, Badger scored on its shortest and quickest scoring drive of the night. After receiving the ball at its own 48-yard line, the Badger offense marched down the field in just seven plays and scored on a three-yard run by DuMez.
Watertown tried to fight back moving the ball all the way down to the three-yard line. Patrick Quinn intercepted a Yaeggi pass at the five-yard line, but it was called back because of pass interference. The Badger defense held and the Goslings were forced to settle for a 20-yard field goal by Yaeggi to make it 7-3.
Badger responded with a 67-yard, 12-play drive that ended with a seven-yard touchdown run by VanDeVelde. The Badgers converted a fourth and three at the 17-yard line along the way with a seven-yard burst up the middle by DuMez.
After forcing another punt, the Badgers ate up the clock with another 12-play drive that was aided by a generous mark from the officials on a fourth-down play. The Badgers later converted two more fourth-down plays on the drive including a 19-yard touchdown pass over the middle to Martinez to make it 21-3 with less than a minute in the half.
Watertown made an attempt to score before the half ended and completed a 38-yard pass from Yaeggi to Brett Caine to be in a position to take some shots at the end zone with about seven seconds left from the Badger 22-yard line. One pass fell incomplete and the second was intercepted in the end zone by Chase Craig.
The Badgers were in danger of not scoring for the first time on the opening drive of the second half. On fourth and five at their own 35-yard line, Hensler called for a fake punt. Ziervogel gained 29 yards and also finished the drive with a 22-yard touchdown reception from DuMez. Badger led 28-3.
Hensler said his assistant coaches are always looking for an opportunity to call a fake punt and they saw something in the first half that made them push for it in the third quarter.
Watertown moved the ball to the Badger 21-yard line on its next drive, but Yaeggi lost the grip on the ball as he was looking to pass, and Alex Evans recovered the fumble. The Badgers were forced to punt for the first time but then ended the Goslings’ next drive with a Jordan Monroe interception at the Badger 31-yard line. Fifteen plays later, Martinez scored from two yards out to make it 35-3.
Watertown scored the game’s final points on a 10-yard touchdown pass from Austin Gifford to Ryan Hayden with 2:41 left. The Badgers fumbled while trying to run the clock out, but Monroe picked off another pass at the Badger two-yard line to end it.
The Badgers (8-2) will face Oregon (7-3, 4-2 in the Badger South) Friday night. Oregon defeated Milton 14-7 last week after losing to Milton 16-7 on Oct. 9 in a regular season game. Oregon averages 26.8 points per game and has gained 1,968 yards on the ground with 22 rushing touchdowns. Oregon has gained 1,181 yards passing with 12 touchdowns and six interceptions. Oregon has given up an average of 173.2 rushing yards per game.
Hensler said Oregon uses a ball-control offense much like Badger’s and wants to control the line of scrimmage and run the ball. He said the team is big and physical up front and his team will need to take another big step this week to compete with Oregon.
