Overtime kick seals win, sends Badgers to face Waukesha West
By Michael S. Hoey
Correspondent
The Badger High School football team pulled off an upset of top-seeded and previously undefeated Waunakee 24-21 in overtime on Waunakee’s home field Friday.
The Badgers will face Waukesha West on Friday night at Kenosha Indian Trail High School for a chance to advance to the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association state championship game.
Down 21-14 with 61 seconds left to play and facing a fourth and five at the Waunakee 29-yard line, Coach Matt Henlser called up a play he had not wanted to use. Running back Isaac Ziervogel took a pitch from quarterback Mason DuMez and ran right fully selling a run, then he found Chase Craig in the end zone with a halfback option pass to tie the score.
Hensler said he had coincidentally talked with his coaches about a similar play they had run against Sun Prairie a few years ago in the playoffs, and he didn’t think it would work in Friday’s game, but the situation called for it, and he said Ziervogel and Craig pulled it off masterfully.
“It paid off,” Hensler said. “It was just one of those things. On fourth down, I had to call it and it worked out.”
Hensler said both Ziervogel and Craig did a great job selling the play as a run, Ziervogel made a great throw, and Craig made a great catch under the pressure of knowing the season was over if the pass was not completed.
The Badger defense then prevented Waunakee from moving the ball with less than a minute to play, forcing overtime. Badger won the toss and deferred. The Badger defense stepped up big again with a Jordan Monroe interception to end Waunakee’s only overtime possession.
Unfortunately the referees erroneously called the play dead thinking an interception cannot be returned in overtime, or Monroe, with no Waunakee player near him, might have been able to return it for a score that would have ended the game right there.
Badger then took over on the 25-yard line but could not get a first down. Faced with fourth down at the 18, the Badgers lined up to go for it, but Hensler said that was just an attempt to get Waunakee to jump off sides on a hard count. When that didn’t work, Hensler called time out and sent the field goal unit onto the field. Tias Larson calmly booted a game ending 35-yard field goal, and the celebration was on.
“I knew leg strength was not an issue,” Hensler said. “Tias has been booming them lately.”
“I was kind of confident but really nervous,” Larson said. “My heart was definitely beating out of my chest. I just blocked everything out and kicked it straight.”
Larson said there was great relief when the kick sailed right through.
“There was a lot of weight off my shoulders,” he said.
The Badger offense utilized a more diverse attack against Waunakee than usual, and Hensler said that was by design. He said he knew the Wauankee inside defense was going to be difficult to run on and it was, but he kept feeding Tyler VanDeVelde because it set up other things for the offense.
VanDeVelde was held to 86 yards rushing on 24 carries, but Hensler said he did a great job. The runs up the middle also led to successful sweep plays for Ziervogel who had 58 yards on 11 attempts and opened up the passing game.
“We knew we couldn’t keep doing our normal stuff and we would have to spice it up a little,” VanDeVelde said. “We added a couple of new plays, and obviously it worked tonight.”
Hensler said he knew that Waunakee would over-commit to stopping the run and leave his wide receivers with single man-to-man coverage he knew they could take advantage of. The Badgers passed for 174 yards with two long touchdowns and DuMez connected with Jonathon Jones on another 88-yard pass play that set the Badgers up for their first score. Hensler said the big plays were on plays he and his coaching staff were confident would work and they paid off.
Overall, the Badgers had 371 yards of offense while Waunakee had 262. Hensler said his team earned the win by grinding it out and doing what they have been doing all year and trusting it would work. He said playing two very tough non-conference games and then a tough Southern Lakes Conference schedule prepared his team for tough close games like this one.
“It’s all in the preparation,” VanDeVelde said. “We knew all week we could do it.”
“We are a second half team,” he said. “We came together in the second half, and it was amazing.”
After trading punts, Waunakee scored on a fourth-down play from the Badger three-yard line. Casey Marksbury found Jacob Royston with a pass that gave Waunakee the lead.
In the second quarter Badger started a possession at its own nine-yard line after a booming 66-yard punt and an illegal block in the back penalty. Facing third and eight at the 11-yard line, DuMez and Jones hooked up and Jones was pushed out of bounds at the Waunakee one. The Waunakee defense made a stand, and it took a fourth-down conversion run from DuMez from one yard out for Badger to tie the game.
Waunakee answered on its next possession with a kick return to the Badger 47-yard line and a touchdown pass to Tyler Mais on the first play from scrimmage. Just like that, Waunakee was back on top 14-7 with 3:47 left in the half.
Badger punched right back scoring on a 42-yard touchdown pass to VanDeVelde down the left sideline with less than a minute to play in the half and the game was tied at 14 at the half.
Hensler said the play was something he had wanted to save for the second half, but again, the situation called for it. He said he knew it could hit big but, when they tried it again in the second half, it was covered well.
“They have a championship-caliber team with great coaches,” Hensler said.
After a scoreless third quarter, Waunakee regained the lead very early in the fourth quarter on an 11-yard run by Javian Dayne, the son of former University of Wisconsin Badger and Heisman Trophy winner Ron Dayne.
On their next possession, the Badgers drove to the Waunakee 16 but were stopped on fourth down. The Badger defense forced a punt and that led to the drive that forced overtime with the pass from Ziervogel to Craig finishing it off.
“It was a tough challenge,” Hensler said about the effort his defense gave him.
“Their offensive line was gigantic and violent,” Hensler said. “It was the most violent offensive line we have seen all year.”
Hensler said Dayne was gigantic as well, though the Badger defense seemed to have more success slowing him down late in the game. Dayne rushed for 168 yards on 30 carries but much of that came in the first half. In particular, Hensler said his defensive coaches made a couple of subtle changes on Waunakee’s last two possessions that made a world of difference.
“If we had made those changes earlier in the game, they would have adjusted,”
Hensler said.
Hensler said he was proud of his team for beating an undefeated team on their field.
“It was exciting, no doubt about it,” he said. “We have good kids and they played hard.”
“Hard work,” DuMez responded when asked what the key to the victory was. “It was the effort level – we all wanted it.”
The reward for beating Waunakee for the 10-2 Badgers is a match-up with 10-2 Waukesha West, which dominated Waterford 60-0 Friday night.
“They are pretty darn good, but everyone is at this level,” Hensler said.
Hensler said the 60-0 score against Waterford was impressive, but Waterford helped West by committing nine turnovers that West capitalized on. West scored 60 points on just 240 yards of offense. West’s defense, however, has not been scored upon yet in the playoffs.
“Their defense is huge and fast,” Hensler said. “Their offense is eerily similar to Waunakee’s.
“They are big, fast, well coached, don’t make mistakes, have smart players, and they play a heck of a schedule, so they won’t get flustered.”
