By Dan Truttschel
Correspondent
With each passing week, the Big Football team has been building toward a postseason run.
That time is here.
Big Foot closed one chapter of 2012 last week with a 49-19 Rock Valley Conference win over visiting Palmyra-Eagle. The victory improved the Chiefs to 8-0 and closed out its sixth straight perfect RVC season.
The theme and message to the team never wavered from the first to the last week of the regular season, Big Foot coach Rodney Wedig said.
“I’m very impressed with how well we have maintained focus and continued to get better,” he said. “I really didn’t think we would be able to distance ourselves from the conference like we did. It is really a testament to the hard work these kids have put in.”
At this point in the Chiefs’ successful run, staying at the top is what drives the team, Wedig said.
“I feel we have reached that point where there is pressure to keep things going,” he said. “We have not lost a conference game in six years. No one wants to be that class that ends that streak.”
Big Foot continued its trend of jumping out quickly with 21 first-quarter points to take control.
Carter Hehr opened the scoring with an 18-yard touchdown, followed by runs of 40 and 10 yards by Brandon Hausner and Mason Dixon, respectively.
Dixon, who has put together a huge senior season, drew plenty of attention from the Palmyra defense, which gave Hausner an early chance to shine.
“With the way they were keying on Mason, we thought we could spring one with him,” Wedig said.
Big Foot added 21 more points in the second half and went into halftime with a commanding 42-6 lead.
While the ground game was key in the first quarter, the Chiefs went to the air in the second, as Hehr completed a trio of touchdown passes.
Hehr hit Matt Ripkey on a 6-yard scoring strike, followed by a 61-yard touchdown to Dixon. The scoring run ended with a Hehr-Ripkey combination again, this time on a 15-yard pass to the end zone.
Big Foot put its final points on the scoreboard in the third quarter when sophomore Brett Morris hit Tim Long with a 10-yard touchdown pass.
For the game, Big Foot completed nine of 10 passing attempts for 169 yards and rushed for 211 yards on 19 carries.
Dixon led the rushing attack with 106 yards on 10 attempts, followed by Hehr with six carries for 51 yards. Hausner gained 45 yards on two carries. Ripkey led the receiving corps with six catches for 86 yards.
Defensive leaders for Big Foot included Gus Wedig with 10 tackles, Evan Graham with eight, Garett Cary with seven and Collin Frederick with six.
Playoffs up next
Big Foot begins the second season this week when it hosts a WIAA Division 4 Level 1 playoff game Friday night against visiting St. John’s Northwestern Military Academy.
St. John’s, the eighth seed, brings a 6-2 overall record into the opener.
“They are athletic and have good speed,” Wedig said.
The winner this week will advance to the second round next week against the winner of fifth-seeded Campbellsport and fourth-seeded Brodhead-Juda.
Other first-round matchups in the Chiefs’ group are sixth-seeded Edgerton at third-seeded Manitowoc Roncalli and seventh-seeded Lake Mills at second-seeded Lakeside Lutheran.
Lakeside enters the postseason as the top-ranked team in Division 4.
The Chiefs, who were ranked in Division 3 all season but moved one division lower for the postseason, drew the top seed in their eight-team bracket.
Making the move to Division 4 drastically changes things, Wedig said.
“It is a big difference,” he said. “We are a small town, rural Wisconsin high school, just like the rest of the (Division) 4 field. In D3, you are talking suburban school or private city schools with enrollments as high as 900.
“It would have been a very tough and challenging road. We know the landscape of D4 a lot better.”
This year brought several significant changes to the postseason. Gone are the days of three games in 10 days, along with the seeding decisions being made by the WIAA. Head coaches met last weekend to determine the brackets.
Wedig didn’t mind the previous playoff setup.
“I actually liked the three games in 10 days,” he said. “That way you had basically one week and one day, and then only 12.5 percent of the high schools were left. It thinned the herd quickly.”
