Team finishes season 7-3 overall; coach says not to dwell on loss, but focus on positives
By Dan Truttschel
Correspondent
The final result Friday night didn’t work out the way the Big Foot football team had hoped.
But it couldn’t take away from what was another highly successful season.
Big Foot rallied from a 22-7 deficit at Jefferson, but the Eagles answered with two crucial fourth-quarter touchdowns en route to a 43-28 victory in a WIAA Division 3 Level 1 playoff game.
The loss ended the Chiefs’ season at 7-3 overall, while Jefferson improved to 8-2 and advanced to a second-round matchup this Friday at top-seeded Mt. Horeb-Barneveld.
First-year head coach Greg Enz said he told his team to focus on the positives – including an eighth straight Rock Valley Conference title – and not dwell on the loss.
“I focused on the fact that this was the team that wasn’t expected to accomplish what they had,” Enz said. “We focused on all that the groups had attained over the season and in the past few years.
“I don’t know if there is ever anything that can make an end to a season less disappointing, but our focus was for them to be able to connect back to some positive events from this season when the dust settles.”
Enz, who returned to Wisconsin this year after a season in Florida, said his first season at the helm was an enjoyable one.
And he had many people to thank.
“I enjoyed it immensely,” he said. “To have worked with such a knowledgeable and hard-working staff was the first part, but to also have a focused group of athletes who wanted to make a statement was motivation for myself working with the team day to day.”
The senior class went out of their way to make Enz comfortable right from the start, he said.
“(They) were the players that reached out to me early on before I had gotten here and after I moved up (to the area),” he said. “I can’t say enough about how much maturity they showed during the season.”
Score cuts into deficit
Big Foot pulled to within a touchdown with 5:32 left in the third quarter when senior quarterback Brett Morris scored on a 1-yard touchdown.
At that point, the Chiefs seemed to have some momentum and hope for a comeback, Enz said.
“The fact that we scored quickly made us think if we could just get a stop, we could be tied on the very next possession,” he said.
But the Eagles wouldn’t let that happen.
Jefferson’s Jack Cincotta scored on a 7-yard run three minutes into the fourth quarter, followed by a 1-yard touchdown by Garrett Bleeske that rebuilt the Eagles’ lead to 36-14.
That sequence completely changed the momentum, Enz said.
“We knew that they would really run the clock down with their style of offense,” he said. “So we had to move quickly to score after going back down by two scores.
“They made a good play on a pass that initially was the right read. This extended the lead to 21, and we were on our heels again.”
Morris connected on a 35-yard touchdown pass to Michael Heidenreich with 7:04 left that cut the deficit to two scores, but Cincotta responded with a 16-yard touchdown to ice the win.
Morris and Heidenreich hooked up for their third score of the night in the final 1:09, this time on an 11-yard pass. Morris then found Chandler Hehr for the two-point conversion to account for the final score.
Heidenreich, who caught six passes for 122 yards, missed the season’s first three games because of injury, but became a consistent offensive weapon, Enz said.
“Early on in the season, Brett was looking to Chandler Hehr in almost every circumstance,” he said.
“That was fine, because Chandler could make the play, but as the season evolved, we knew that we would need more weapons to be a team to contend with. Michael became that guy in the pass game.”
Big Foot started quickly, as Morris hit Heidenreich for a 19-yard touchdown less than three minutes into the game to give the Chiefs a 7-0 lead.
Jefferson answered with three straight touchdowns, however, to build a 15-point lead.
For the game, Morris completed 11 of 22 passes for 154 yards and also rushed eight times for 66 yards. Quin Dixon rushed seven times for 72 yards, followed by Hausner with 10 carries for 47 yards.
Defensive leaders for Big Foot included Anthony Williams with 15 tackle, Dixon and Evan Graham with 13, Zak Greco with 10, Will Utesch with nine, Cody Menolascino with eight and Hehr with seven.
Results of All-RVC voting and a statistical wrap up of the season will run in a future edition.
