Big Foot football wins homecoming game 48-14
By Dan Truttschel
Correspondent
For a while Friday night, the visiting McFarland football team threatened to make a game of things in its Rock Valley Conference matchup with Big Foot.
But in the end, the Chiefs just had too much firepower – and way too much Jackson Enz – for the Spartans to handle.
Enz accounted for more than 300 total yards passing and rushing and was involved in five of Big Foot’s seven touchdowns to lead the Chiefs to a 48-14 victory.
The win, Big Foot’s second in a row after three straight losses, improved the Chiefs to 3-3 overall.
Big Foot scored the game’s final three touchdowns to turn a 14-point lead into a rout, and not having to sweat things out until the end was more than welcomed.
“We have had so many close games all season,” Big Foot coach Greg Enz said. “Even the (Beloit) Turner was hard fought and wasn’t clear until midway in the fourth.
“This was great to see both sides of the ball really assert themselves and to a degree impose upon McFarland what we wanted to do.”
Jackson Enz started the three-touchdown run with a 3-yard burst into the end zone to increase the Chiefs’ lead to 36-14.
On the 3-yard run, it came down to a simple race to the end zone, Greg Enz said.
“We were able to just move very efficiently both through the air and on the ground,” he said. “This allowed for us to have a short touchdown to gain.
“Jackson read on the option play and just set his defenders up by stuttering and changing speeds on a couple of occasions during the sprint to the cone.”
After Olinh Craig scored on a 2-yard run, Enz struck again on a 14-yard touchdown to close out the scoring.
Early on, it was the Jackson Enz-Pedro Sierra show that got things started.
Enz connected on a 43-yard touchdown pass to Sierra for the Chiefs’ first score, followed by a 28-yard strike in the second quarter to put Big Foot in front 14-0.
McFarland cut the deficit in half before Big Foot went back to work again before the end of the first half.
Craig scored on a 4-yard run, before Enz hit Hunter Sharpe on a 16-yard touchdown pass, followed by the two-point conversion pass to Jack Heidenreich.
Big night from the QB
Enz completed 21 of 29 passes for 221 yards and also rushed 10 times for 89 yards.
“He is starting to become more the player that we were looking for in these types of performances over the past two weeks,” Greg Enz said.
“I know the first four games were statistically impressive, but still weren’t as good as we knew he could perform at. What we know is that he still has room to improve.”
Other offensive leaders were Craig with 86 yards rushing on 26 carries and Beau Cary with eight receptions for 79 yards. Sierra caught two passes for 71 yards and Heidenreich finished with nine catches for 42 yards.
The Chiefs’ defense also enjoyed a big night, including five takeaways that were a huge factor in the win, Enz said.
“(That was) outstanding,” he said. “We have lacked the ability to create or get turnovers. Before (Beloit) Turner, we only had mustered up two over the past four games.
“Now I believe we had seven (turnovers) between the past two. Just as important is we have only committed three in that time compared to 12 in the first four games.”
Leading the defense were Jacque Christman with 10 tackles, Sam Ritchey with nine tackles and a forced fumble, Craig with eight tackles and two sacks and Kasey Woodside with seven tackles and an interception.
Brennan Malone added five tackles, while Tucker Milligan had an interception and a forced fumble and Andrew Rego a forced fumble.
On the road this week
Up next for Big Foot is a trip to Edgerton on Friday to face the 1-5 Crimson Tide, who were blown out 42-16 last week by Brodhead-Juda.
But Enz warned that Edgerton is much better than its record may show.
“They are a well-coached club that has an excellent couple of receivers, along with a young, athletic and improving quarterback,” he said. “We have to execute and assert ourselves from the kickoff.”
