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The Blue Devils senior wide receiver/defensive back talks about a play in his past he would change and what famous athlete he'd like to meet.
If a switch to a new conference wasn’t enough for the Baraboo football team this year, the move to the Mississippi Valley has been filled with curveballs.
The biggest challenge the Thunderbirds have been presented with is a wide array of new offenses to handle. Baraboo passed the most unique to date last Friday as it shut down Holmen’s flexbone triple-option attack with a 27-0 shutout, the program’s first at home in two years.
“I told them I’m really proud of them, about as proud as I’ve ever been as a coach of that group because of their ability to play together as a team,” Baraboo coach Steve Turkington said.
That ability to play as a team was necessary against the Vikings’ attack that dates to 1979. Turkington said pitching how to deal with the motion-heavy scheme was difficult for his team to understand because “there were a lot of guys … that had to do things that probably didn’t make sense in their minds.”
The T-Birds (3-1, 2-0) showed they could buy in and suffocated the Vikings, holding them to 191 total yards and 161 yards rushing on 37 carries. Baraboo lived in the Holmen backfield with six individuals combining for eight tackles for loss, led by two apiece from sophomores Jordi Beale and Jackson Puttkamer.
Baraboo's Kyle Felt, left, looks to help Jackson Puttkamer (17) and Jordi Beale (56) finish off a tackle for loss on Holmen's Reid Tengblad during last Friday's Mississippi Valley Conference game.
“It’s one of those things where they’re hard-nosed kids. They don’t mind getting dirty, they like making tackles and that’s what they’re all about,” said Turkington, who added finding players who wanted to make tackles was his No. 1 criteria for finding his defensive starters.
“Maybe sometimes that leaves us a little weaker in the defensive backfield for coverage, but for a game like that it was perfect. Jordi and Jackson are 100% those types of kids.”
Baraboo will need to adjust once again this week when it faces the spread attack of La Crosse Central (1-3, 0-2).
Passing game starting to soar for Cardinals
Columbus' Nathan Cotter passes during a WIAA Division 4 Level 2 playoff game against Lake Mills last season.
Columbus produced one of the best seasons in its history last fall, reaching the WIAA Division 4 state semifinals. The Cardinals’ road to the final four in coach Andrew Selgrad’s first season was paved on a punishing ground game that racked up nearly 3,700 yards and 50 touchdowns.
Despite all that success, Selgrad knew that to take the next step forward his team would need to add an expanded wrinkle to the offense.
“One thing we learned from last season is you just can’t be one-dimensional, so we spent a lot of time in the offseason as a coaching staff trying to learn what we can do to improve our passing game,” he said. “We put the work in over our contact days on campus and this past August to really make the passing game efficient.”
The fruits of that labor have shown, especially last week as a dynamic passing attack helped fuel the Cardinals to a 34-7 road win over fellow Capitol Conference league title contender Lake Mills. Senior Nathan Cotter threw for 139 yards on 10-for-16 passing with three touchdowns, including a pair to junior Brady Link.
The efficient Cotter has turned into “a field general” according to Selgrad, whose team has thrown for 613 yards and nine scores after combining for 976 yards and 13 TDs in 13 games a year ago.
The offensive success has taken some of the load off leading running back Colton Brunell, but the junior is still finding plenty of success after piling up 205 yards and a score on 24 carries in the win over the L-Cats.
“It’s really exciting to see that and this is something we expected to happen, and to see it come to fruition is a credit to the football team,” Selgrad said.
The near shutout marks the start of a tough stretch for the Cardinals (4-0, 2-0 Capitol) as they head to Beloit Turner (3-1, 1-1) this week followed by consecutive league games against fellow title hopefuls Madison Edgewood, Lodi and Lakeside Lutheran. More success through the air could prove to be the difference for the Cardinals.
Blue Devils not afraid to grind out wins
Lodi junior Josh Klann rushes an offensive tackle during Tuesday's practice at Lodi Middle School.
Close early season games have been uncommon for Lodi during its current run of success. That hasn’t been the case this season with the Blue Devils grinding out a pair of games decided by two scores or less.
Those early struggles proved mighty crucial Friday as Lodi eeked out a 37-36 come-from-behind win over Beloit Turner. The Blue Devils rallied out of their second third-quarter deficit of the season to hand the Trojans their first loss, something coach Dave Puls knows was only possible because of the team’s previous adversity.
“We knew we had it in us to come back and make it a game, give ourselves a chance at the end, and this is what these guys have made their identity on now,” Puls said. “They never give up, they never give in, they never quit. They’re always in it until the end, no matter what the score is, and that’s really a testament to them.”
The defense came up big for the Blue Devils (4-0, 2-0 Capitol) as it helped bookend the second-half comeback. Trailing by 11 and kicking off to start the second half, Lodi forced a punt on the Trojans’ opening drive and immediately turned that into a Mason Lane 14-yard touchdown run on the next drive.
Puls said that stop “was what really turned the tide.” A late stand kept Lodi’s unbeaten start alive as Brady Puls broke up a would-be winning two-point conversion pass with 24 seconds left to play to seal the win.
“They’re an extremely talented team and we knew it was going to potentially be a McFarland-type game where it was going to come down to whoever has the ball last and make the biggest play,” Puls said, referencing the 45-38 shootout win over the Spartans on Aug. 26.
Puls is hopeful the nail-biting victory can be the perfect catalyst the team needs to improve the mental aspect of their game, especially entering Friday’s meeting of league unbeatens against Madison Edgewood (4-0, 2-0).
“We’ve got the aggressiveness, we’ve got the athleticism, but now we’ve got to have the intelligence,” he said.
Carter Drews rushed for 80 yards in last week's win.
Deerfield fell behind 30-6 at halftime during a 42-18 defeat to Randolph last week. Deerfield, led by quarterback Tommy Lees and receiver Mason Betthauser (who had six catches last week), will look to get its passing game going this week. Cambria-Friesland had 242 yards rushing and three touchdowns in a 28-22 victory over Johnson Creek. Carter Drews rushed for 80 yards and Isaac DeYoung had 76 yards rushing and two touchdowns.
Portage junior Keagan Hooker looks to evade an Adams-Friendship tackler during their game earlier this season.
Dane Brost was 15 of 21 for 156 yards and ran for 63 yards on 10 attempts and Mason Dressler rushed for 113 yards and two touchdowns, but Fort Atkinson dropped a 28-21 overtime decision to Stoughton last week. Portage also will seek to bounce back and get its offense untracked after a 35-0 loss at DeForest, which scored 21 points in the second quarter.
Randolph senior Bryce Rataczak ran for 100 yards and a score last week.
Johnson Creek’s Taylor Joseph threw for two touchdowns and Silas Hartz rushed for 68 yards and a touchdown in a turnover-plagued 28-22 loss to Cambria-Friesland. Randolph comes off a 42-18 victory over Deerfield, rushing for 358 yards and four touchdowns. Alex Hollander had two touchdown passes, Jacob Kile rushed for 120 yards and a touchdown and Bryce Rataczak gained 100 yards rushing and scored a touchdown.
Wisconsin Dells junior Degan Jensen races away from Westfield senior Ty Monfries after making a catch during their game last week.
Wisconsin Dells, which leads the South Central with Adams-Friendship, defeated Westfield 42-0. Braden Buss was 14 of 17 for 245 yards passing and two touchdowns, Degan Jensen caught 10 passes for 216 yards and a touchdown and John Scott had 121 yards rushing and two touchdowns in the win. Mauston, led by quarterback Tyler Link and running back Brady Baldwin, will be in bounce-back mode after a 35-0 loss to Lancaster.
Follow Sean Davis on Twitter @SDavis_PDR or contact him at 608-745-3512.
Fall River/Rio at Clintonville, 6 p.m.
Baraboo at La Crosse Central, at UW-La Crosse, 7 p.m.
Beaver Dam at Milton, 7 p.m.
Fort Atkinson at Portage, 7 p.m.
Pardeeville at Oshkosh Lourdes, 7 p.m.
Adams-Friendship at Poynette, 7 p.m.
Sparta at Reedsburg, 7 p.m.
Columbus at Beloit Turner, 7 p.m.
Johnson Creek at Randolph, 7 p.m.
Wisconsin Dells at Mauston, 7 p.m.
Deerfield at Cambria-Friesland, 7 p.m.
Lodi vs. Madison Edgewood, at Brees Stevens Stadium, 7 p.m.
Oregon at Sauk Prairie, 7 p.m.
Clinton at Horicon/Hustisford, 7 p.m.
Cambridge at Dodgeland, 7 p.m.
Kewaskum at Waupun, 1 p.m.
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The senior continued his emergence as the Chiefs' go-to ball carrier as they rattled off a fourth straight win and second consecutive in the bitter series.
Columbus' Nathan Cotter passes during a WIAA Division 4 Level 2 playoff game against Lake Mills last season.
Baraboo's Kyle Felt, left, looks to help Jackson Puttkamer (17) and Jordi Beale (56) finish off a tackle for loss on Holmen's Reid Tengblad during last Friday's Mississippi Valley Conference game.
Lodi junior Josh Klann rushes an offensive tackle during Tuesday's practice at Lodi Middle School.
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