3 in a row
Brady Ambrose/Times Press
The Reedsburg Beavers again stormed back from an early deficit as they won their third game in a row Friday night, 34-27 over Mount Horeb.
The Beavers got three more touchdowns from Matt Lennon as they improved to 4-2 on the season. The sophomore halfback has now accounted for 16 touchdowns this season, including a 93 yard kickoff return on the opening play of the game that gave the Beavers a 6-0 lead just 14 seconds into the game. It was the third time this season Lennon has returned a kickoff for touchdown. But things went South for the Beavers after that. The Vikings took over at their own 20 and were forced to punt. But on the punt the ball hit Lennon in the leg and Mount Horeb recovered at their 47. Another stand by the RAHS defense forced another punt, and Lennon fielded the ball cleanly, but a flag on the Beavers for an illegal block in the back forced them back to their own 19. With 7:33 left in the first quarter the Beavers punted and the Vikings took over at their 27. Mount Horeb then put together a 73 yard drive that was capped by a one yard touchdown by Patrick Clerkin that gave the Vikings a 7-6 lead with 1:44 left in the quarter.
After running only three offensive plays in the game, Reedsburg started at their own 44 and were again forced to punt after a three and out as the first quarter came to an end with the Vikings leading 7-6. After taking over the Reedsburg punt, Mount Horeb quarterback Tim Holan hit Logan Johnson with a 38 yard pass to the Beaver 31, and on the next play hit Riley Koval with a strike that put the Vikings up 14-6 just 31 seconds into the second quarter.
Mount Horeb got a big break on the ensuing kickoff. As has been the case, opposing teams have been kicking the ball away from Matt Lennon. The Beavers Shane Rockweiler fielded the kick but the Vikings forced a fumble and Mount Horeb regained possession at the Beaver 45 yard line. On first down the Vikings picked up 11 yards. On second and six Austin Elliot rumbled 11 more to the Reedsburg 19, and on the next play Holan hit Tyler Ostrander with a pass to the six yard line. Three plays later Elliott rumbled in to give the Vikings a 21-6 lead. Pottinger said that "The key was that we didn't hang our heads when we got down. I never got the sense from our players that we were beat and maybe that's because we've been there before and we know we can come back."
With a little over eight minutes left in the first half Reedsburg started at their own 25 and ran just their seventh play of the game. Tyler Mazur hit Andy Huber with a pass to the Viking 38, and 15 more yards were added on for a facemask penalty. On first down Lennon picked up six yards, and on second down Zack Meyer added four more. Lennon then scored from 10 yards out to cut the Mount Horeb lead to 21-13 with 6:50 left in the first half. "There's always going to be a certain amount of concern or frustration when you get down like that," added the coach. "But I don't think anyone thought we couldn't win the game. It was a matter of figuring out what was going to work and getting the job done."
The quick-strike Reedsburg offense wasted little time to get even closer. After the Beaver defense forced the Vikings into a third and 10, the Vikings punted and the Beavers took over at the Mount Horeb 46. Lennon scampered 26 yards on the first down and Meyer added five more to get the Beavers to the 11. On first and 10 Lennon scored again to cut the lead to 21-19 with 4:08 left. The Beavers two point conversion fell short, and Mount Horeb took advantage of the situation when Holan hit Ostrander with a 31 yard touchdown pass with 32 seconds left to give the vikings a 27-19 lead.
The Beavers tied the game on their first possession of the second half when Mazur hit Ryan Dischler with a 30 yard strike and Lennon added the two point conversion to knot the game at 27 all at the 5:56 mark of the third quarter. The Reedsburg special teams then redeemed themselves on Mount Horeb's next possession. session when Seth Brandt scooped up a blocked punt and rumbled 35 yards to give the Beavers the lead for good at 34-27 with 3:57 left in the third quarter.
With over 10 minutes left in the game the Beaver offense then put together maybe the drive of the season. Starting at their own 15, Reedsburg put together a 22 play drive that ate up the rest of the game. On the drive Reedsburg converted two huge fourth downs, the last one coming with 1:55 left in the game on a fourth and one at the Mount Horeb 16 yard line. Out of timeouts, the Vikings could do nothing except watch the clock run as the Beavers picked up the big conference win. Pottinger said of the final drive "It was a much longer drive than what we've been used to and the players really dug down and gutted it out. We call it the "one extra degree of effort" and it's been our motto since football camp."
Up next for the Beavers will be another big conference game Friday when Sauk prairie comes to town. "Sauk likes to run the ball out of the I-formation and split backs and they have a couple of quick running backs who run extremely hard," said Pottinger. "Their quarterback is a tall kid who isn't afraid to run the option and he seems to be getting more comfortable with their offense. Defensively they usually play with three down linemen and they like to blitz their linebackers a lot."