Eagles let win slip away in second half

By Dan Larson, Sauk Prairie Eagle

The Sauk Prairie football team seemingly had an answer for everything Monroe threw at it on Oct. 3.

Everything, that is, except for Alex Dammen.

Dammen ran for 132 of his game-high 171 yards in the second half and scored twice in the half to break a halftime tie and help the Cheesemakers spoil the Eagles' homecoming game with a 28-14 win at Sauk Prairie High School.

"It's always tougher to play from behind because then every possession is more significant," Eagles head coach Scott Schutt said of having to play catch-up right away in the second half after Dammen ran for all 60 yards on Monroe's first possession of the half — a nine-play, 60-yard drive which he capped with a four-yard touchdown run to make it 20-14. Steve Knox' extra-point try sailed wide left.

"Obviously you want to come out and score first, and get the lead and play from that spot rather than playing from behind. It's more physically draining to be playing from behind."

But that's the situation Sauk Prairie found itself in. And it wasn't able to mount a comeback, getting to midfield just once and gaining only 16 yards in five second-half possessions after falling behind en route to a scoreless half.

Early on, though, it didn't look as though Monroe would win by two touchdowns. In fact, it looked as though the game would be a barn-burner.

Monroe (3-3, 1-2 Badger South) scored on the sixth play of the game when quarterback Mitch Tordoff scrambled to his left for a one-yard touchdown, capitalizing on a Mitch Tordoff to Bryan Tordoff 80-yard pass three plays earlier that was nearly intercepted by Chad Pings before being deflected into Bryan Tordoff's hands.

Eagles' head coach Scott Schutt was noticeably upset that the long pass play stood, as he — and the Sauk Prairie defense — argued that the ball hit the ground as Pings tried for the interception.

But Sauk Prairie (1-5, 1-2 Badger North) looked poised to forget about the questionable call on the ensuing possession. Zach Fiene found Pings for a 49-yard touchdown on the Eagles' third play of the game to tie the game at seven.

"We got Zach some protection, and Chad just got inside leverage on his guy and Zach hit him in stride," Schutt said of the long pass, which went for 11 more yards than the Eagles combined to pass for in their previous two games: Deforest on Sept. 19 (22 yards) and Mount Horeb-Barneveld on Sept. 26 (16). "They just executed the route and the pass very well."

Monroe was forced to punt from its own 21-yard line on the next possession and Sauk Prairie went back to work. The Eagles marched 55 yards in nine plays, but Tyler Halverson fumbled on the one-yard line on what would have been a go-ahead touchdown run midway through the first quarter to give the Cheesemakers the ball at their own one-yard line.

Monroe was again forced to punt — this time from its own 16 — but forced Sauk Prairie to go three-and-out before Mitch Tordoff orchestrated a six-play, 65-yard drive which he capped with an eight-yard touchdown pass to Mitch McArdle to make it 14-7 midway through the second.

But Sauk Prairie answered, this time with a Zach Buelow 46-yard touchdown run — which he broke two tackles and outran the Monroe defense to finish — on the second play of the ensuing possession to tie the contest at 14.

"That's where he excels — that kind of open field, broken field running," Schutt said of the 5-foot-10-inch, 152-pound running back who led the Eagles offense with 92 yards rushing on 14 carries. "He's almost better without blockers in front (of him). He's just better in semi-open field and he's able to knife through people and accelerate extremely quickly."

But it was Dammen who took over in the second half. The senior repeated what he did to open the half by gaining 69 yards and capping a nine-play, 70 yard drive with a 10-yard touchdown to make it 28-14 with five minutes, 50 seconds left in the game.

"One of our focuses tonight was to try to run the football," said Monroe coach Curt Miller, whose team rushed for 187 yards after eclipsing 100 just twice in its previous five games — 251 yards in a 28-21 win over Portage on Sept. 5 and 130 yards in a 35-34 win over Fort Atkinson on Sept. 26. The Cheesemakers averaged 60.3 yards-per-game in their three losses.

"In the second half we did it, and fortunately it paid off and that's what got us the win."

	1	2	3	4		Final
Monroe	7	7	6	8	—	28
Sauk Prairie	7	7	0	0	—	14

Monroe	M. Tordoff 1-yard run (Knox kick): 8:54 - 1st quarter
Sauk Prairie	Chad Pings 49-yard pass from Zach Fiene (Pings kick): 7:25 - 1st quarter
Monroe	McArdle 8-yard pass from M. Tordoff (Knox kick): 7:22 - 2nd quarter
Sauk Prairie	Zach Buelow 46-yard run (Pings kick): 6:35 - 2nd quarter
Monroe	Dammen 4-yard run (kick failed): 5:09 3rd quarter
Monroe	Dammen 10-yard run (Knox kick): 5:50 4th quarter

TEAM STATISTICS

	M	SP
First downs	15	8
Rushing (att.-yards)	46-187	21-184
Passing yards	152	63
Passes (comp.-att.int.)	7-17-1	3-15-1
Penalties-yards	11-70	8-55
Fumbles-lost	2-1	0-0

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

	M	SP
Rushing (att.-yards)	Dammen — 29-171	Buelow — 14-92
Passing (comp.-att.-int.-yards)	M. Tordoff — 17-7-1-152	Fiene — 15-3-1-63
Receiving (catches - yards)	B. Tordoff — 4-95	Pings — 1-49

BADGER NORTH FOOTBALL STANDINGS

	Conference		Overall
Waunakee	3	0	6	0
DeForest	3	1	4	2
Reedsburg	2	1	4	2
Mt. Horeb-Barneveld	2	2	4	2
Sauk Prairie	1	2	1	5
Baraboo	1	2	1	5
Portage	0	4	0	6