Football Chiefs not worried about style
By Jim den Hollander
Halloween is still a little over a week away, but the Wisconsin Dells High School varsity football team is looking to run a sequel on its thief act on Thursday night. Thief may be a little extreme a description for act one, which was actually more like every team for itself. Conference championship hopes are slim, but still alive, for the Chiefs and their invitation to the WIAA Division 3 post season party should be in the mail following its ‘way more thrilling than they expected or wanted’ 20-18 win over the Wautoma Fighting Hornets and Reineking-Fenske Field on Saturday afternoon. While securing its own playoff bid though, the Chiefs also sent the Hornets’ chances to the showers for this season. The Chiefs wrap up the season Thursday night and could have another team to clean out its lockers when it entertains the Mauston Golden Eagles. The Chiefs got a lot done with one game, but the coaches can be excused if they decide not to put this one away as an inspirational video for future teams. Because, this one, while satisfying and fortuitous, can definitely be put into the ‘Winning ugly’ column. Players and coaches likely went to bed Saturday night with flashes of yellow in their eyes while refs needed linement after littering the field with 21 flags, 16 flags for 110 yards of that with their arms pointed towards the Chiefs. That barrage threatened to derail the Chiefs in the second half as they saw a 20-9 lead nearly evaporate. In the end though, the Chiefs collected the win and held its composure in the crucial final minutes to take it home. Moments after the game, Johnson said he knew it wasn’t pretty, but getting the win makes for a happy ending. "Yeah, all I can say is, we have to look at the positives. Winning the game, getting to the playoffs, that’s positive. But, we didn’t play very well. We had a lot of mental errors, mental mistakes and so, we got it behind us, we’re going to move on." Johnson said he thought perhaps his players put this one in the win column a little too early and may have saw a bit of jet lag type effects from a crammed schedule since their return from nearly a week off to a local flu epidemic. "It almost seems as if we were looking to the playoffs and not to this game," said Johnson. "To me, that’s what it seemed like. The other thing, it seemed like we didn’t have the energy to play the game that we needed to play." Actually, that kind of result, wearing down a little in the second half, could have been expected when considering the Chiefs were playing a second game in four days. However, Adams-Friendship who played a few hours later – also a second game in four days – showed no ill effects blasting host Westfield 22-0 to keep its own playoff hopes alive. With all due respect to Wautoma, an understaffed team that brought no more than 25 players to the game, the Chiefs were clearly the better team on the field from the opening kick although with the barrage of penalties on both sides of the ball and a couple of blown chances, it wouldn’t have been a total shock to see them give this one away. The visitors were on the board first, a 25-yard field goal from Lucas Rosin early on, but Alex Yacko made a 20-yard run to the end zone to put the Chiefs in front to stay before the end of the opening period. Skylar Liebzeit took one in himself from 16 yards away but Derek Szewczyk hauled in a 17-yard pass late in the first half to make things interesting for Wautoma. Kyle Holzem converted both Dells’ scores while the Hornets missed on a two point attempt and the Chiefs carried a 14-9 cushion into the second half. The Chiefs missed a great chance to put the game away early in the third quarter, turning the ball over on a fourth and one play in the Hornets’ red zone, but later, Ryan Theiler did manage to add six on a 17-yard hook up with Liebzeit and despite a missed extra point, the Chiefs seemed comfortable with a 20-9 cushion. Early in the fourth quarter, the Chiefs defense limited Wautoma once again to a field goal, this time a 21 yarder from Rosin, but that also made it a one-score game. Just minutes later, Zach Kasuboski changed the entire tempo of the game when he scored on a pass from quarterback Johnny Eagen from 29 yards out. The defense held off a two-point attempt that would have tied the game and the Chiefs managed to push the ball onto the Wautoma side of the field and for the most part, keep it there for the final six minutes or so of the contest. The Chiefs entertain Mauston Thursday night, wrapping up the regular season. WIAA will release playoff information overnight. For up to the minute details and playoff brackets, check out the Wisconsin State Journal/Capital Times info at www.madison.com, or the Wisconsin Dells Events Web site at www.wiscnews.com/wde. WISCONSIN DELLS 20, WAUTOMA 18 Wautoma 3 6 0 9 — 18 Wisconsin Dells 7 7 6 0 — 20 W - WD - WD - W - WD - W - W - TEAM STATS W WD First downs. . . . . . 12 14 Rushes-yards . . . . 23-54 42-159 Passing. . . . . . . . . .167 223 Comp-Att-Int. . . . .16-28-2 12-21-0 Penalties-Yards. . .5-40 16-110 Fumbles-Lost. . . . 2-0 3-2 INDIVIDUAL LEADERS RUSHING