Eagles notch big road win

Road woes? What road woes? Sauk Prairie’s football team, which had struggled during its first two road games this season, reversed course and rolled past host Lakeside Lutheran, 24-14, last Friday. Sauk Prairie improved to 3-2 overall and 2-1 in the Badger Small Conference heading into a home matchup with three-time defending league champion Mount Horeb-Barneveld (5-0, 3-0) Friday at 7 p.m. “That was a confidence booster, for sure,” senior running back/linebacker Lawson Maier said. “It was something everyone had in their head. It was a road game we weren’t going to lose.”  Sauk Prairie capitalized on a trio of Lakeside Lutheran miscues to rally from an early deficit and erased the bitter taste left following a 47-14 loss at Beaver Dam the previous week. “It was definitely needed for us coming after last week’s shellacking,” Sauk Prairie head coach Randy Wallace said. “The past is in the past, we just had to move on.” Maier continued his breakout season at running back, rushing for 117 yards and two touchdowns.  “It was just a great team effort,” Wallace said. “But Lawson was a shining star on both sides of the ball.” The Eagles’ defense rose to the occasion with a blocked punt and a fumble recovery that led to 10 points. “They were able to get some rushing yards on the edge when they needed them,” Lakeside Lutheran coach Matt Doering said of the Eagles. “For us offensively, we made mistakes and gave them short fields that they took advantage of.” Sauk Prairie was stymied on its first possession and forced to punt after a three-and-out. Lakeside Lutheran (1-4, 0-3) didn’t waste any time, marching down the field on a five-play, 51-yard drive capped by senior running back Kaycee Guzman’s 7-yard touchdown scamper. The Eagles, though, responded and held Lakeside Lutheran scoreless until late in the third quarter. “That touchdown really didn’t affect us at all in the beginning,” Maier said of the Warriors’ opening score. “We had a few injuries and had some younger guys who stepped up, which was awesome. We fought hard, and it was awesome to watch.” The Eagles were forced to punt on their next possession. But the Sauk Prairie defense promptly gave the ball back to its offense two plays later when junior defensive end Riley Jadack had a strip sack of quarterback Ben Krauklis and senior reserve defensive lineman Logan McIntyre recovered the ball on the Lakeside Lutheran 25-yard line. “Going into the game, we knew that we had to strip the ball, and we did just that,” said Maier, who is also a stalwart at linebacker. “That was a pivotal point in our recovery from last week.” The Eagles needed just three plays to tie the game at 7-7 when Maier scored on a five-yard sweep. “Their defensive linemen were slow off the ball, so we knew we could bounce it outside,” Maier said. “They couldn’t stop it. We had some awesome blocks.” McIntyre, who is also a starting offensive lineman, said the early turnover helped set the tone for the Eagles’ defense. “The quarterback was coming out, and Riley hit him, and he fumbled it. I just jumped on the ball,” McIntyre said. “That was a momentum shifter. On the first drive, they punched it right down our throats to secure the first score of the game. After that, we got our stuff rolling.” The Warriors stalled near midfield on their next possession. Then Eagles’ senior defensive end Mason Betley blocked the punt, and the ball went out of bounds on the Lakeside Lutheran 19-yard line. “That set up some great field position for our offense there,” said Betley, who was back in the lineup after missing the Beaver Dam game due to an injury. “It felt good to be back out there with the guys and making a play.” Although the Warriors’ defense held, senior Nick Keyser booted a 32-yard field goal to give Sauk Prairie a 10-7 lead just 20 seconds into the second quarter. The Eagles then kept the pressure on. After forcing a three-and-out on Lakeside Lutheran’s next possession, Sauk Prairie caught a break. “We had a questionable snap on a punt, and instead of picking it up cleanly, we knelt down and gave them a short field,” Doering said of Sauk Prairie taking over on the Warriors’ 10-yard line. “We got a punt blocked and had a turnover, and there are two more short fields. That’s what turned the game ultimately.” After Maier was stopped for no gain, the Eagles ran a counter play, and Maier broke through for a 10-yard touchdown to give Sauk Prairie a 17-7 lead with 9:29 left in the first half. Sauk Prairie moved into the red zone on its next possession, but senior quarterback Landon Schultz’s pass was intercepted in the end zone by senior defensive back/quarterback Jack Thiele. “That gave us a little spark, and kept us right where we needed to be,” Doering said.  The Warriors then appeared to stun the Eagles on the next play when Krauklis broke free for an apparent 93-yard touchdown run. However, Sauk Prairie’s defense caught a break on the play. “There was an inadvertent whistle,” Doering said. “They thought the dive back had the football.” Although Krauklis was credited with a first down rush on the play, Sauk Prairie’s defense forced a punt four plays later, and the Eagles blanked the Warriors for the rest of the first half.  Wallace said he didn’t have to say much to say to the Eagles about their approach in the second half.  “It was ‘keep it simple,’ ” Wallace said. “We made some mistakes in the first half we had to correct, but it was about being mentally prepared and taking it play by play.” Guzman, who rushed for 126 yards and two touchdowns, pulled the Warriors within 17-14 late in the third quarter to make it a one-score game. Sauk Prairie, though, iced the victory when Schultz and junior wide receiver Blayze Caldwell hooked up on a 24-yard touchdown pass-play in the fourth quarter to end the scoring. “We had a guy slip and fall and there was a little bit of confusion on coverage,” Doering said. “We made a bad read and then slipped trying to make up for it.” Returning all-conference wide receiver Boden Frosch, who has been hampered by injuries this season, saw limited playing time against the Warriors for the third game in a row. But Maier said that’s where the Eagles depth at the position has made a difference. “Blayze (Caldwell) has been stepping up with Boden out,” Maier said of the 5-foot-9, 160-pound junior wide receiver, who caught a touchdown pass for the second game in a row. “The receivers have had to fill that spot, and Blayze is one of the guys making a difference.” Betley said the Eagles were determined to secure their first road victory of the season. “After the game at Beaver Dam, we were all disappointed, but we put it behind us,” he said. “We can’t do anything about it now. We watched some film to see what we could improve on, and then it was time to move on to Lakeside and see what we could do and bring it to them. “We got started late which might have helped us. It threw Lakeside off their routine a little bit, but it didn’t affect us. It was just a longer bus ride. It was good to go there and bring the energy and keep the energy which was something we had lacked in the first two away games that we had. It started from play one.” • On deck: Sauk Prairie hosts Mount Horeb-Barneveld in a Badger Small Conference game on Friday at 7 p.m. The Eagles will celebrate ‘Parents Night’ and ‘Youth Night’. “They’re the three-time (conference) champions coming in,” Wallace said of Mount Horeb/Barneveld, which routed Stoughton 54-0 last week. “We know we can play with them. It’s just a matter of being prepared mentally this week.”   Sept. 20 Sauk Prairie 24,  Lakeside Lutheran 14 Sauk …………  7 10 0 7 — 24 Lakeside ......…  7  0 7 0 — 14 LL: Kaycee Guzman 7 run (Mathias Schmidt kick). SP: Lawson Maier 5 run (Nick Keyser kick). SP: Keyser 33 FG SP: Maier 10 run (Keyser kick). LL: Guzman 1 run (Schmidt kick). SP: Blayze Caldwell 24 pass from Schultz (Keyser kick)   TEAM STATISTICS Rushing (Att.-Yds.) — SP 31-144, LL 54-258. Passing yards — SP 121, LL 6. Passing (Comp.-Att.-Int.) — SP 11-19-1, LL 1-9-0.    INDIVIDUAL LEADERS Rushing (Att.-Yds) —SP: Lawson Maier 23-117, Landon Schultz 6-22, Wyatt Gibbs 2-5. LL: Kaycee Guzman 25-126, Owen Marty 13-73, Jack Thele 8-41, Ben Krauklis 9-21. Passing (Att.-Comp.-Int.-Yds) — SP: Landon Schultz 11-19-1-121. LL: Jack Thiele 1-3-0-6, Ben Krauklis 0-6-0-0. Receiving (Att.-Yds) — SP: Lawson Maier 4-41, Blayze Caldwell 3-35, Kade Kinney 3-25, Boden Frosch 1-20. LL – Guzman 1-6.