Eagles rout Baraboo in opener

On a special night honoring the Armed Forces, it was the duo of senior quarterback Landon Schultz and senior tight end Kade Kinney who stole the show in the opening game of Sauk Prairie’s 2024 football season. Schultz accounted for six touchdowns, including three scoring passes to Kinney, as the Eagles routed visiting Baraboo, 45-0, in a non-conference season-opening game last Friday. Kinney, who missed the end of his junior season with a severe injury, scored on all three of his catches to defeat the Eagles’ nearby rivals and secure the coveted ‘Mega Bowl’ trophy. “It feels great to be back,” said Kinney, who helped Sauk Prairie secure a running clock for the entire second half me. “I surprised myself with how well I played, but everyone was amazing. Everyone did great.” Sauk Prairie suffered from some growing pains a year ago with a relatively youthful roster that narrowly missed the playoffs by a game. That was then, and this is now.  The Eagles, who were 0-9 in head coach Randy Wallace’s first season, followed that up with a 2-7 season and last year’s 4-5 mark. However, it was quickly evident, that the experience the Eagles gained a year ago paid off. “Those kids wanted it,” said co-offensive coordinator Zach Rothmann. “This year, we have high expectations. We were just so young last year. You can see how much they have matured in the first game.” Sauk Prairie excelled in all three phases of the game to thoroughly dominate a Baraboo squad that failed to cross midfield until its final drive of the game midway through the fourth quarter. “We were really hoping for a shutout,” said Schultz, who passed for four touchdowns and added a pair of 1-yard scoring runs. “We didn’t want them to score a single point. That way we could go program-wide, no points because the JV1 and JV2 teams also had shutouts. It was a relief that we accomplished that.” It was the Eagles’ smothering defense — under the direction of first-year coordinator Eric Krivanek — that led to the only points Sauk Prairie would need when it scored on its third possession of the game.  The Eagles foiled a fake punt on Baraboo’s opening possession, taking over on the Thunderbirds’ 47. Although Sauk Prairie was stymied on its next offensive possession, senior punter Nick Keyser — a former soccer player who was competing in his first high school football game — then pinned Baraboo on its own 6-yard line with a 47-yard punt. Two plays later, Baraboo lost a fumble, and senior defensive end Mason Betley pounced on the ball on the Thunderbirds’ 1-yard line. “Mason’s one of my best friends,” Kinney said. “I thought he had scored the first touchdown of the season for us.” Schultz promptly scored on the next play, and the rout was on. “As soon as they fumbled it and we came up with the ball, the momentum shifted and set the tone for the rest of the game,” Schultz said. Wallace said the one-play scoring drive, which took just 3 seconds, gave the Eagles a huge emotional boost. “To get some points on the board was huge,” Wallace said. “Just flipping the field was big, too.”  Baraboo followed it up with a short drive that ended with a punt to the Sauk Prairie 25. That set up a 10-play drive for the Eagles that ended with a 14-yard touchdown pass from Schultz to senior running back Lawson Maier just 48 seconds into the second quarter. Schultz had a key third-down conversion with an 11-yard pass to junior running back Wyatt Gibbs. Schultz later scampered for a 9-yard gain on third-and-4 to keep the drive alive. Schultz was pleased to get Maier, who also finished with six tackles on defense, involved in the Eagles’ offense. “He can do it all pretty much,” Schultz said of Maier, a returning starter at inside linebacker who was also making his debut in the starting lineup at tailback. “He’s had the ‘It’ factor when he has the ball.  “When we lined up, I saw they were blitzing, and no one was going to take him. I turned around and told him to go into the flat, and we scored.” That was just the beginning of an offensive explosion that included four more scoring drives spanning the next 10 minutes. Following another 3-and-out for the Baraboo offense, a shanked punt gave the Eagles the ball on the Thunderbirds’ 27-yard-line. Sauk Prairie didn’t waste any time pushing its lead to 21-0 when Schultz and Kinney connected on a 27-yard scoring strike in the left corner of the end zone. “I saw a mismatch and didn’t think they could guard him,” said Schultz, who called an audible on the play. “I had faith in Kade to get open. That’s what he did.” Kinney made a terrific catch, getting a foot down inbounds to earn the quick score. “The line did an amazing job blocking there. I give all the credit to the line, because it wouldn’t have been possible,” Kinney said. “I ran a seam route and saw Landon veer off to the left, I veered off to the left, too.  “I saw that I was going to be close to going out of bounds, so I dragged one foot in. I caught the ball, looked at the ref, and saw a touchdown (signal). I loved it. It was awesome.” Wallace said it was another example of the impact the Eagles’ experienced offensive line made on the game. “We wanted to score as quickly as we could to keep the momentum going for us,” Wallace said.  “The line — left tackle Collin Jadack, left guard Logan McIntyre, center Drew Deuman, right guard Jake Buckles and right tackle Lane Albers — overall did a really good job and were a key to our success.” Schultz agreed. “I love my offensive line,” he said. “They’re all great guys, and they’ve got my back. On the toe tapper to Kade, the only reason that happened is that I had five seconds to throw the ball.” Sauk Prairie’s offense was just getting started after the Eagles forced a 3-and-out and then foiled a second attempt by Baraboo to execute a fake punt.  Betley, a co-captain who finished with three tackles for loss, came up big on the play. “He contained the edge. He’s good at that,” Schultz said of Betley. “He saw it coming from a mile away.” Keyser then booted a 25-yard field goal, the first of his career. Previously a starter on the boys soccer team, Keyser was a perfect 6-of-6 on PATs and booted five kickoffs into the end zone. “Nick made a lot of key plays for us playing in his first varsity game,” Wallace said. “He was putting his kicks in the end zone or at the 1-yard-line. On one of our drives, he drew a key pass interference call when he came back for the ball.” Schultz said the Eagles’ special teams had a phenomenal game. “We didn’t have a single bad spot on the team,” Schultz said. “For Nick, when almost every single kick is a touchback, it makes the field position so much easier to play with.”  Keyser said he didn’t know how he could have had a better debut. “I was nervous at first, but after that first kickoff and the field goal, it all seemed to come together,” he said.  Sauk Prairie’s defense forced another punt, and Schultz and Kinney connected on a scoring play for the second time.  Their 11-yard hook-up on fourth down capped a 6-play, 40-yard drive that pushed the Eagles’ lead to 31-0 with 2:51 remaining before halftime. “We just felt we needed to finish the drive with a score,” Wallace said. “We felt we had to punch that one in. “I had to call a time out on fourth down because we had guys thinking we were going to kick a field goal like we did on our last drive. We talked about it. Landon went with a play he felt comfortable with right there and we managed to get it in.” Sauk Prairie promptly forced a turnover on the first play of Baraboo’s next possession.  Senior defensive back Trent Backeberg recorded the Eagles’ first interception of the season to set up Sauk Prairie on the Baraboo 25-yard line. “I saw the quarterback dropping back and I went into my zone because we were in cover three,” said Backeberg, who finished with seven tackles. “I happened to be in the right place at the right time.” Three plays later, Schultz rolled left, found some daylight and sprinted to the 1-yard line where he promptly scored on a sneak on the following play. “We wanted to punch one more in before half,” Wallace said. “Landon made a great run to about the one-foot line and then he finished it.” Keyser’s PAT pushed the score to 38-0, setting up a running clock following halftime. Wallace said the halftime message was simple. “It’s a group of kids who are hungry. You could tell coming in, they weren’t satisfied,” he said. “My message to them was we’re still not respected although we’re up big.  “Our message was, just take one play at a time and the scoreboard will take care of itself. Just do your job. It’s easy to have a letdown coming out of halftime up 38-0, but we didn’t have that letdown.” Schultz and Kinney connected on an 18-yard touchdown pass to cap an Eagles’ scoring with 10 minutes left to play. Then it was up to the Sauk Prairie reserves to preserve the shutout, which they did when junior defensive lineman Curtis Hankins recovered a fumble on the Eagles’ 9-yard with less than a minute to play. “For those guys to step up and protect the shutout was really cool,” Wallace said.  The 45 points were the most the Eagles scored since Sauk Prairie defeated Beaver Dam 56-22 on Oct. 18, 2019, in Clay Iverson’s first year as head coach. That game against the Beavers was also the last time that the Eagles were on the winning end of a running clock. The Eagles limited Baraboo to just two yards passing and 119 yards of total offense. Junior linebacker Bryan Breunig, a first-year starter, led Sauk Prairie with 10 tackles. “We wanted the shutout,” Backeberg said. “We knew Baraboo likes to run the football, so our defense was geared up to stop the run. We contained the edges.” Wallace said that unit took a lot of pressure off the Sauk Prairie offense, which scored on seven of its 11 possessions. “Landon takes what the game gives him. He’s a student of the game,” Wallace said of Schultz. “Just his belief in the guys and his knowledge of the system really shows through. We’ve able to give him some freedom to lead our guys.”  • On deck: Sauk Prairie travels to Holmen for a non-conference road game on Friday at 7 p.m.   Aug. 23 Sauk Prairie 45, Baraboo 0 Baraboo ………. 0   0  0 0 —    0 Sauk …............ 7 31  0 7 —  45 SP: Landon Schultz 1 run (Nick Keyser kick). SP: Lawson Maier 14 pass from Schultz (Keyser kick). SP: Kade Kinney 27 pass from Schultz (Keyser kick). SP: Keyser 25 field goal. SP: Kinney 11 pass from Schultz (Keyser kick). SP: Schultz 1 run (Keyser kick). SP: Kinney 18 pass from Schultz (Keyser kick).   TEAM STATISTICS First downs — B 6, SP 13. Rushing (Att.-Yds.) — B 43-117, SP 20-48. Passing yards — B 2, SP 229. Passing (Comp.-Att.-Int.) — B 2-4-1, SP 15-24-0. Fumbles-lost — B 3-2, SP 0-0.                                                                                                   INDIVIDUAL LEADERS Rushing (Att.-Yds) — B: Jackson Puttkammer 19-56. SP: Landon Schultz 11-29, Lawson Maier 4-22. Passing (Att.-Comp.-Int.-Yds) — B: Throgmorton 1-2-1-3; SP: Schultz 15-24-0-181. Receiving (Att.-Yds) — SP: Kade Kinney 5-66; Boden Frosch 4-51, Casey Brickl 2-28, Maier 2-18, Wyatt Gibbs 2-18.