Eagles punch playoff ticket

The wait is over. Sauk Prairie’s football team defeated Madison Edgewood, 21-9, last Friday and clinched its first playoff berth since 2019. The seventh-seeded Eagles travel to second-seeded Mount Horeb-Barneveld for a WIAA Division 3 opening round playoff game Friday at 7 p.m. Sauk Prairie won its final two games to finish at 5-4 overall and 4-3 in the Badger Small Conference. MH-B, which defeated the Eagles 30-7 on Sept. 27, won its fourth straight Badger Small title this year with a 7-0 mark and is 9-0 overall “These kids came in with a goal this year,” Sauk Prairie coach Randy Wallace said. “We didn’t hit all our goals, but the biggest one was to take that next step and play an extra game. “These kids have stayed resilient. They’ve done a great job this year overcoming everything that’s come at them. We’ve been through a lot this year. We’re excited to be here.”  Senior cornerback Wyatt Gibbs agreed. “We knew our backs were against the wall, and we needed a win,” Gibbs said. “We didn’t want to leave it up to a computer to decide if we got in the playoffs or not.” Eagles senior defensive back Trent Backeberg made the biggest play of the night. Sauk Prairie was clinging to a 7-3 lead when Backeberg intercepted Edgewood quarterback Gannon Bagstad and returned the pick 55 yards for a touchdown. The Eagles remained in control from there. “We were in zone, and I looked at the quarterback (Bagstad) and then around to see who was in my zone,” Backeberg said. “I saw the receiver doing a slant, and the quarterback’s eyes were pinned on him. So, I just jumped (the route). “Then I was thinking, ‘oh my gosh, this is happening’ and then ‘don’t get caught.’ That was the big thing.” Backeberg’s stellar defensive play with 2 minutes, 27 seconds left in the third quarter provided just the boost the Eagles needed to achieve one of their preseason goals. “That was huge,” Wallace said of Backeberg’s pick-six, the Eagles’ second interception return for a touchdown in two weeks. “Trent’s had a pick or two here or there, but he’s been craving that. To see him get that one and get out in the open was awesome. It was very rewarding.” Gibbs said Sauk Prairie has made huge strides since his freshman year when the Eagles finished 0-9. “I’m so proud of all our seniors. We’ve come a long way,” Gibbs said. “When we were freshmen, the sophomores helped us come a long way and built a culture for us. We’ve been following it ever since and continuing to build on it throughout high school.” With their playoff lives on the line, both teams struggled to get much going on offense in the first quarter.  Edgewood junior placekicker Will Kelly missed a 52-yard field goal attempt on the Crusaders’ first possession. But Kelly converted a 26-yard attempt just 4 seconds into the second quarter to give the Crusaders a 3-0 lead. Sauk Prairie answered with a three-play, 65-yard drive that took just 54 seconds. Senior running back Lawson Maier capped the march with a 26-yard sweep around left end for a 7-3 Eagles’ lead. “He just boosts all of our confidence,” Sauk Prairie senior center Drew Deuman said of Maier, who finished with 70 yards in 16 carries and added 14 tackles on defense. “He turns a three-yard loss into a four-yard gain. He just goes for it.” Gibbs said after excelling on defense as a junior, Maier has turned into a playmaker on offense as well. “What a cut by Lawson,” Gibbs said of Maier’s shake-and-bake move that helped quickly respond to Edgewood’s first score. “He’s such a good player. He makes highlights all the time. I love that he can play both ways. It shows how athletic he is and what he can do.” That touchdown was set up when senior quarterback Landon Schultz found senior wide receiver Boden Frosch open over the middle for a 34-yard gain. But that was all the offense the Eagles could muster for the rest of the half. Meanwhile, Sauk Prairie’s defense was giving the Crusaders all they could handle. Facing a fourth-and-one at the Sauk Prairie 43, middle linebacker Bryan Breunig — who finished with 10 tackles — sacked Bagstad for a 14-yard loss and forced the Crusaders to turn the ball over on downs. “It’s been amazing. We just feed off each other,” said Eagles’ defensive end Mason Betley, who had eight tackles, including a sack. “When somebody gets a sack, the whole team is going crazy. I think that’s what we need, for everybody to keep feeding off each other.” That gave the Eagles one last chance to put some points on the board before halftime. Sauk Prairie moved the ball to the Edgewood 9-yard line before a holding penalty forced the Eagles to attempt a 36-yard field goal. Sauk Prairie senior kicker Nick Keyser sent his attempt wide right, though. With the game still in doubt, Backeberg said the halftime message was simple. “The message was keep playing good defense and running the ball, and basically keep doing the same things because they were there,” he said. “In the second half, it all clicked.” The teams combined for four punts to begin the second half. But Backeberg delivered his big play pick-six to give the Eagles a huge lift. “Two weeks in a row with pick sixes, it was just crazy,” Betley said. “You can see it changes the whole theme of the game. When it’s a close game, and we get a pick six, it’s amazing the defense can do that and keep applying that pressure.” The Eagles saved their best drive of the second half for the fourth quarter when they marched 52 yards in nine plays which consumed 5:28 off the clock. Frosch delivered the dagger when he scampered around left end on a reverse and sprinted into the end zone for a 13-yard touchdown and a 21-3 lead, which basically sealed the victory with 6:18 to play. “That was something that coach (Zach) Rothman had drawn up earlier in the week,” Wallace said. “We ran it a few times and ran it (Thursday) night, and it looked really good. We were driving and he said call me crazy, but we should go with this.”  With both teams needing a victory to secure a playoff berth, it was a grind-it-out contest that included 20 penalties for 195 yards. “My biggest thing with the flags coming was that it wasn’t anything stupid and no one got injured,” Wallace said.” I didn’t want to get a player tossed or someone to do something stupid. It is what it is sometimes.”   Edgewood coach Jesse Norris agreed. “Most of them were earned,” Norris said of the frequent flags. “Any time you get setbacks, it’s tough. We had a 20-yard run and there’s a penalty. We had a positive play, and now it’s first and 20. That’s not an ideal situation to be in.” For the second straight game, Sauk Prairie turned up the pressure on defense, keeping Edgewood from sustaining any meaningful drives. “They loaded the box and dared us to throw, and they got us,” Norris said of the Eagles, who limited Edgewood to just 147 yards of total offense, including 54 yards rushing in 27 attempts. Sauk Prairie also limited Bagstad to just 13 completions in 33 attempts for 93 yards. “The quarterback never had time to do anything. They always had a guy in his face,” Backeberg said of the Eagles’ front seven. “They always had pressure. Even if we don’t hit the quarterback, there is always pressure somewhere around him. It just makes our job as DBs easier.” Junior defensive end Riley Jadack led the Eagles’ charge with 16 tackles. “It felt like we were always one guy off,” Norris said. “We had our opportunities, but we couldn’t take advantage of them.” Following a disappointing 34-17 loss at Portage on Oct. 4, Sauk Prairie needed back-to-back wins over Stoughton and Edgewood to guarantee a berth in the postseason. Wallace was pleased with his team’s collective response. “We got bullied around against Portage a little bit,” Wallace said. “But since that game, our guys have started stepping up to the call and really buying into everything we’ve been trying to promote and what we want to get done so we can take the next step.” Backeberg agreed that the Eagles responded with two of their better performances of the season. “It’s amazing. It was a double whammy of good things,” Backeberg said of Sauk Prairie earning a playoff berth on Senior Night. “It is unbelievable that it happened. It hasn’t set in. It was our last home game, and we just kicked butt.” For the fourth time in five home games, Sauk Prairie didn’t allow an offensive touchdown. The Eagles allowed just 39 points on their home turf. Betley said the Eagles couldn’t have played much better in the final home game for the 15-member senior class. “It’s been a life-long dream. Ever since youth football, we’ve been saying the dynasty’s about to arrive,” he said. “This year, our motto was, ‘our future is now.’ The dynasty is here. We’ve finally made the playoffs. “It’s crazy to think how far we have come in four years to now. The best is yet to come.” • On deck: Seventh-seeded Sauk Prairie will play at second-seeded Mount Horeb/Barneveld in a WIAA Division 3 opening round playoff game on Friday at 7 p.m.   Oct. 18 Sauk Prairie 28, Stoughton 0 Edgewood ….….  0 3 0 6 —    9 Sauk Prairie …..  0 7 7 7 —  21 E: Will Kelly 26 field goal SP: Lawson Maier 26 run (Nick Keyser kick). SP: Trent Backeberg 55 interception return (Keyser kick). SP: Boden Frosch 13 run (Keyser kick). E: AJ Charles fumble return (run failed).   TEAM STATISTICS First downs – E 12, SP 12. Rushing (Att.-Yds.) — E 27-54, SP 26-90. Passing yards — E 93, SP 96. Passing (Comp.-Att.-Int.) — E 13-33-1; SP 8-19-1. Penalties – E 12-115, SP 8-80.   INDIVIDUAL LEADERS Rushing (Att.-Yds) — E: Hunter Milota 12-34, Cade Patterson 3-23, Jack Halloran 2-22, Seth Myers 2-(-4), Gannon Bagstad 8-(-21). SP: Lawson Maier 16-70, Boden Frosch 1-13, Landon Schultz 7-10, Braden Schaaf 1-3, Parker Frosch 1-(-6). Passing (Att.-Comp.-Int.-Yds) — E: Gannon Bagstad 13-33-1-93. SP: Landon Schultz 8-19-1-96. Receiving (Att.-Yds) — E: A.J. Gnewuch 5-40, Ben Morey 2-16, Seth Myers 2-11, AJ Charles 1-10, Cade Patterson 1-9, Rylan Port 2-7. SP: Boden Frosch 4-56, Lawson Maier 2-30, Kade Kinney 1-8, Braden Schaaf 1-2.