Eagles find positives in defeat

Big plays on offense are the calling card for Mount Horeb/Barneveld’s football team, and the Vikings got a few of those Friday night against Sauk Prairie. But just a few.  And all in the first half. The Eagles defense turned in an impressive second half against one of the best teams in the state, frustrating MH-B’s high-octane offense. So even though the Vikings wound up posting a 30-7, Badger Small Conference victory, Sauk Prairie had reason for optimism afterwards. “I think there’s plenty to be happy about,” said Eagles’ senior defensive back Trent Backeberg, whose first-half interception return set up his team’s lone score of the night. “Even though it’s a loss, we knew what we had to do, we just had to execute it. We were in their face. We constantly had two or three guys on the tackle and they were going in punching the ball to frustrate them, get them riled up so they would make a mistake. I think we were really in their head in the second half.” MH-B’s (6-0, 4-0 Badger Small) only points in the second half came via a safety with 4 minutes, 33 seconds to go in the third quarter — and those were the only points scored by either team in the half. “It seemed like our defense was on the field a lot, but our defense rose to the occasion,” MH-B coach Bret St. Arnauld said of his offense’s second-half struggles. “Sometimes the defense has to bail you out, and there’s going to be times where the offense has to bail you out. That’s just the way it is.” The Vikings, ranked No. 3 in WisSports.net Division 3 coaches poll, took a 14-0 lead thanks to a pair of first-quarter touchdown runs by lightning-fast senior Owen Preimesberger. But junior quarterback Brooks Hendrickson’s interception, returned 30 yards by Backeberg, let Sauk Prairie (3-3, 2-2) back into the game. The pass, intended for Chris Kiel, was a bit off the mark and was tipped in Backeberg’s direction. “I don’t know if (Eagles’ cornerback) Wyatt Gibbs tipped it or (Kiel) just missed the ball, but I saw it, grabbed it and then we had such good blocking,” Backeberg said. “My linebackers, D-line, they all turned around and blocked for me. I saw holes open up.” It’s a game of inches, as the saying goes. What ended up as an interception could have just as easily been a three-touchdown lead for MH-B. “The pick that Brooks threw, that’s a touchdown. If he puts it on Chris, Chris is gone,” St. Arnauld said. “That’s football. There’s three phases of the game. Sometimes one phase is out of sync and the other phase steps up.” Instead of Kiel being off to the races, Sauk Prairie was given a golden opportunity to get on the scoreboard. And the Eagles took advantage on third-and-goal, with Lawson Maier taking a toss left, breaking a tackle at the 1-yard-line and plunging in. “Our mentality all year has been one play at a time. Things are going to happen but we’ve got to step up,” Sauk Prairie coach Randy Wallace said of responding to the early deficit with the big play on defense and subsequent score. MH-B was able to wash away the sour taste in a hurry, though. On the fourth play of the ensuing drive, Preimesberger — whose first two TDs of the night were from 5 and 13 yards — shot through the middle of the line and raced 79 yards to paydirt. The two-point conversion failed, but the Vikings were back in control, leading 20-7 with 7:56 to go in the half. Preimesberger was coming off a breakout showing in a 54-0 Stoughton, when he ran for 171 yards and three TDs on 13 carries. He continued to shine against the Eagles. “He gets space and he’s gone. We’re going to see a lot more of that this year,” Hendrickson said of Preimesberger, a WIAA Division 1 state qualifier in the 100-meter dash last spring. Preimesberger had 175 yards and another three-TD effort against Sauk Prairie, this time on 19 carries for an average of 9.2 yards per carry. Sauk Prairie got a long return on the ensuing possession and then a couple big receptions — a 16-yarder by Maier on 4th-and-1 and a 24-yarder by Boden Frosch on a skinny post — and were suddenly back inside the 10-yard-line. But a sack on 3rd-and-goal from the 4-yard-line pushed the Eagles back and they had to settle for a 32-yard field goal try by Nick Keyser, which was blocked. Three plays later, Hendrickson lofted a perfect deep ball to tight end Owen Aeschlimann running free up the left hash marks. Aeschlimann made one defender miss inside the 20-yard line and scampered in for a 69-yard score that made it 26-7 before Hendrickson connected with Zach Maguire on the 2-point try to extend the lead. “Coach signaled ‘Verts,’ ” Aeschlimann said of the play call, meaning vertical. “We have the option to run an out route on that and I asked Brooks, ‘Should I run the out?’ He just said, ‘No, beat him.’ “I just outran him and Brooks put it spot on. I saw that other guy coming so I just had to make a move, and I did and scored.” Hendrickson didn’t see Aeschlimann’s fancy footwork at the end of the play. “Because I was too pumped up,” he said. “I didn’t hear about that until I got to the sideline.” That would be it for MH-B’s dominance, though, at least on offense. The second half, by and large, was a testament to Sauk Prairie’s defense and the Eagles refusing to get blown out. “That was what we expected our defense to do, what we did in the second half,” Wallace said. “It just took us a half to get going.” Wallace said one key were some personnel adjustments, shifting from a smaller, quicker front to a bigger front. “We still gave up some yards in the second half, but the old bend but don’t break adage held up for us because they didn’t score,” Wallace said. “We gave up some big plays, but they didn’t score on us.” The Vikings got the ball to start the second half, but promptly turned it over near midfield, losing a fumble that was recovered by Riley Jadack, who had 11 tackles and a sack on the night. Nothing came of that possession for the Eagles, however and MH-B got the ball back. The Vikings moved the ball out to midfield before the drive stalled, resulting in a punt by Maguire. And what a punt it was, a 51-yarder that was downed at the 1-yard-line St. Arnauld credited MH-B’s rugby-style punt formation for the success because in that formation the punter holds the ball longer before punting as opposed to the traditional catch-and-punt style. And the added time allows more time for the coverage team to get down field. “In three years we’ve had a total of three times of people trying to return a punt. Usually we just down it,” St. Arnauld said. “There’s nobody trying to house a punt against us. They think they can try and block it (because of the pause before punting), but we always seal it off.” Two plays later, Eagles’ quarterback Landon Schultz bobbled the shotgun snap in the end zone and the Vikings swarmed him for a safety, the only points of the second half. Both team’s almost scored touchdowns, though. First, Eagles’ quarterback Cayden Hermsdorf — in for Schultz because Schultz got hurt — scrambled for 14 yards to the goal line on 4th-and-10 only to fumble just before breaking the plane, resulting in a touchback. Then on the ensuing drive, MH-B marched to the 1-yard-line before a bad snap on 1st-and-goal pushed the Vikings back 15 yards and they ultimately got turned away. It was a lackluster second half on offense for a unit that came in averaging 42.8 points per game and three times scored 50 or more. “When we get a big lead like that we’ve just got to keep going, we can’t let up at all. That could have been way closer of a game,” Aeschlimann said. “But a win’s a win. That’s how we’re looking at it.” Indeed, sloppy as the Vikings got, they did still win by a comfortable margin. “When you can overcome those things — the penalties, the turnovers and everything else — you walk away being like, ‘OK, we got out of here with a win and that’s what matters the most,’ ” St. Arnauld said. “A lot of stuff went wrong, but we still walked away with a 30-7 win.” Keeping MH-B’s high-powered offense off the scoreboard after halftime provided the Eagles’ a measure of confidence moving forward. “We know we’re contenders. We know what we can do, we just have to do it,” Backeberg said. “It’s a building block, especially with how good of a team they are and how good of a team they’ve been for the last half decade,” Wallace said. “It’s a good program to measure yourself up against — a good measuring stick moving forward.”    MH-B 30, Sauk Prairie 7 MHB ............... 14 14 2 0 — 30 Sauk Prairie ......... 0 7 0 0 — 7 MHB -- Owen Preimesberger 5 run (run railed), 5:48, 1st MHB -- Owen Preimesberger 13 run (Jack Wilson run), 1:21, 1st SP -- Lawson Maier 2 run (Nick Keyser kick), 9:43, 2nd MHB -- Owen Preimesberger 79 run (run failed), 7:56, 2nd MHB -- Owen Aeschlimann 69 pass from Brooks Hendrickson (Zach Maguire pass from Hendrickson), 1:55, 2nd MHB -- Safety, Landon Schultz sacked by Jack Wilson, 4:33, 3rd TEAM STATS First downs -- MHB 15, SP 10. Rushes-yards -- MHB 31-157, SP 25-47. Passing yards -- MHB 196, SP 155. Passing (comp-att-int) -- MHB 12-21-1, SP 15-30-0. Total yards -- MHB 353, SP 202. Penalties-yards -- MHB 10-86, SP 5-40. Fumbles-lost -- MHB 2-2, SP 2-1. INDIVIDUAL STATS Passing (comp-att-yards-td-int): MHB -- Brooks Hendrickson 11-20-178-1-1, Zach Maguire 1-1-18-0-0. SP -- Landon Schultz 11-19-84-0-0, Cayden Hermsdorf 4-11-71-0-0. Rushing: MHB -- Owen Preimesberger 19-175, Jack Wilson 2-13, Chris Kiel 2-(-)10, Brooks Hendrickson 7-(-)19. SP -- Lawson Maier 15-26, Cayden Hermsdorf 5-15, Landon Schultz 5-6. Receiving: MHB -- Owen Aeschlimiann 4-105, Max Grundahl 1-51, Tyrus Hastings 2-17, Zach Maguire 1-13, Chris Kiel 3-11, Hayden Anderson 1-(-)1. SP -- Boden Frosch 5-49, Kade Kinney 5-35, Lawson Maier 4-14, Blayze Caldwell 1-3.