It wasn’t the ideal home opener for the Lena/St. Thomas Aquinas high school football team.
The Titans couldn’t move the ball too well against Oakfield, and after a 60-minute weather delay due to multiple lightning strikes, the game was suspended at halftime with the Oaks leading 6-0.
Oakfield scored the lone points of the opening half on a Ross Ellison second-quarter run.
The coaches of the two teams tentatively agreed that the game will be finished either Oct. 23, 24 or 25 and could be played back in Lena, Oakfield or at a neutral site. The game could be called if it has no bearing factor on the standings since the opening round of the eight-man jamboree – the playoffs for that level – start the following week.
There are 21 teams competing in eight-man this season in Wisconsin; eight – the top four teams from both the north and south – will play in the two-week jamboree.
The head coaches and players for both squads were disappointed not to be able to finish the game.
“Well, that’s Mother Nature,” Lena/STA co-head coach Dale Lange said. “We would have loved to finish this game. Our guys were fired up, we were playing hard and much improved over last week. We would have loved to finish this game, but we understand it’s the safety and the fans.”
“You get a situation like this and it’s not good for either team,” Oakfield coach Tim Sievert said. “You want to finish the game outright and get a legit winner or loser out of the whole deal.
“But safety first and you don’t want to put anybody in jeopardy. Obviously this is the right call to be made.”
A weather delay isn’t anything new for the Lena/STA players after waiting out a one-hour and 45-minute rain storm last week in Madison vs. Abundant Life Christian School.
When the game was suspended vs. Oakfield, Lena/STA (0-1) had amassed 36 yards on offense in 23 plays. The Titans only got past midfield once in the first half.
“No good,” Lange said. “Most of those were on the first drive. We put a good first drive together and then we had some errors and missed a few blocks. We’ve got to get those kinks out of our machine.”
Oakfield started its second drive at the 40, which is midfield in eight-man play, and worked its way down to the 5-yard line. Oaks quarterback Tyler Burbach tried to connect with Matt Gross in the end zone, but Lena/STA defensive back Matt Marquardt stepped in front for an interception late in the first quarter.
Lena/STA barely got out of the shadow of its own end zone when Titans quarterback Nash Haney fumbled and Oakfield’s Daniel Walgenbach recovered at the 10. Three plays later, Ellison scored on a 5-yard run at 10:41. On the 2-point conversation, Lena/STA’s Ryan Pullen stopped Ellison to keep it 6-0.
On its fourth drive, Oakfield worked down to Lena/STA’s 15. On fourth and 15, defender Garrett Nikolai made a stop for a turnover on downs at the 13.
“When it came down to crunch time they held their ground and they made a couple of key stops there to keep the score what it was,” Sievert said.
Lange was happy with how his defense rose to the challenge on multiple occasions.
“Defense really stepped up,” Lange said. “Last week that was one of our weaker spots, and our defense really came around this week.”
Haney finished with 20 yards rushing on 12 carries and was 0 for 5 passing. Austin Lange added 11 yards on the ground and was the team leader in tackles, with five solo and three assists, for Lena/STA.
Ellison had 14 rushing attempts for 71 yards for Oakfield, which finished with 113 first-half yards.
Lena/STA will now prepare to host Three Lakes at 7 p.m. Friday. Three Lakes won its opening game of the season 82-14 over Mellen. The Blue Jays ran for nearly 400 yards and scored 10 times on the ground.
“Three Lakes is a good team. Once again, we saw them in our scrimmage just like we did with Oakfield,” Lange said. “We know they’re a big team, a powerful team. We’ve got to be ready for them.”
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