MONROE — The Cheesemakers appeared to have turned around 180-degrees from their Week 2 blowout loss at DeForest, only to give up a second half lead and crumble in the final minutes. Monroe dropped to 0-3 on the season with a 27-19 loss to Milton in the Badger South opener Aug. 31.

“We have to work on shoring up mistakes,” Monroe head coach Toby Golembiewski said. “We make a lot of mental mistakes. We can’t stay the same. We have to get better. (The schedule) just gets tougher each week.”

Leading 19-13 at halftime, the Cheesemakers gave up a quick score early in the third quarter to fall behind 20-19. Then in the fourth, the Red Hawks went on a 12-play drive that ate up more than seven and a half minutes before scoring with 1:20 left.

“We have to get better at blocking and tackling,” Golembiewski said.

On Monroe’s first play of the final drive, quarterback Alex Witt rolled to his left and just missed connecting with Aiden Sweeney near midfield by a yard. Before second down could be run, the Cheesemakers were hit with a 15-yard penalty for having 12 men in the huddle. An incomplete pass deep downfield and a 13-yard strike to Ethan Kleckler in the middle of the field left Monroe with a fourth-and-12, but the Cheesemakers were again penalized for having too many players on the field.

“We had very good execution most of the game, but that last drive things went crazy. We just kind of shot ourselves in the foot at the end,” senior running back Jordan Montgomery said.

Witt was sacked on blitz with 10 seconds left to end the game.

“I’m not rarely at a loss for words, but I’m pretty zoned out on that right now,” Golembiewski said of the final drive.

The game started much stronger for the Cheesemakers. The defense forced a turnover on downs near midfield on the opening possession of the game thanks to a big stop by Julian Gruber and the defensive line. 

“Those sequence of plays were pretty big. We usually get pretty hyped after big plays — it supercharges us,” said Gruber, a junior.

On Monroe’s first offensive play, speedster Montgomery took a pitch to the right side 46 yards up the sideline to the Milton 2. Witt scored on the next snap.

“We made a couple of changes, but not too much different,” Golembiewski said of his offensive scheme, which saw a big leap in yardage compared to Weeks 1 and 2. 

Both teams traded off possessions, but then the Red Hawks opted for an aerial assault and hit big. Milton quarterback Daniel Weitzel connect with Jordan Stivarius in an open pocket in the secondary, picking up 44 yards. The next play Weitzel went to the air again and hit Masyn Ulrich on a fade in the endzone. Montgomery then blocked the extra point to keep Monroe ahead 7-6.

The Cheesemakers pushed back, however, putting together a 15-play, 63-yard drive that included two fourth down pickups. Montgomery punched it in from four yards out on a fourth-and-two with 7:25 to go until half to make it 13-6.

Milton continued the slugfest with a quick 65-yard TD drive thanks to a 35-yard pass play and a 28-yard run by Weitzel. But again, the Cheesemakers countered, with Montgomery busting off a 60-yard score three plays later. 

“My linemen put in a lot more work, and I think that paid off. I broke some tackles, but they also created some great holes for me to run through,” Montgomery said. “It was huge for us (to lead at half). We weren’t down on ourselves like with Reedsburg or DeForest. We were still excited and thought we could win this. I think that hyped a bunch of us up.”

Montgomery had 137 yards on the ground in the half and finished with 189 on just 14 carries. The Cheesemakers defense ended the first half with a fourth down stop at their own 5-yard line.

Fullback Ethan Kleckler had 57 yards on 16 carries in the game and Nick Bansley had five carries for 16 yards. Bansley also came up with a pair of pass breakups in the third quarter.

“Just on the rest category, we had an opportunity to get Jordan some plays off. It’s good to have extra guys that are formidable and can play,” Golembiewski said of his team being at full strength.

Milton had 324 yards of offense, including 166 through the air. Monroe had 295 yards of offense, with 254 coming on the ground. Weitzel was 9-for-23 passing and Witt was 5-for-8 for 41 yards.

The Cheesemakers now have to prepare for Watertown (2-1, 1-0). The Goslings run an offense nearly identical to Milton — a shotgun spread ready to throw the ball all over the field with a mobile quarterback.

“This was a great week of practice to prepare for (Watertown). They are very different from Reedsburg and DeForest. We can double-up our practice time by making corrections from Milton and at the same time prepare for Watertown. It’s not like we are going from a wishbone team to a spread offense,” Golembiewski said.

Watertown junior Ethan Pauly shredded Fort Atkinson on Friday to the tune of 192 yards and three touchdowns passing, and added 57 yards on the ground. The Goslings wiped the turf with the Blackhawks, 53-0.

“I think our defensive line will work on key pass rushing and not giving up on the play and putting pressure on the quarterback, because Watertown is a passing team that likes to throw,” Gruber said.

Last year, Monroe defeated Watertown on the road 29-28 thanks to a late touchdown and a gutsy two-point conversion.

 “We’ll be playing a lot of big population teams these next few weeks that have a lot of guys to chose from,” Golembiewski said. Watertown has nearly 1,300 students in its high school, compared to Monroe’s 690. The Cheesemakers have the lowest enrollment of public schools in the Badger Conference.