MONROE — The Cheesemakers were excited to take the field for the season opener on Friday, but the team walked off glum after a 28-7 loss to Reedsburg at T.R. Holyoke Field. Execution was the biggest factor.

“I think we will go back and watch film and I know there will be less than 10 plays where all 11 guys did what they were supposed to do. Our execution needs to pick up the pace,” Monroe head coach Toby Golembiewski said. “The guys were a little bit disappointed and they have to get back to work, but they had fun playing football.”

Monroe has seen success in recent years with its running game, but struggled in Week One, gaining just 122 yards on 37 carries — with its only scoring possession coming out of the gates in the second half. Meanwhile, the Beavers, which graduated nearly its entire offensive and defensive lineups, gained 309 yards on the ground and struck pay dirt on another 41-yard touchdown pass in the third corner to put the game away.

“We just flat out did not block our assignments at times. In the worst looking plays, we went the wrong way or we went to the wrong guy,” Golembiewski said. “These are young kids. We’ve got a couple of guys out there that didn’t play last year. It’s all to be expected. It’s disappointing to lose, but you respect the process.”

The two squads looked like defensive masters in the first quarter. Neither team gained a first down, and both schools made big plays moments apart. First, Monroe sophomore Trevor Rodebaugh blocked a punt deep inside Reedsburg’s territory and junior Aidan Sweeney recovered the ball at the 10-yard-line. But two plays later, senior fullback Ethan Kleckler had the ball stolen from his grasps by Reedsburg’s Mason McSweeney.

Two possessions later, Reedsburg’s Derek Pawlak burst 57-yards down the right sideline before Anthany Hernandez could bring him down at the Monroe 3. Three plays later the Beavers scored on a dive from Casey Campbell to take a one-score lead with 8:04 to play in the half.

“On defense, it wasn’t really what we did wrong — it was that one person made a mistake and we’ve got to trust everyone to do their job,” said Jordan Montgomery, a two-way senior.

Monroe’s offense tried to bounce right back. The Cheesemakers picked up a first down on a bootleg by junior quarterback Alex Witt and two plays later Witt connected with senior running back Jordan Montgomery for 17 yards. The possession was at plus-36 in yards before a couple of penalties and a sack knocked off 15 yards and the Cheesemakers were forced to punt with 3:01 left in the half.

On the second play of the ensuing drive, Pawlak dashed 88 yards up the middle of the field and the Beavers led 14-0 with 2:41 to play.

“We had some first-game (jitters) — we had a fumble in the red zone, we had an interception,” Golembiewski said. “We either need to get better, or get someone else to get better and move forward with that.”

Monroe again was hampered by penalties, getting called twice for false starts on third down before Witt threw a jump-ball interception at midfield.

Wade Sweeney then tried taking over defensively, sacking Reedsburg’s Hayden Hahn and disrupting a pitch between Hahn and Pawlak that hit the turf. The Beavers recovered at their own 20 and punted out of bounds to end the half.

“We made a lot of (adjustments at half) on our offensive alignments,” Montgomery said.

Monroe’s highlight possession came to open the third quarter. After again being stifled on the first three plays of the drive, Witt carried a fourth-and-one to the marker and picked up a facemask call in the process. Two plays later Montgomery dashed 30 yards up the sideline and deep into Reedsburg territory. Kleckler capped the 11-play drive with a two yard dive up the middle for Monroe’s first touchdown of the year, bringing the score to 14-7 just five minutes into the second half.

“Our execution wasn’t that great to start off with offensively. We had that one good drive after half and two big penalties helped us a little bit. But we jumped on it — we took advantage of that momentum and finished it,” Golembiewski said.

Right as it appeared the tables had turned, Reedsburg surprised the Cheesemakers by airing it out. The Beavers attempted just 97 passing attempts in each of the last two years, but hit on a big 41-yard strike on their first possession of the half. Junior quarterback Ethan Lee came in for Hahn and found Campbell on a deep fly on the right side, and Campbell out-paced Montgomery to the pylon. Montgomery was forced out of the game momentarily for a cramp.

“From previous years they weren’t much of a passing team, but this year they must have picked it up. We knew they were going to (throw more) from their scrimmage film, but they still got us caught off guard,” Monroe senior linebacker Jacob Amacher said.

The Cheesemakers failed to produce anything out of the following possession, which again consisted of a crucial flag, but the defense came up with a fumble recovery at midfield to open the fourth quarter to bring new life.

Another three-and-out by Monroe followed, as did a six-play, 80-yard scoring drive by the Beavers, capped by Jason Walls’ 53-yard run with just under 7 minutes to play.

“I think it’s just that we don’t have as many guys from the preview years and we just got winded,” Amacher said. “We’ve just got to get back out here this next week with more energy. We’ll be conditioning all week so we’ll be more prepared.”

Both teams put in their subs for the next possession, with Monroe senior Leah Peterson making her football debut at right tackle. Peterson was set to play her first game during the JV contest the night before, but the game was cancelled because of storms. Peterson would stay on the field for the final two minutes, finishing out the day at linebacker.

“She was a little nervous. Technically she never played a down in the lower level because of the thunderstorm. It’s good, it was a low-pressure situation. She could just go out there to play and have fun like she came here to do,” Golembiewski said. “We ended up getting a lot of people into the game that didn’t get to play in the JV game. It was kind of fun to get to watch them too, because maybe we’ll have to pick one of those guys out to fill a role for something we’re not doing right.”

Witt finished just 2 of 10 passing for 18 yards. Montgomery led all Cheesemakers with 42 rushing yards on 10 carries, with Witt gaining 29 yards on nine carries. 

“It’s frustrating, but I know my lineman are trying their best. I trust that eventually it will happen,” Montgomery said. “Everyone needs to do their job. That’s it. Everyone needs to trust that we’ll each do our jobs.”

For Reedsburg, Pawlak had 147 yards on four carries and Walls had 105 yards on seven rushes. Campbell had 45 receiving yards on three catches and added four yards rushing on four carries.

“(We) were out there giving it their best, making tackles, running guys down, trying to block and running the ball, throwing — it’s just not always going to go right all the time. You just have to work on getting better,” Golembiewski said.

Up next for Monroe is DeForest, another vaunted Badger North program. The Norskies have only missed the playoffs once (2005) since the Badger Conference split following the 2000 season. In Week One this year, DeForest lost on the road at Oregon 17-7.

“They have great numbers, you’re not going to see too many two-way guys,” Golembiewski said. “They are very physically developed. They are older, big, fast, mature team – not just in age, but you can tell there is competition for positions up there because kids did not take their offseason workouts lightly because they knew they weren’t going to be entitled to a job. They knew they were going to have to beat out another big, physical kid for a spot. When you’re a big school you get competition like that. That puts a pretty good product on the field.

DeForest’s Evan Armstrong gained over 100 yards on the ground against Oregon, while quarterback Trey Schroeder was 12 of 18 for 115 yards through the air.

“Our challenge is to manage the game appropriately and get ourselves in a position to win the game at the end. I’m not trying to talk up DeForest, but I think if we do what we are supposed to do we can win the game. We have a plan — but if it’s not being executed it’s worthless,” Golembiewski said.