By Natalie Dillon
ndillon@themonroetimes.com
MONROE — Cheesemaker fans may look at the results of Monroe’s Week 2 39-7 loss to Mount Horeb-Barneveld (MHB) and let some doubt cloud their minds, but not head coach Tom Witt and the rest of his team.
“Playing teams like them makes you better,” Witt said of the Vikings, who are ranked No. 3 in Division 3, per the Week 1 WisSports.net Coaches Poll. “It’s a term that we often use in wrestling, iron sharpens iron. You have to play teams that are faster, bigger and stronger than you to up your game.”
The Cheesemakers looked up to the task, though, hanging with the defending Badger Small champions early on. Ben Gatdula and Jacob Flom had carries that brought the Cheesemakers to midfield, but on the first play in the Vikings’ territory, Bryce Roelli threw an interception into Eli Maier’s arms. The turnover wasn’t costly, as the defense forced a three and out.
With the quarter winding down, neither team had yet scored. In fact, Mount-Horeb Barneveld was without a first down. That’s when a poor snap led to great field position for the Vikings.
Punting on fourth-and-1 from Monroe’s 30-yard line, Peyton Herbst fielded a low snap but couldn’t get the kick off before getting tackled by a stampede of Vikings.
“Peyton is our best punter, however, he is our best snapper. If we could have him do both, it would be nice,” Witt said. “(Assistant coach) Gerry (Herbst) and I talked before, if we are having issues with the snap, that’s more important than the punt.”
The miscue gave MHB field position at Monroe’s 20-yard line, where the Vikings picked up their first first down on a run from Owen Preimesberger. Despite a tackle for loss by Joe Rufenacht, MHB scored four plays later on a pass to Chris Kiel, who has NCAA Division I offers from Northern Illinois University, Dartmouth and North Dakota State University. Kiel made an acrobatic catch, planting one foot inside the far right pylon before falling out of bounds.
The touchdown opened the floodgates for the Vikings, who scored on their next three drives.
“We were doing a good job up front on the D-line. We held them in check rushing. It just got to the point where they started figuring out the open spaces in our coverage,” Witt said. “You can’t cover the entire field, so you have to give some things up. They started hitting those spots.”
While the Vikings were clicking offensively, the Cheesemakers struggled to put a positive possession together. Each time, they’d gain yards on the ground, only to have a tackle for loss or penalty resulting in four, 3-and-outs.
As the half wound down, the momentum appeared to shift.
Aaron Benzschawel and Tony Wolf got through the tackles and applied pressure to Hendrickson, resulting in an incomplete pass. After a 5-yard pass, Hendrickson threw two more incomplete passes, turning the ball over on downs at Monroe’s 34-yard line.
Flom ran the ball to midfield, and Monroe called timeout with six seconds on the clock to call its next play, which was a handoff to Gatdula. He coughed up the ball, and Jack Wilson scooped it up and ran it back for a 48-yard TD rush as the clock expired.
“Before the half, having them score on the fumble really had put our heads down,” Witt said. “I didn’t even bring it up (in the locker room). The kids still have to go out there and play and find a way to get better. The first half was done.”
Coming out of the locker room with cleared minds, the Cheesemakers came up with a stop. They allowed just one first down before the Vikings punted at their own 44-yard line.
But back-and-forth offense — a positive play followed by a negative play — resulted in yet another punt for Monroe.
This time, MHB handed the rock to Preimesberger, who carried the ball 20 yards into Cheesemaker territory. Kiel finished the drive with a 17-yard touchdown catch, inducing a running clock, as the Vikings built up a 39-0 lead.
Not to be shutout in their home opener, the Cheesemakers put together an 8-play touchdown drive, aided by back-to-back offsides penalties by MHB. Flom began with a 21-yard rush. Later, he and Roelli had back-to-back first-down carries, and Kingston McNett capped the possession with a 2-yard score.
“It was a good feeling. We worked hard. We deserved that. We wanted at least one score,” Flom said. “We marched it down there and got all of our mindsets right. We hammered it in there.”
Although Monroe begins its 2024 campaign 0-2, Flom and the rest of his teammates aren’t worried. They began 2023 0-2 with losses to Beaver Dam and Mount Horeb-Barneveld but earned another Rock Valley Conference title and made it to Level 3.
“We are feeling good,” Flom said. “These two teams (Lodi and Mount Horeb-Barneveld) are pretty good. We could have put up a bigger fight with some tweaks here and there, but conference, we are coming for it.”
No. 3 Mount Horeb-Barneveld 39,
Monroe 7
(Friday, Aug. 30 at Monroe)
Mount Horeb-Barneveld … 6 26 7 0 – 39
Monroe …………………… 0 0 0 7 – 7
First Quarter
MHB: Chris Kiel 5-yd pass from Brooks Hendrickson (2-pt run failed), 6-0, 2:20
Second Quarter
MHB: Eli Maier 7-yd rush (2-pt pass failed), 12-0, 9:05
MHB: Owen Preimesberger 13-yd rush (2-pt pass failed), 18-0, 5:51
MHB: Owen Aeschlimann 48-yd pass from Hendrickson (Zach Maguire PAT good), 25-0, 3:36
MHB: Jack Wilson 48-yd fumble return (Maguire PAT good), 32-0, 0:00
Third Quarter
MHB: Kiel 17-yd pass from Hendrickson (Maguire PAT good), 39-0, 3:06
Fourth Quarter
M: Kingston McNett 2-yd rush (Seth Schmidt PAT good), 39-7, 1:19
Team Statistics
First downs – MHB: 14; M: 9. Rushing – MHB: 22-51 (2 TD); M: 36-156 (1 TD). Passing (comp-att-INT, yds-TD) – MHB: 21-36-0, 251-0; M: 2-6-1, 3-0.
Individual Leaders
Rushing – MHB: Owen Preimesberger 18-51 (1 TD); M: Jacob Flom 14-119, Kingston McNett 2-13 (1 TD), Ben Gatdula 7-16. Passing – MHB: Brooks Hendrickson 21-35-0; 251-3; M: Bryce Roelli 2-6-1, 3-0. Receiving – MHB: Chris Kiel 12-133 (2 TD), Owen Aeschlimann 2-57 (1 TD), Owen Preimesberger 3-37, Hayden Anderson 4-24; M: Tony Wolf 1-5.
