PRAIRIE DU SAC — The Cheesemakers opened their season with a tough 21-20 nonconference loss to Sauk Prairie Aug. 23. Monroe had a chance to win the game outright late in the fourth quarter, but a two-point try came up empty.

“I turned to everyone and said, ‘Hey, we’re going to win this game. We’re going for 2.’ I called that,” said coach Toby Golembiewski. “We gave it to our best guy. I think if we kick there and tie, and I don’t know if we can pull it off in overtime.”

Trailing 21-0 with five minutes left in the third quarter, Monroe’s offense finally started to click. The Cheesemakers had struggled to that point sustaining any drive. Sauk Prairie, which led 14-0 at halftime, took seven minutes off the clock on a touchdown-scoring drive to open the third.

“First half we were just starting slow and couldn’t get things together. We went in at halftime, talked about it, started getting our adrenaline going and going faster,” said senior running back and DB Nick Bansley.

On Monroe’s first play of the second half, lefty QB Max Golembiewski rolled to his left and threw a dart to Trevor Rodebaugh 15 yards up the sideline — the longest play of the day to that point for the Cheesemakers. Tyler Matley then barreled forward for 11 yards on a run the next play. 

Two plays later, Golembiewski again found Rodebaugh for 13 yards to get to the Eagles’ 28-yard-line. The drive seemed to stall after a pair of runs for no gain and a false start, but on 3rd-and-15, Bansley busted a 19-yard run up the right sideline to get into the red zone. Matley had another big run up the middle, and Max Golembiewski ran a bootleg to his left to the pylon for the score from 5-yards out.

“The first half we didn’t match their energy at all — I think we underestimated them. We knew (in the second half) that we had to pump ourselves up and match their energy, and stick with our adjustments we made at halftime,” Max Golembiewski said.

On the point-after try, the Cheesemakers lined up in an off-set formation to tease a fake, but while shifting back into a normal kick formation, the ball was inadvertently snapped and the try was no-good. The mistake would prove costly by the end of the game.

“One of our big goals was to not screw up on special teams, and it turns out that we screw up on an extra point and lose the game by 1,” Toby Golebiewski said.

The momentum continued for the Cheesemakers, however, as the Eagles’ kick return drew an illegal block call and the home team’s drive started from its own 13. A false start on the first play pushed Sauk back to the 8, and the Cheesemakers defense came through with a tackle for a loss to the 3. Two plays later on 3rd-and-16, Sauk QB Ethan Gibbs threw an incomplete pass, but a flag was thrown for holding in the end zone, allowing Monroe a safety to bring the score to 21-8 with 11:21 left on the game clock. 

Monroe eventually turned the ball over on downs near midfield thanks to a holding penalty and a sack. But on Sauk’s first play of the next drive, the Cheesemakers forced a fumble and took back possession at their own 40.

The biggest play of the drive was a 3rd-and-7 jump-ball toss that was caught by 6-6 sophomore JT Seagreaves to get Monroe the ball at the 20. Bansley then dashed to the 10 and two plays later scored from nine-yards out to make it 21-14 with 7:09 left. The Cheesemakers went for 2, but failed.

Monroe forced Sauk to punt on the following possession, and took over at its own 32 with 4:01 left on the clock. 

With both sidelines and the stands enamored with nervousness, Max Golembiewski again connected with Seagreaves for a 35-yard play to get to the Sauk 30. On the very next play, Bansley ran hard up the right sidelines but was brought down by his facemask in front of the sideline official. The extra effort by the defenders caused Bansley to get off the ground emphatically, which drew a flag for unsportsmanlike conduct and a 15-yard-penalty. Despite the pleas from the Monroe sideline, the Cheesemakers had to back up to the 35 instead of the 20, but on the very next play, Seagreaves went up and brought down another jump ball — this time landing at the 1-yard line. 

“It’s nice to have an athlete like that where you can put it up in the air and make it a jump ball like we do in basketball,” Max Golembiewski said.

Bansley scored on the next play with 2:54 left, and coach Golembiewski decided to roll the dice and gamble for the road win instead of the tie, and ran the same play as the touchdown run, only for Bansley to get brought down by a heap of Eagles behind the line of scrimmage.

Max Golembiewski sad that the Cheesemakers lined up wrong after subbing in and out a couple of players on the 2-point play, but that it wouldn’t have mattered on lining up correctly based on the defensive play call.

Another good kickoff had the Eagles pinned at their 18, while Monroe had 2:50 on the clock and two timeouts remaining. On the first play of the possession, Parker Breunig was brought down 5-yards behind the line of scrimmage by Patrick Rielly, who grabbed the RB by the waist. The sideline official — the same one who didn’t call a facemask on Bansley’s run a drive earlier — threw a flag for a 15-yard facemask on Rielly despite the tackle at the waist from behind.

Sauk was able to pick up a first down on the drive and then recover a fumble and was able to run out the clock to finish the win.

“I know it’s nonconference, but we’ve really prided ourselves as a staff since we’ve been together for four years on our record against Division 3 schools. So this is a kick in the crotch,” Toby Golembiewski said. “Like last year’s loss to Reedsburg, we haven’t lost to many Division 3 schools except for in the playoffs.”

Monroe finished the game with 277 yards of offense, including 130 through the air. Sauk gained 255 yards of offense, with 207 coming on the ground. Both teams had two turnovers, and Sauk won the time of possession battle 28:14-19:46.

Max Golembiewski was 5 for 11 passing with two interceptions. Bansley had 74 yards rushing on 15 carries. Rodebaugh had 47 yards on 12 carries, while Matley finished with 26 yards on six touches. Sauk’s Garrett Hertzfeldt gained 102 yards on the ground on 23 carries and scored twice. Breunig gained 64 yards on the ground and added a score.

Seagreaves finished with three catches for 103 yards and Rodebaugh had two catches for 27.

Monroe now has to gear up for Portage, another Division 3 Badger North team.

“Since it’s a nonconference game, it’s not the end of the world. I think we’re confident in what we can do next week,” Max Golembiewski said.

The Cheesemakers and Warriors clash at 7 p.m. Aug. 31 at T.R. Holyoke Field in Monroe.