MONROE — It wasn’t the prettiest of football games, but the top-seeded Cheesemakers rolled to a 35-point win in the opening round of this year’s playoffs on Oct. 20. 

“It’s going to be physical from here on out, as everyone is playing for all the marbles,” Monroe head coach Toby Golembiewski said. “Just a good old-fashioned football game that you had right there. There were some huge plays made in this game, especially defensively.”

Monroe, Wisconsin’s defending champion in Division 3, routed 8-seed New Berlin Eisenhower 49-14. Up next, the Cheesemakers will host Rock Valley rival McFarland (7-4), which dominated 4-seed Milwaukee Washington on the road, 38-10.

Monroe (8-2) had plenty of highlights on Friday night, from two defense scores, to simply Lane Meier playing both sides of the ball like a man on a mission to play another game.

There were also some lowlights, like four Cheesemaker turnovers, nine penalties for 85 yards, and two key starters getting injured — including one, senior Taylor Herbst, getting hauled away in an ambulance out of an abundance of caution. It was feared Herbst had a potential concussion or neck injury, but those fears subsided after evaluation by the emergency room staff at SSM Health Monroe Hospital. Also injured was junior running back Ben Gatdula, breaking a collarbone for a second straight season.

“We’ll see what happened with Ben — he was going in for X-rays. And Taylor was doing OK. He passed the CT scan. He’s hurt, but what you think could be worst case scenario is not the case,” Golembiewski said. “It was like a game you would have in the old Badger South, with guys on both teams getting carted off the field.”

Meier relished under the Friday Night Lights, though. On the first snap of the game, Monroe senior Kaden Kuester strip-sacked NBE QB Jarrett Hall, and Meier recovered for a 15-yard score just 15 seconds into the game. Meier consistently made tackles in key moments on defense, and on offense finished with 163 yards rushing on 21 carries with two more scores. In fact, he was the workhorse in the second half, accumulating 103 yards on 13 carries.

“It was just awesome. You can’t ask for anything better,” Meier said of the fumble for a score. 

The Lions (4-7) didn’t help themselves much either, turning the ball over eight times in the game, and failing on fourth down three other times. Monroe’s first offensive drive ended with a quick 3-and-out, but a muffed punt gave the Cheesemakers the ball back at the Lions’ 16. Four plays later, Ethan Rosenstiel hit a wide-open Gatdula in the back of the end zone to put Monroe ahead by two scores.

Monroe’s defense then forced NBE to a 3-and-out punt, and four plays later, Kuester waltzed into the end zone to make it 21-0 with 2:22 left in the first quarter.

“We came out with energy. We’ve been prepping for this all season — playoffs and the physicality. We go hard every day in practice to keep our stamina up. I think we came out well,” Monroe senior lineman James Seagreaves said.

The rest of the first half wasn’t all rainbows and sunshine, though it was competitive and interesting. Over the final 14 minutes of the first half, each team scored two touchdowns, but penalties, turnovers and injuries slowed everything down. The two teams made it to the locker room for halftime 90 minutes after the opening kickoff — more than a half hour longer than the average game. 

On NBE’s final drive of the first quarter, Meier clotheslined Hall on fourth down that would have turned the ball over, but the red rover tackle was flagged as unsportsmanlike. On the next play, Harry Mueller dashed 21 yards to the pylon to put the Lions on the board. The two teams then swapped scores again, making it 28-14 Monroe with 6:34 to play in the half.

Gatdula then coughed up a fumble, and the NBE faithful thought a score was imminent after a long 35-yard run, only for a holding penalty to bring it all back. Three snaps later, Hall was pressured heavily again by Kuester, and the flailing throwaway pass went right into the hands of Seagreaves, who ran it back undeterred 30 yards for his first career touchdown to make it 35-14.

“He just threw it right at me. He pump-faked and I was surprised. I don’t know why he threw it, but he was throwing it away late all night,” Seagreaves said. “It’s a great feeling. I thought I was going to get one (a touchdown) at Edgerton, but they called it dead.”

During the PAT, Herbst was knocked to the ground and didn’t move for several minutes while medical staff and coaches attended to him. 

No one scored the rest of the half, though Rosenstiel was picked off twice and NBE had a turnover on downs. Gatdula was also lost to a collarbone injury after a 15-yard first down run on the final series.

“It was really tough with those two guys going down in the first half. Coach just regrouped us and said that we had to win this for them,” Meier said.

In the second half, Meier completely took over as Monroe’s workhorse, and the Cheesemakers wore down the Lions with each snap of the football. Meier scored both second half touchdowns for Monroe, and the second started the running clock with 9:35 left in the fourth. Seagreaves also had himself a big half. He recovered a fumble in the third that led to a short field and a score for Monroe, and on another possession in the fourth quarter, he had two tackles for loss and a sack.

“I think stamina plays a big part of it. They were getting tired and you could tell they wanted to give up. If you just keep playing hard, you’re going to make plays,” Seagreaves said.

Monroe ended the game by draining the final six minutes by running just four plays — all while taking three penalties to let the clock run.

The Cheesemakers finished the night with 372 yards of offense, including 278 on the ground and another 94 through the air. Rosenstiel connected twice with Keegan Dahmen for 51 yards, and had a 32-yard pass to Meier, along with Gatdula’s 12-yard score. Kuester had 49 yards rushing and Gatdula 40. Monroe had 10 penalties for 85 yards, and turned the ball over four times. 

Eisenhower also had four turnovers, plus another three on downs. Hall was 7-for-24 passing for 197 yards. The Lions gained just 33 yards rushing on 18 attempts. 

“Our defense has been really strong. We let up a couple (scores), but we came out in that second half just firing. Our defense tonight, I think, won this game,” Meier said.

Next week, Monroe will host McFarland in Level 2. Earlier this season in Week 3, the Cheesemakers obliterated the Spartans 59-7. McFarland has won 7 of 8 games since.

A potential third-round matchup for Monroe could be former Badger Conference rival Stoughton (5-5), which knocked off second-seeded Greendale 41-20 in the playoff opener. Stoughton first has to get through No. 3-seed Waterford (7-3), which defeated Pewaukee 22-17.

“I am hoping it just keeps going on. I don’t want a last game, though I know it’s going to come at some point,” Meier said.