MADISON — The coaching staff challenged the Cheesemakers to not only score a win against Madison Edgewood in the Cheese Bowl in Week 8, but to get ahead by halftime.

“It was important to be winning at halftime. We knew this was coming,” Monroe head coach Toby Golembiewski said after his team’s 31-14 win at Lussier Stadium Oct. 5. “We knew that by time we came out of halftime it was going to be pouring hard and it was going to cause a problem for whatever team was going to have to come from behind.”

The players responded to the challenge. Monroe (2-6, 2-4 Badger South) built a 16-14 lead at halftime and the offensive line took care of business while the rain came down in the second half. 

“In those conditions the ball was hard for them to throw and we didn’t need to throw it. The ball is slippery and hard to hang on to,” Golembiewski said. “All those plays that we ran, we did not cough the ball up. Whether it was the blocking or the backs hitting their holes and having ball security — whatever it was. Every play that goes by is a chance that something could happen, and we had a lot of long drives.”

After falling behind 7-0 with 2:49 left in the first quarter, Monroe’s offense snapped into gear. The Cheesemakers sprang a six-play, 46-yard drive that ended with a 4-yard touchdown run from Jordan Montgomery, who then tacked on the two-point conversion. 

With an 8-7 advantage, the defense stepped up on Edgewood’s next possession. The secondary broke up a pair of passes and Alex Witt and Bodie Minder sacked Thomas Hartlieb to force a punt on fourth-and-23. 

Again on offense, the Cheesemakers stuck to the game on the ground. Ethan Kleckler, Nick Bansley and Montgomery all helped push the ball up the field on a 13-play, 68-yard drive that ate up nearly seven minutes of play clock. Once again, Montgomery punched in the touchdown and the two-point conversion to put Monroe ahead 16-7.

Edgewood (2-6, 1-5) quickly responded, however, marching down the field in short order and trimming the score to 16-14 with, 1:03 left in the half.

“We changed up the defense a little bit (at halftime) to accommodate what they (Edgewood) were doing,” senior lineman Jacob Setterstrom said. 

On the second play of the ensuing drive Montgomery fumbled a pitch to turn the ball over with 41 seconds left near midfield. 

“I just couldn’t get a handle on it,” said Montgomery, a senior who took the advice of his coaches and ditched his wet and soiled gloves immediately after the play. “I just couldn’t get it in time and it was my fault. I said, ‘I don’t want these (gloves) anymore, my hands are better.’”

Edgewood would attempt to get into scoring range but a holding call, a sack by Alex Witt and two well defended passes in the secondary kept the Crusaders out of the endzone.

As halftime wound to a close, rain descended onto the field and both offenses struggled to gain footing. 

Early in the fourth quarter Monroe turned to Kleckler, its bruising fullback, to pound the ball down the field. Kleckler scored on a 4-yard run with 9:32 remaining to make it a two-score game again at 24-14, this time with Aiden Sweeney getting the two-point conversion through the mud.

The Crusaders tried to pull out all of their tricks and was gifted with a replayed down after a rogue whistle kept the Cheesemakers from recovering a fumble deep in Edgewood territory. On third and long Hartlieb attempted to scramble but was cut down on an open-field sack by Wade Sweeney to force a long fourth-down attempt which ultimately fell to the muddied turf.

Three plays later from midfield Bansley took a handoff up the left side of the line and then cut toward the left sideline, leaving all 11 Crusader defenders in his wake with a dagger scoring run with 1:38 remaining.

“When you get the ball on the outside it’s really hard to make those quick cuts (in the mud) so you really have to pitter-patter your feet so you can plant. Or if you’re not slowing down at all you can just run around them like Bansley did on that last run,” Montgomery said.

“We’re expecting it just to go for a first down, but when you execute it well and it goes for a touchdown it’s just the greatest feeling,” said Setterstrom, who added that playing in wet and muddy conditions is the most fun way to play football. “Best football conditions you can ever have. It was amazing.”

Kleckler finished the night with 112 rushing yards on 29 bruising carries. Bansley had 111 yards on eight touches and Montgomery went for 55 yards on 12 carries. Montgomery did just as much damage on defense, collecting five solo tackles and 17 total. Alex Witt had nine solo tackles, 12 total and 1.5 sacks while Wade Sweeney had seven tackles and two sacks.

While the offensive line helped open holes for the backs, it became noticeable that there was another skills player forcing the issue — quarterback Alex Witt made the switch to tight end on short notice and helped seal off the edges routinely throughout the night. His move allowed sophomore Max Golembiewski to collect his first varsity start.

“It has nothing to do with Alex or Max playing quarterback, it has everything to do with Alex playing tight end. We have upgraded our offensive line with that move,” coach Golembiewski said. “But for three years we have had to kind of hide and run away from our tight end, and now we’ve got a guy that can slam the door on the strong side as a blocker.”

Coach Golembiewski said that Witt, his starter at QB for much of last year and this year, was ready for the challenge on short notice.

“We had some guys miss practice being sick, so he took all the reps this week,” coach Golembiewski said. “He’s already the quarterback so he knows what’s going on. It’s just a little bit of technique work, but he gets off the ball, he’s strong as an ox and he can really blast you.”

The game was dubbed the “Cheese Bowl,” as showcased by Wisconsin’s 57 Sports television, which replayed the game three times over the weekend. Monroe finished with 295 yards of offense — all rushing on 54 carries. Edgewood had 232 yards of offense, including 130 on 39 runs and 8 of 15 passing for 92 yards.

Monroe has one last shot to score a win before the end of the regular season and travels to Oregon (6-2, 5-1) in Week 9.

While automatic qualifying for the postseason is impossible, the Cheesemakers still could earn a shot at postseason play with a win and help from tiebreakers. In 2011 Monroe went 3-6 and was the first team left out of the playoffs, while last year the Cheesemakers were 4-5 and gained entry on a second tiebreaker. In order to automatically qualify, a team must finish with a winning record in conference. A .500 record in conference or winning record overall makes a team postseason eligible, but does not guarantee a spot in the playoff field.

“We’ve just got to go as hard as we can in practice. Oregon’s a D-2 school. They’re big, they’re strong, they’ve beaten Stoughton and some of the team we lost to. We really have to practice hard and get reps in so we can do well,” Setterstrom said.