MILTON — In their last season as a member of the Badger South, the Cheesemakers are pulling up some time capsules. Once the premier team in the conference, Monroe went through nearly a decade of futility from 2005 to 2015, making the postseason just once with zero winning seasons in that stretch. The Cheesemakers roared back in 2016 with an unbeaten mark in league play and have stayed competitive in each of the seasons since.

For the second time this fall, Monroe knocked off an undefeated team sitting in the top spot of the Badger South standings. Earlier this year in Week 4, the Cheesemakers surprised Watertown at home with an all-around effort. Most recently in Week 7, Monroe went up early before withstanding a frantic rally in a 34-28 win over Milton.

“Everyone showed up. When one group was down, the other one stepped up. The different facets were ready to take over,” Monroe coach Toby Golembiewski said after the Oct. 4 win. “Halftime was no pep rally for us. We knew they were going to be ready to go, so we had to bear down.”

Monroe (4-3, 3-2 Badger South) couldn’t have asked for a much better start against the Red Hawks (6-1, 4-1). Tyler Matley took the opening kickoff into Milton territory and three plays later Nick Bansley caught a swing pass in the flat from Max Golembiewski and scampered 36 yards to the end zone. 

The Cheesemakers scored on four of their first six possessions, converted a surprise onside kick, and jumped out to a 27-6 lead at halftime. After a Preston Ambrose interception to open the second half, Monroe scored again with a short field to go up 34-6. While the lead seemed insurmountable, Milton twice had a chance in the closing minutes of regulation to score to tie or re-take the lead.

“That was the complete game: Offense, defense, special teams,” Toby Golembiewski said. “We got an onside kick, we made our extra points, we got great kick coverage on our kickoffs — that was the T-bone steak with the baked potato and the soup and the greens. It was the complete meal. It was perfect.”

After the Ambrose pick, Monroe started its possession at the Milton 12 and scored four plays later on a pass from Max Golembiewski to Matley. Milton charged down the field on the next possession, scoring less than two-and-a-half minutes later on a 7-yard TD run by Kyle Dehnert.

Monroe’s next four possessions went punt-fumble-interception-punt, while Milton added two more touchdowns. Milton scored its third touchdown on a tipped catch in the back corner of the end zone by Dane Nelson. After both teams swapped punts, Monroe running back Trevor Rodebaugh coughed it up near midfield on the second play of a drive with 9:09 remaining in regulation. Rodebaugh, the league leader in rushing yards (936), carried the ball 20 times for 116 yards and a score in the game.

“I just give credit to all of our backs. They played really good,” senior two-way lineman Julian Gruber said. “They made a couple of mistakes tonight, but who doesn’t make mistakes? Our line, we keep grinding. We’re all seniors, so we just keep pushing to be good, be great.”

Milton pounced on the opportunity and scored just 79 seconds later on a 26-yard run by Nick Huber to make it 34-28.

“It shows how good of a team they (Milton) are. They were 6-0 for a reason,” Max Golembiewski said.

After a flag on the ensuing kickoff, Monroe opened possession with a six-point lead at its own 9-yard-line. On the first play of the drive, Max Golembiewski rolled to his left on a bootleg, only to pull up at the last second and heave a pass to a wide-open Cael Losenegger 25 yards up the field.

“One of my roles on this team is to make a play there. Max made a good roll and I was able to come down with it,” said Losenegger, who dropped a wide-open pass the week before in a crucial moment against Oregon. “I get a lot of reps, but they are mostly for blocking plays. Other teams have to be catching on to that when the big guy (Seagreaves) is in, we’re going to be throwing it up to him and I’m kind of in there to block. To be open on that and to be able to make a play like that helped out, it felt really good.”

The play gave the Cheesemakers some breathing room, but four plays later on third-and-6, Golembiewski was intercepted. It appeared as though a defender interfered with Monroe wideout JT Seagreaves, who had position for an open catch, but after getting bumped hard from behind the ball was tipped and picked off near midfield with 4:33 left.

After playing a bend-but-don’t-break defense much of the second half, Monroe forced a turnover on downs after just four plays, with Milton QB Evan Jordahl underthrowing a wide-open Jerry Jones on the backside of a shotgun play.

Monroe took over with 2:54 left in the game, but went 3-and-out themselves, punting the ball away with 1:19 left. Rodebaugh’s punt pinned the Red Hawks back at their own 9. Milton, out of timeouts, went back to the air with Jordahl, and on the first play of the possession Bansley intercepted the pass to seal the game.

“I knew I had to get one pick in this game — there were too many that I had dropped. I just went up and picked it off and that sealed the game,” Bansley said.

Jordahl finished 8 of 18 passing for 126 yards, two touchdowns and three interceptions, with Matley picking off a ball in the final two minutes of the first half as the Red Hawks appeared to be on the verge of points.

Huber led Milton’s rushing attack with 87 yards on 14 carries. Bansley had 13 rushing attempts for 105 yards and two scores on the ground. Matley had 35 yards rushing on six carries and two catches for 40 yards. Alex Witt had 15 tackles for Monroe on defense, including 11 solo. Seagreaves and Logan Clark each had 10 tackles, while Gruber and Michael Kundert each had nine.

“We knew that their line wasn’t the quickest line, so we tried to make a move on them, and half of the time it worked and I got to the backfield. I missed a couple that I should have gotten, but otherwise we did a great job catching up to them and tackling,” Gruber said.

Monroe’s second and third touchdowns in the game were mostly thanks to special teams play. The Cheesemakers had to burn a timeout on defense coming out of the break between the first and second quarter on a miscommunication of personnel on the field. Then Milton, faced with a fourth-and-long, over-snapped its punter for an 18-yard loss. Monroe took over at the Red Hawks’ 31 and Rodebaugh ran up the middle on the first play for the score with 11:47 left in the half. On the ensuing kickoff, Milton front lineman Andrew Hoard turned to run on block, only for the kickoff to go off his backside and back into the arms of the Cheesemakers. Two plays later Bansley busted off a 45-yard TD run up the left sideline.

The final score of the half was keyed by a 34-yard pass to Matley on third-and-8 that got inside the Milton red zone. Bansley ran a sweep to his right on the next play to score, stunning the home crowd on senior night.

“We knew we had to come down and get it started right off the gate,” Bansley said.

Monroe now needs just one win to clinch a guaranteed spot in the WIAA Division 3 playoffs. The WIAA stipulates that teams with conference records above .500 are automatically in the postseason field, while teams at .500 are eligible. The Cheesemakers host conference co-leader Stoughton (5-2, 4-1) in Week 8 and then bottom-feeder Madison Edgewood (1-6, 1-4) in Week 9 for homecoming.

Stoughton is led by QB Adam Hobson, RB Quinn Arnott and OL Jack Nelson, a Wisconsin Badgers commit. Hobson is second in the league with 1,215 passing yards, while Arnott is second in rushing (797) between Rodebaugh and Bansley (712).

Bansley said that if Monroe cleans up a few of its mistakes against Milton, they should be good to go against Stoughton. Max Golembiewski said that this week the team was locked in during practice, while the week before the squad was sidetracked for much of the preparation against Oregon and didn’t come out ready to play. 

“Sometimes we get sidetracked. I had to go through 65 plays against Oregon where all 11 guys did something right,” Toby Golembiewski said. “This is stuff we should have been doing all along.”