BELLEVILLE — It’s a game marked on everyone’s calendar all offseason in the Sugar River valley: The Highway 69 Rivalry football game. 

This year’s matchup between New Glarus and Belleville was the 76th meeting between the two schools, located just a handful of miles apart on Wis. 69. The Week 2 game showed as much intensity as ever before. When the scoreboard at Belleville High School struck 0:00 in the fourth quarter, it was New Glarus that came away with the victory, 10-6.

Both teams had moments of sloppy play and mental mistakes — false start penalties and turnovers in particular plagued both squads.

“We had about the worst week of practice that we could have had, and I think early on it showed. It took us a while to get rolling,” New Glarus coach DJ Schuett said. “The blocks that we missed were mental mistakes. The penalties that we made were mental mistakes. If we want to get to where we want to get this year, we’re going to have to clean that stuff up.”

New Glarus got on the board first with a 30-yard field goal by Ashlin Mihlbauer at the 10:29 mark in the second quarter. 

Belleville’s next possession last just three snaps. First, QB Rayden Taylor connected with Charley Spiegel on an 8-yard pass play. On the next snap, Treyton Myers took the handoff for a strong gain, only for a holding penalty to negate all the progress that had already been made. On the third play, Myers broke through the line again for a big gain, but coughed up the ball and New Glarus linebacker Carson Prechel recovered at the 50.

New Glarus moved down the field on nine plays, converting a fourth down on a 14-yard pass from Matt Roth to Quinn Marty, and eventually scoring on a 1-yard run by Luke Burton.

Belleville didn’t go away, and after the two teams exchanged turnovers once again, Myers plowed his way into the end zone from six yards out with just 31 second left before halftime. The extra point attempt was no good, and the Knights clung to the 10-6 advantage going into the break.

“It’s just those little things — we false start on a third down with a wide receiver. We jump offsides. It’s just little things that honestly is a little embarrassing,” said Mike Nolden, Belleville head coach.

While there was no scoring in the second half, New Glarus players made a handful of big plays to turn off any momentum Belleville was gaining. That allowed the Knights to control field position and eventually close out the game.

“We were gritty in the end. In the last seven or eight years in our program, we haven’t had that grit, and this group of kids is just gritty. They are gamers and when it comes right down to it, they will make plays,” Schuett said.

Notably, Marty collected a botched snap on a fourth down from his own goal line, rolled out two steps and got the punt away clean, where it rolled beyond midfield.

On the ensuing drive, Will Pinnow broke up a crucial third down pass and Mihlbauer blitzed through the line on fourth down to get a tackle for loss and a turnover on downs. 

On the next New Glarus series, the Knights faced a third-and-17. Roth dumped off a pass to Burton, who immediately broke a tackle and took off for a 42-yard gain. 

“The punt that we had ... was a huge play. Luke’s catch-and-run was a huge play because it flipped the field just enough,” Schuett said. “Any time you have to go 50, 60 yards or more, it’s tough in high school football. That’s typically either one big play or 10-15 plays in a row. It’s tough to run that many without mistakes happening somewhere along the way.”

On the final Belleville drive of the game, the Wildcats were pinned at their own 7-yard line. Taylor connected with Cayson Helwig and Tyler Miyamoto on back-to-back plays to open the possession for gains of 21 and 24 yards, putting the  Cats across midfield.

“I called a timeout, and it wasn’t to stop the momentum. We were going to put our special defense in to end the game,” said Schuett, who used the timeout to get the right personnel into the game. “I didn’t pull the trigger when we had them down inside their 10 — I just thought they had too much room and I thought we’d give up a couple big run plays. Instead we gave up two big pass plays.”

After the big gains on the first two plays, Belleville only went backwards from there. Myers had a run for a loss with 2:14 to play at midfield, then the Wildcats rushed a no-huddle to try and save time, only to throw an incomplete pass. On third-and-12, Taylor scrambled to get away from the pass rush and his offensive line was flagged for holding. Back-to-back incompletions ended the Wildcat’s final possession with 1:21 left on the clock and no timeouts. New Glarus knelt out the remaining 81 seconds.

“Calling the plays myself, I’m really frustrated offensively. It’s like things are happening too fast for us and we’re not making the right reads,” Nolden said. “At the end of the game we called a run play with two minutes left. They have four guys in the box, we’re 6-on-4 and they get a tackle for a loss. 

New Glarus finished the game with just 225 yards of offense to Belleville’s 273. Both teams had two turnovers. 

Roth had 133 yards on just 10 of 23 passing. Milo Johnson finished with 38 yards rushing on 16 carries. Mihlbauer had 8.5 tackles on defense, including two for a loss and a sack. Pinnow added a first-half interception.

For Belleville, Taylor had 106 passing yards on 12 of 20 completions. Myers gained 110 yards on the ground on 16 carries. Helwig had four catches for 51 yards and Marcus Hebgen had 11 tackles — including 4.5 for loss.

“Defense is doing a great job (this season). If you hold them to 10 points you should win,” Nolden said. His team has lost both games by a total of just six points so far.

Now comes the next step for both schools: Conference season. 

Last year, New Glarus earned a postseason spot with its play in the SWC, but lost in a tough Level 1 opener against Milwaukee Academy of Science.

“We’re just going to keep working on the little things ... It’s just patching up the little things and then big things will take care of themselves,” Schuett said.

Belleville started 2024 with an 0-5 record, only to run off second half run not just into the playoffs, but to the Division 6 semifinals.

“This is kind of how we started out last year — we were struggling. This team is too talented to be 0-2. We just have to settle down. We can’t get these two games back. We just have to focus on next week,” Nolden said.

New Glarus hosts winless Dodgeville in Week three, while Belleville goes on the road to defending SWAL champion Cuba City.

“It’s a little funny this year with the new playoff metric. Which do you care more about, conference or the playoffs? To me, conference games are awesome, but they’ve lost meaning,” Nolden said. “For the coaching staff, no matter what we’re just focused on the next game in front of us.”