NEW GLARUS — It was a reverse of fortunes dating back decades: New Glarus overcame its longtime struggles and defeated Brodhead-Juda on the gridiron. The Glarner Knights’ 42-14 victory in Week 5 on Sept. 19 snapped a losing streak of more than 20 years — though the two programs did not meet every year.
“Brodhead historically has had our number, and right now we’re trying not to overlook anybody,” said DJ Schuett, head coach of the unbeaten and sixth-ranked Glarner Knights.
The game opened with New Glarus almost immediately needing to reset on the third play from scrimmage, a false start took a manageable third-and-three to a much harder third-and-eight. On the ensuing snap, NG quarterback Matt Roth was sacked by Jayden Brown, with Tyler Coleman recovering for the Cardinals at the New Glarus 26-yard line.
“We talk about starting fast,” Schuett said. “It was not the start we wanted, but the defense stiffened and did a good job, and then we took the ball down the field. From there on, it was the game plan.”
The Knights defense picked up the offense and forced a turnover on downs after just four plays. On the first snap of the ensuing possession, Roth scrambled for a 22-yard gain to put the ball near midfield. One play later, he connected with Will Pinnow for a 55-yard pass, giving NG a first down at the Brodhead-Juda 3-yard line. One snap later, the lights were flickering in celebration as Milo Johnson reached the pylon for a touchdown. Three plays, 81 yards, 46 seconds.
“We knew our offense was better than their defense, and I think that kind of set the tone, because we came in thinking this was going to be a blowout. Then after the fumble, it really set us straight. We’ve got to do something to refocus,” Roth said.
Immediately things went from bad to worse for the Cardinals. Two plays into their next drive, sophomore QB Logan Krupke threw an interception across the middle, picked off by NG’s Brayden Schmitt at the plus-side 32-yard line. A few moments later, Roth connected with Pinnow for a 10-yard score and a 14-0 lead. Brodhead-Juda then turned the ball over on downs on the next drive, as a three-and-out and poor snap on the punt attempt led to another major change in field position.
“Fumbled snaps and those little things — we were shooting ourselves in the foot quite a bit. That comes back to bite you. You can’t win a lot of football games doing that,” Brodhead-Juda coach Tim Cerjak said.
Three snaps later, Roth ran it in himself from five yards out, capping the 29-yard drive. Ashlin Mihlbauer’s extra point made it 21-0 with 1:21 remaining in the first quarter.
Brodhead-Juda finally got settled down on offense on its fourth possession of the evening, thanks in large part to the don’t-quit style running of senior Jordan Dix, who can play both fullback and offensive line. Dix busted out a 51-yard gain that came with multiple broken tackles to set the Cardinals up inside the red zone. Two plays later, he capped the drive with a 9-yard score with 9:57 left in the second quarter.
New Glarus scored thrice more in the first half, taking a commanding 42-6 lead into halftime. Roth hit Pinnow for a 22-yard scoring strike, Johnson ran another one in from 26 yards, and Roth found Tucker Sysko for a 32-yard score.
By halftime, the Knights had outgained the Cardinals 339 yards to 116.
“The biggest thing we talked to them at half is ‘no quitting’. That’s the easiest thing to do,” Cerjak said. “I though the guys responded well in the second half and not laying down. We were able to move the offense quite a bit.”
Dix scored a second time in the third quarter — the final points in the game.
With the running clock in play in the second half, New Glarus had just two total possessions. The Knights finished the night with 373 yards of total offense. Brodhead had 118 yards in three turns with the ball.
Roth finished the game with 168 yards on 8 of 12 passing with three TDs. He added another score on 10 carries for 57 yards rushing— which included multiple sacks negating positive yardage. Johnson had 67 yards and two scores on nine carries. Luke Burton had 66 yards on four rushing attempts, and Carson Prechel added five carries for 15 yards. Pinnow had four receptions for 90 yards and two scores. Sysko had 52 yards receiving on two catches. Burton had a 23-yard catch and Noah Garcia added a reception.
“The first four games, we kind of had to be patient and just ran the ball. And then today we opened up the playbook and our wideouts got rewarded,” Roth said.
Brent Weeden also made the switch from offensive line to tight end, which helped open up a few holes as well, Schuett said.
“We moved Weeden to tight end to help secure that side of the ball, and he’s working on catching the ball, but we think it’s going to add a dynamic for us,” Schuett said.
Brodhead closed the game with 226 yards of offense. Grayson Arn had 14 carries for 87 yards, while Dix finished the night with 10 attempts for 87 yards on the ground. After going 0-for-3 passing with an INT in the first half, Krupke was 5-for-5 in the second half, with Nolan Bump catching each pass for a total of 48 yards.
Brodhead-Juda (0-5, 0-3 SWC) has four games left to salvage a win, and none will be easy. Up next is Prairie du Chien for Homecoming in Week 7, followed by Lancaster and then Richland Center. While all three schools are 2-3 overall this fall, each made the postseason a year ago. In Week 9, the Cardinals host Platteville (3-2).
“The pride to play football has got to come back first before anything else is going to work out. That’s the truth. The pride to wear that jersey is the biggest thing,” Cerjak said. “And the work, the hard work. The SWC is not weak by any stretch of the imagination, so you’ve got to be ready to bring it each and every week. There are no weeks off, that’s for sure.”
Roth said the momentum is running through the whole program right now — the JV team is also unbeaten.
“That’s a lot of fun. High energy at practice, high energy in games. It’s contagious. It’s a whole thing, for the whole program,” Roth said. “But we’re still taking it just one game at a time — trying to go 1-0 each week.”
The sixth-ranked Glarner Knights (5-0, 3-0 SWC) travel to Platteville in Week 6, then host Prairie du Chien, followed by a road game at River Valley (4-1) in Week 8, which very well could have the conference title on the line. The Knights close out the regular season at home against Lancaster.
“You know, to start the year, I thought there was something special here, and these guys have bought into taking care of the little things. Whatever happens, happens. We stress every week to them that we don’t care about the polls, we don’t care about social media; we don’t care about what somebody else says. We try to keep them out of that stuff and focused on the week ahead,” Schuett said. “Platteville, Prairie, Lancaster and River Valley — those are all good football teams, so we have to focus every week and go play good football to come out of this where we want to be.”
