BRODHEAD — The Cardinals saw their history season come to an end in Level 3, as Belleville scored the WIAA Division 5 victory 35-20. Brodhead-Juda (11-1) had entered the game previously unbeaten and ranked fifth in the state, while the Wildcats (10-2) were unranked.

Brodhead-Juda opened the scoring at the 6:52 mark on a 6-yard TD run by senior Gage Boegli. Less than 12 minutes of game clock later, the Cardinals led 20-7, with Aiden Vondra scoring on a 10-yard run and Gunner Boegli catching a 46-yard TD pass from Cole Hoesly.

Belleville QB Trevor Syse tossed a 24-yard TD to Anthony Nolden in the first quarter, and the two connected a second time with 5:04 left in the second quarter, pushing pinching the Cardinal lead to six at 20-14, where it stood through halftime.

With 5:12 left in the third, Trevor Syse hit Carson Syse for a 12-yard touchdown, and an extra point put the Wildcats ahead 21-20. Belleville scored less than three minutes later when Trevor Syse called his own number from 8-yards out. In the fourth quarter, the Wildcats’ QB added another rushing score, this time from five yards out to put the dagger into the Cardinals’ season.

Trevor Syse finished 14 of 24 for 261 yards and three touchdown passes, while running for another 75 yards and two scores. Dylan Posthuma had 38 rushing yards and 91 receiving yards for the Wildcats, with teammate Demarcus Conner adding two catches for 63 yards. Nolden, the team’s leading receiver, only caught two passes for 39 yards, but both were for scores. 

Gage Boegli gained 107 yards rushing on 13 carries. Brady Rosheisen added 69 yards on 10 attempts. Hoesly was 4 of 8 passing for 94 yards with two INTs. 

Brodhead-Juda amassed 292 yards of offense — nearly 80 yards fewer than the team average of 370. Belleville had 374 yards of offense — more than 3-times what the Cardinals averaged (115 ypg) each week.

The Wildcats will play Mayville (10-2), a 5-seed and co-champion of the Flyway Conference, at McFarland Nov. 12. 

Belleville is playing in just its fourth postseason as a solo school (1982, 2017, ’18), and eighth overall. Belleville has never made it to state. In fact, combined with co-ops with Albany (’02, ’05, ’07) and New Glarus/Monticello (1996), Belleville had never won a postseason game until this year. This fall the fourth-seeded Wildcats defeated 5-seed Poynette, No. 1-seed Marshall and now 2-seed Brodhead-Juda.