BLANCHARDVILLE – While the Six Rivers Conference decided to move its football season to the spring, Pecatonica-Argyle joined a handful of other programs to keep its football season in the fall.
Despite starting practice five weeks late and seeing the regular season trimmed from nine to seven games, the Vikings are getting ready to go, albeit under new – or rather, old – management.
Longtime Pecatonica-Argyle coach Larry Green returns this season after a three-year absence.
“Strange things happen,” Green said, adding that the timing just happened to be in the right place at the right time for him to take over the program again. He had coached Pecatonica-Argyle for 20 years from 1997-2016.
Green spent the last few seasons in Darlington with Travis Winkers, while Blake Bukowski headed up the Pecatonica-Argyle program. Both teams saw some success, but not to the levels the programs had seen over the past two decades. Green’s Vikings went 23-2 in his final two seasons, then went 7-3 in their first season without Green in charge in 2016 and the following year. In 2019, Pecatonica Argyle finished just 3-6 overall (1-6 in conference) and missed the playoffs for the first time since 2009.
“The biggest challenge for the players will be learning the new system with this being my first year back,” Green said.
The Vikings will run a fly offense and will revert to a 4-3 defense after going with a 3-3-5 the past few seasons. Pecatonica will also have to figure out the best positions for those on its roster.
“We have decent speed. We hope to have a decent running attack,” Green said. “We’ll need to put together an offensive line.”
Senior running back and linebacker Clay Ritschard returns for the Vikings, as does senior WR/DBs Noah Krahenbuhl and Skylar Garthwaite. Junior QB Hunter Enloe is also back, as is a slew of linemen, including seniors Mason Svendson and Dylan Rebout, and juniors Alex Gilbertson, Daytin Johnsen and Tayte Hirsch. Sixteen letterwinners from last year return in all.
Enloe threw for nearly 600 yards on 74 attempts for five TDs and four INTs in 2019, his first year as the starter under center. He added another 145 yards rushing.
Ritschard led the team with 580 yards on the ground – averaging 6.0 yards per carry – and six TDs. He also finished tied for third in tackles and had two forced fumbles at linebacker.
Keegun Brunker had 128 yards on six catches and a score at wideout – the most of any returning player.
In the new schedule, the remaining Six Rivers and the Ridge and Valley conference teams will fill out each other’s schedule. Pecatonica-Argyle’s first game is a home contest against Potosi-Cassville Sept. 25. The Vikings play again at home in Week 2 (Oct. 2) against Boscobel, and have one more home game in Week 5 against Highland. Away games are at Hillsboro, River Ridge, Iowa-Grant and Ithaca. The Vikings rivalry against Black Hawk-Warren will skip a year, as the Warriors moved its season to the alternate spring.
The WIAA has not yet decided what the postseason schedule will look like or how deep it would go. However, Green said it doesn’t matter to his team, because his squad’s goal is simple. “Our intentions are to make the playoffs,” he said.
