By Steve Pilz
For focusonmarshfield.com
MEDFORD – Medford High School had a chance to show off their shiny new artificial turf football field Friday night as they hosted a WIAA Division 5 Level 4 state semifinal game between Spencer/Columbus Catholic and Stratford.
Unfortunately, it was mostly covered in snow and with a game time temperature at about 18 degrees and wind chills much south of that, it became a battle of attrition that the Tigers had a perfect answer to.
The answer was Kade Ehrike.
The 5-foot-10, 200 pound senior played battering ram for most of the game, lugging the pigskin 42 times for 303 yards, and propelling the Tigers to their first appearance in Madison in 10 years, as they downed the Rockets 22-6 to avenge an earlier loss in the season’s first game.
Mostly it was Ehrike left, Ehrike right and Ehrike up the middle. The Tigers started their opening drive on their own 20. On the fourth play from scrimmage Ehrike bolted for 56 yards but two plays later, after an 8-yard gain, Ehrike made perhaps his only miscue of the game when he fumbled the ball on the one. The Rockets’ Tanner Kleinschmidt recovered and S/C had dodged a bullet.
[pro_ad_display_adzone id=”10578”]Carson Hildebrandt got a yard for the Rockets, but Eli Drexler crashed into the backfield to nail Austin Bacon for a safety on the next play and the Tigers had drawn first blood and led 2-0.
Folllowing a Straford punt, S/C took over at their own 37 and began to spread the ball to their playmakers.
Hildebrandt carried three times for 17 yards, Hayden Bauman gained 16 yards on three carries, and Austin Bacon picked up 14 on two chances, but the drive stalled when the Rockets were penalized at the 17. With fourth down-and-10 at the 22, quarterback Jarred Mandel dropped back and hit Bauman with a screen left that the speedy tailback deposited in the end zone to give the Rockets their first and only lead of the game. The PAT was blocked and it was 6-2.
In a drive that may come to define their season, the Tigers put out a 13-play possession that answered the Rockets’ score with Ehrike going in from 14 yards out with 5:57 left in the half to make it 9-6.
[pro_ad_display_adzone id=”10578″]Ehrike had a TD called back about five minutes later and the Rockets put up a goal-line stand to keep the score at 9-6 going into intermission.
“We left a couple points out there at the end of the first half,” Stratford coach Jason Tubbs said. “We were just a different team tonight than we were when we first met these guys in the first game of the season. Our guys were really fired up and ready to play. We were a different team with a different attitude. They are a very good team.”
With the passing game negated by the weather, it became just a matter of time for the team with the better running attack to take control.
That did happen, but not until the fourth quarter when Ehrike ripped off his second TD off left tackle with 8:37 left in the game.
[pro_ad_display_adzone id=”10578″]“You can’t really prepare for the weather in a game like that,” Tubbs said. “”They’re a good passing team and the weather took our passing game away too, but we had Kade (Ehrike), who just took over the game.”
The Rockets gamely pushed on, but were forced out on downs which led to a 59-yard, 11-play drive that ended with another Ehrike TD, this time from 23 yards away, that punched the Tigers’ ticket to state, where they will play Fond du Lac St. Mary’s Springs on Thursday, Nov. 15, at 4 p.m. at Camp Randall Stadium.
S/C coach Jason Gorst was very proud of his team.
“They had a great season,” he said. “They gave everything they had. I’m just real proud of the effort. We’ll miss that senior class. We’ve got a lot of young guys coming up. I’m real proud of all of them. They represented our community and school really well. The best thing about these guys is that they’re just a quality group of people.”
[pro_ad_display_adzone id=”10578″]Tigers 22, Rockets 6
Stratford 2 7 6 7 – 22
Spencer/Columbus Catholic 6 0 0 0 – 6
First quarter
ST – Safety, Eli Drexler tackled Austin Bacon in end zone, 9:03.
SC – Hayden Bauman 22 pass from Jarred Mandel (kick blocked), 0:46.
Second Quarter
ST – Kade Ehrike 14 run (Reed Curtis kick), 5:57.
Fourth Quarter
ST – Ehrike 23 run (pass failed), 8:37.
ST – Ehrike 23 run (Curtis kick), 1:59.
Team Statistics
First downs: ST 16; SC 10.
Rushing (att.-yards): ST, 54-311; SC, 34-176.
Passing (comp.-att.-yards-int.): ST, 1-4-7-0; SC- 5-14-47-0.
Total yards: ST 318; SC 220.
Penalties: ST, 5-38; SC, 3-15.
Fumbles: (total-lost): ST, 1-1; SC, 0-0.
Individual Statistics
Rushing: ST, Ehrike 42-303, Derek Marten 3-9, Devin Dennee 3-6, Matt Handick 3-3. SC, Carson Hildebrandt 11-85, Jarred Mandel 9-33, Austin Bacon 3-12, Bauman 8-8.
Passing: ST, Max Schwabe 1-4-7-0. SC, Mandel 5-13-47-0.
Receiving: ST, Marten 1-7. SC, Bauman 2-33, Hildebrandt 2-12, Bacon 1-2.
Fumble recoveries (defense): SC, Tanner Kleinschmidt.
Records: Stratford 11-2; Spencer/Columbus Catholic 11-2.
Steve Pilz writes for MarshfieldAreaSports.com, a contributor to focusonmarshfield.com.
Author: News Desk
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