By NATE BEIER | For the County Line
For the second time this season, the Royall football allowed the team with the state’s longest active losing streak to celebrate.
The Panthers became prey for the visiting Wonewoc-Center Wolves on Friday night, falling 38-12.
The Wolves, whose last win came at Royall in 2011, jumped out to an early 8-0 lead, and entered halftime leading 22-6. Royall scored once in the second and once in the fourth quarter.
Wonewoc-Center chewed up the field with a potent ground game led by Thom Jefferson-Ang who ran for 226 yards and 4 scores in the win. Jefferson-Ang did it on 22 carries to end the night with an average of more than 10 yards a carry. Quarterback Casey Krueger added 91 yards of his own, while Joey Krueger tacked on 48 yards on 6 tries.
As a team, the Wolves put up 407 yards on the ground.
The loss drops Royall to 0-4 on the year and in dire need of a win. The next two weeks’ worth of contests will pit the Panthers against the league’s top teams – Necedah (2-2, 1-1) and Bangor (4-0, 2-0) – before matching up with the other remaining winless team, Brookwood.
Eagles’ defense stymies BHS offense
Billy Nusse’s 75-yard punt return for a touchdown cut into the Cashton lead and fired up the Brookwood sideline Friday night, but it was a short-lived moment, as the Eagles turned their next possession into another touchdown and took the eventual 40-8 victory.
Jeffry Janzen put the home team on the board first with a short 7-yard run in the opening quarter. Jaden Schmitz broke off a 34-yard scoring run in the second quarter, when the Eagles took a respectable 16-0 lead. Nusse’s return was complemented by a successful 2-point conversion try by Ethan Suhr, but added 24 unanswered points over the course of the rest of the game.
Suhr ran for 70 of the Falcons’ 80 total yards on the ground. Ike Sletten pulled in two passes for 15 total yards.
The Cashton offense ran for just more than 275 yards on the ground and passed for 75 more.
Defensively, Suhr recorded 10 tackles. Jack Hansen and Caleb Witt each added six.
The Falcons will travel to Wonewoc-Center (1-3, 1-1) to face the Wolves, who are fresh off their first win in three years, as they defeated Royall 38-12.
Around the Scenic Bluffs
Bangor remained unbeaten, knocking off New Lisbon 24-6 behind a 241-yard rushing performance by Andrew Piske. Necedah handed a 31-6 loss to previously unbeaten Hillsboro. Necedah’s Matt Brown passed for just fewer than 100 yards and ran for 110 and four scores in the win.
This week’s slate of games includes Royall (0-4, 0-2) at Necedah (2-2, 1-1), Brookwood (0-4, 0-2) at Wonewoc-Center (1-3, 1-1), Cashton (2-2, 2-0) at New Lisbon (3-1, 1-1) and Bangor (4-0, 2-0) at Hillsboro (3-1, 1-1).