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Marquette shocks Fond du Lac in overtime

All season long, the Fond du Lac football team attempted to play a perfect game — one with no turnovers, no blown assignments, no bad mistakes.

On Friday, the Cardinals played far from perfect football and now they won’t have a chance to redeem themselves.

Patrick English kicked a 20-yard game-winning field goal in overtime as No. 3 seed Milwaukee Marquette University took advantage of three turnovers to stun top-seeded Fond du Lac 24-21 in a WIAA Division 1 Level 3 playoff game at Fruth Field, prematurely ending a season the Cardinals had hoped would conclude at state. “Turnovers hurt, man,” Fond du Lac coach Mike Gnewuch said. “We emphasized that throughout the week. If you’re going deep in the playoffs, you can’t turn the ball over. Unfortunately we turned it over tonight.”

Tied 21 apiece in overtime, Fond du Lac (10-2) had a chance to strike first against Marquette (9-3), but instead gave the ball away on a Quinn Woelfel interception — his second of the night. Beginning at the 25-yard line, the Hilltoppers then gave the ball to Fateh Nuruddin five straight times, who eventually got it down to the one-yard line. English followed with his field goal, redemption after missing a 22-yarder late in regulation.

“He told me ‘Coach, I’ve forgotten all about

[the missed field goal],’” Marquette coach Jeffrey Mazurczak said about English. “Because we were going to need to need him to win this. I thought we’d punch it in, I wanted to punch it in. That didn’t happen, but Patrick finished it off.”

Leading up to that decisive moment in overtime, the Cardinals uncharacteristically made numerous errors they’d avoided throughout the season. Woelfel’s first interception came on a deflected pass on the final play of the first quarter and gave the Hilltoppers the ball at Fond du Lac’s eight-yard line. Quarterback Jack Dwyer scored on the next play to tie the game at 7-7. Dwyer then scored on a 15-yard run late in the first half to give Marquette a 14-7 lead before finding a wide-open Alex Giampietro for a 52-yard touchdown pass on the second play of the third quarter. That touchdown was just one of multiple missed assignments for Fond du Lac on Friday. “On that one long one they had, we just blew an assignment,” Gnewuch said. “He knew it right away. He came off the field and said ‘My bad, I blew my coverage on it.’ It’s not like they had tons of big plays. We didn’t tackle especially well at times, but it is what it is. I give them credit, they played a great football game.”

Trailing 21-7, the Cardinals wouldn’t go away, with Justin Maratik capping off an eight-play, 61-yard drive on the ensuing possession with a short touchdown run. Fond du Lac would eventually even the game at 21 on a 30-yard Woelfel score early in the fourth quarter.

But once again, Fond du Lac shot itself in the foot.

Following a defensive stand, in which Jake Walgenbach intercepted a Marquette halfback pass deep in Cardinals territory, Fond du Lac began to find an offensive rhythm — driving the ball to midfield. However, Woelfel fumbled at the end of a nine-yard run, Marquette recovered and proceeded to drive the ball all the way to the Fond du Lac three-yard line before English missed what would have been the game-winning field goal in regulation.

All told, the mistakes and missed opportunities — which included an overthrown pass to Joe Kuber in the first quarter that would have resulted in a touchdown — were too much for Fond du Lac to overcome.

Fond du Lac’s offense, though it outgained Marquette 343-337, struggled to move the ball with much consistency throughout the night. Woelfel finished with 117 yards rushing on 19 carries and was 7-of-20 passing for 89 yards, but committed all three turnovers.

Maratik scored two touchdowns, but had only 83 yards rushing on 23 carries as the Hilltoppers focused on bottling up the Cardinals’ No. 1 running back. “Our kids took it as a challenge that on other occasions during the year, we’d let power running teams get the best of us,” Mazurczak said. “I think our guys were bound and determined to make a statement that it wasn’t going to happen tonight. For the most part, aside from a couple times where we made it hard on ourselves, we did that. … We were able to contain Maratik considerably better than we hoped we would and that was a huge plus.” Dwyer finished 16-of-21 passing for 194 yards, while Nuruddin had 128 yards rushing on 24 carries.

Friday’s loss was a disappointing end for a senior class that guided the Cardinals to a Valley Football Association South title this season and was a big part of the program’s success the past four years. That in mind, Gnewuch thought his seniors had a lot to be proud of. “They’ve played a lot of football games and they won a lot of football games,” Gnewuch said. “They should be proud of themselves. We’ll regroup, reload and unfortunately we graduate seniors every year and we’ve got to respond to that.”

Marquette…0 14 7 0 3 — 24

Fond du Lac…7 0 7 7 0 — 21

Scoring summary:

FDL— Justin Maratik, 2 run (Joe Kuber kick), 8:22.

MAR— Jack Dwyer, 8 run (Patrick English kick), 11:52.

MAR— Dwyer, 15 run (English kick), 4:22.

MAR— Alex Giampietro, 52 pass from Dwyer (English kick), 11:35.

FDL— Maratik, 1 run (Kuber kick), 7:39.

FDL— Quinn Woelfel, 30 run (Kuber kick), 10:36.

MAR— English, 20 field goal.

Team stats

MAR FDL

First downs…14 17

Total yards…337 343

Rushing…34-143 50-254

Passes (C-A-I)…16-22-1 7-20-2

Passing yards…194 89

Fumbles…1-1 1-1

Individual leaders

Rushing: Marquette— Fateh Nuruddin, 24-128. Fond du Lac— Quinn Woelfel, 19-117; Justin Maratik, 23-83.

Passing: Marquette— Jack Dwyer, 16-21-0-194. Fond du Lac— Quinn Woelfel, 7-20-2-89.

Receiving: Marquette— Michael Duffy, 5-36; Michael Mackey, 4-44; Alex Giampietro, 1-52. Fond du Lac— Ryan Collien, 3-55.

Fond du Lac and Marquette ready to clash

A contrast in styles will be on display Friday night at Fruth Field. On one hand, the Fond du Lac football team brings in a smash-mouth offense and hard-hitting defense that works to control the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. On the other, Milwaukee Marquette University could be considered a finesse squad that looks to beat teams with speed, good play-calling and a penchant for throwing the ball. One style isn’t necessarily better than the other, but one team’s execution on Friday will be. That’s what makes the WIAA Division 1 Level 3 playoff game between the top-seeded Cardinals and third-seeded Hilltoppers so intriguing.

Whichever team can impose its will more effectively will stay alive. “It’s a different brand of football, it really is,” Fond du Lac coach Mike Gnewuch said. “It’s a little bit different down in southeastern Wisconsin from what we play here in the northern part of the state. We’re more smash-mouth. “We have seen some teams that do some similar things as Marquette with things here and there, but as far as just one team that reminds me of Marquette, we haven’t seen any this year. But we think we’ve got a good game plan on both sides of the ball, and our kids will be ready to play.”

Marquette (8-3), the third-place finisher in the Greater Metro Conference, enters Friday’s game coming off two blowout victories to start the playoffs — 39-8 over Milwaukee Morse-Marshall/Juneau/Lang/Carmen NW and 49-6 over Milwaukee King. The Hilltoppers average 31.5 points per game offensively, doing so with a pretty even balance of run and pass. But Marquette has shown an ability to burn teams through the air if it needs to. Quarterback Jack Dwyer has passed for 2,317 yards and 20 touchdowns, with wide receiver Michael Duffy hauling in 43 receptions for 506 yards and three scores. Meanwhile, four other players have at least 20 catches, and the running back duo of Fateh Nuruddin and Jerard Swan has over 1,100 yards and 17 touchdowns. With an array of weapons like that, the Hilltoppers pose a threat to any team — even one allowing just 12.5 points per game.

“Based on what we do, we’re going to give them some things, and if they start taking advantage of it, we’re going to have to adjust a little bit,” Gnewuch said. “We’re a four-down (lineman) team, and if they’re having great success throwing the ball, maybe that means we go to our nickel package and go to a three-down defense.”

Cardinals defensive back Ryan Collien knows if Marquette does start slinging the ball around on Friday, it will be up to him and his teammates in the secondary to step up. “That’s on us in the secondary,” Collien said. “We’ve faced some pretty good teams all year, so hopefully we’ll be ready on Friday. … We’ve got to respect everyone equally. They’re a bunch of good players, and it should be a fun time.”

On the other side of the ball, Marquette has had a few issues. Although the Hilltoppers only allow about 16 points per game, in their three regular-season losses they gave up a total of 121 points to Loyola Academy (Ill.), Brookfield Central and Brookfield East.

Fond du Lac (10-1) is averaging almost 39 points per game on offense and has a rushing attack that’s surely one of the best in the state. Running back Justin Maratik leads the Cardinals with 1,648 yards and 23 touchdowns on the ground, while quarterback Quinn Woelfel also has 893 yards and 14 TDs to go with 951 yards passing.

The Cardinals will continue to do what they’ve done all season long — control the line of scimmage, pound the ball play after play and make their opponent stop them. “We’re going to be assignment-sound, control the ball, no turnovers and just play our game,” Woelfel said.

Added Gnewuch: “We always try to establish the line of scrimmage. It seems like when they’ve had their problems, it’s been teams that have gone right at them. Brookfield Central scored 52 points on them and basically ran three or four plays between power, sweep and counter. Brookfield East, who runs probably the most similar offense of its opponents as what we do, was able to score 34 points on them, too. If anything, it seems like they’ve struggled with teams that go right at them.”

Friday’s game will mark the second straight year Fond du Lac has played in a Level 3 playoff game after an eight-year absence prior to that. With many of this year’s players on the team for last year’s state quarterfinal loss to Kimberly, Gnewuch thinks his Cardinals are ready for this stage and will be able to treat it like any other game. “It’s just another game. It really is,” he said. “I think that’s the mentality that our coaches and players are taking. It’s just another game. We get another opportunity to play at home. We get another opportunity to try and reach perfection, which has been the goal from day one.”

Quinn Woelfel, Fond du Lac pummel Neenah 42 – 14

When the Fond du Lac football team played Neenah back on Sept. 11, neither coach Mike Gnewuch nor his offensive line were satisfied with their play. Even though the Cardinals won 21-0, it wasn’t the dominant kind of performance they were used to. This time around, over a month later, Gnewuch wanted to make a statement in the trenches.

Statement made.

Quarterback Quinn Woelfel rushed for 224 yards on 14 carries with four touchdowns and the Cardinals ran for 469 yards as a team as top-seeded Fond du Lac dominated on both sides of the ball en route to a 42-14 beatdown of No. 4 seed Neenah in a WIAA Division 1 Level 2 playoff game Friday night at Fruth Field. “I challenged (the offensive line) every single day in preparation against Neenah because that was the poorest performance we had this year and we still beat them 21-0 the first time we played them,” Gnewuch said. “Those kids knew they were challenged and warriors respond when challenged.”

Fond du Lac advances to Level 3 of the Division 1 playoffs, where it will face No. 3 seed Milwaukee Marquette University. Marquette crushed No. 2 seed Milwaukee King 49-6 on Friday.

It didn’t take long for Fond du Lac (10-1) to set the tone on Friday. The Cardinals drove 61 yards on six plays on their first possession, capping it off with a short Justin Maratik touchdown run, to grab a 7-0 lead less than three minutes into the gameThen, later in the first, Woelfel scored his first touchdown on a 38-yard scamper and just like that, Fond du Lac led 14-0.

Woelfel scored his second TD on a 29-yard run early in the second quarter to make it a three-score game, but Neenah (6-5) wouldn’t go down that easily. On the ensuing kickoff following Woelfel’s touchdown, Jose Alba-Zielinski returned it 85 yards for a score and then caught a 56-yard TD pass from Joe Jung minutes later. What was once a 21-0 game was suddenly 21-14. But the Cardinals answered the bell.

Starting at its own 27-yard line, Fond du Lac drove 73 yards on 13 plays and capped it off with Woelfel’s third TD, from five yards out, to push the lead to 28-14 at halftime. The Cardinals were aided by a crucial Neenah mistake on that drive, when the Rockets committed a roughing-the-passer penalty, wiping out a third-down stop. “It didn’t go our way, we got a penalty and they just drove down the field and answered our call,” Neenah coach Steve Jung said. “Credit them. They were tough. They took the bull by the horns and took it to us. Fondy was ready to play.”

Just after halftime, following a Neenah three-and-out, Woelfel scored his fourth, and most memorable touchdown — essentially sealing the game. Backed up on Fond du Lac’s 13-yard line, Woelfel kept the ball, ran through a gaping hole up the middle and sprinted past the Neenah defense 87 yards untouched. That score put the Cardinals up by three touchdowns once again and the Rockets never threatened after that. “It was just great blocking by the offensive line, making a big hole for me,” Woelfel said. “I was untouched. It was great.”

Keon Jefferson found the end zone on a short run later in the third quarter to finish off the game’s scoring. As a team, Fond du Lac gained 507 total yards and averaged nearly nine yards per carry. In addition to Woelfel’s 224 yards on the ground, he also threw for 38 on 4-of-11 passing. Justin Maratik added 157 yards rushing on 21 carries.

Defensively, Fond du Lac held Neenah to a paltry 117 total yards, including only 38 rushing on 25 attempts. Joe Jung threw for 79 yards, but 56 came on one play. “Our guys just want to get to the football and they play with pride,” Gnewuch said. “I don’t know if it was one guy that stood out on the defensive side tonight. It was 11 hats to the ball and I’m just proud of their efforts.”

Marquette, with its pass-happy attack, should provide another challenge for the Cardinals when it comes into Fruth Field next Friday. Fond du Lac will be ready. “We’re going to have to take it like any other game,” Woelfel said. “They’re faceless opponent No. 12. We’ll have a good week of practice and get after it Friday night.”

Neenah…0 14 0 0 — 14

Fond du Lac…14 14 14 0 — 42

Scoring summary:

FDL— Justin Maratik, 1 run (Joe Kuber kick), 9:23.

FDL— Quinn Woelfel, 38 run (Kuber kick), 3:14.

FDL— Woelfel, 29 run (Kuber kick), 8:17.

NEE— Jose Alba-Zielinski, 85 kickoff return (Alex Schrampfer kick), 8:00.

NEE— Alba-Zielinski, 56 pass from Joe Jung (Schrampfer kick), 5:30.

FDL— Woelfel, 5 run (Kuber kick), 0:31.

FDL— Woelfel, 87 run (Kuber kick), 10:09.

FDL— Keon Jefferson, 1 run (Kuber kick), 4:38.

Team stats

NEE FDL

First downs…4 16

Total yards…117 507

Rushing…25-38 54-469

Passes (C-A-I)…8-20-0 4-11-0

Passing yards…79 38

Fumbles…1-0 0-0

Individual leaders

Rushing: Neenah— Austin Belot, 13-43. Fond du Lac— Quinn Woelfel, 14-224; Justin Maratik, 21-157.

Passing: Neenah— Joe Jung, 8-20-0-79. Fond du Lac— Quinn Woelfel, 4-11-0-38.

Receiving: Neenah— Jose Alba-Zielinski, 1-56. Fond du Lac— Joe Kuber, 1-24.

Fondy runs over Vincent/Destiny

Fond du Lac simply did what No. 1 seeds are supposed to do in WIAA Level 1 playoff games. The Cardinals demolished their opponent.

Justin Maratik ran for 205 yards and four first-half touchdowns and Fond du Lac rolled past Milwaukee Vincent/Destiny, 62-0, at a rain-soaked Fruth Field on Friday night. “It was a great team win,” Cardinals head coach Mike Gnewuch said. “We played a ton of kids tonight which was a real good thing to see.”

With the win, Fond du Lac (9-1) will face a familiar foe next week in a Level 2 playoff game as fellow VFA South member Neenah will be the Cardinals’ next opponent. The fourth-seeded Rockets beat Milwaukee Riverside, 35-0, on Friday. Fond du Lac will be looking for the same kind of start against the Rockets – who it beat 21-0 in the regular season – that it had on Friday night as the Cardinals bolted to the early lead and then erupted for 29-point second quarter.

The impetus for the strong start was a result of last week’s loss to Marshfield. Gnewuch said the team was sluggish in practice in the days leading up to the game, so he wanted to make sure his squad was ready to go in its playoff opener. “The emphasis all week was to play with energy and so that’s what we did in practice,” Gnewuch said. “It was real important to get ahead early and establish ourselves because they have a lot of athletes and that can be dangerous.”

Maratik led the charge at the outset scoring on runs of 25 and 38 yards in the first quarter and then opening the second quarter with another touchdown run.

Quinn Woelfel completed just 1-of-3 pass attempts in the game, but the completion went for a touchdown to Reggie Hernandez midway through the second quarter before the Cardinals scored twice in less than 10 seconds with just more than a minute to play in the half.

Maratik picked up his fourth touchdown on a 13-yard run and then Vincent/Destiny fumbled the ensuing kickoff and the Cardinals recovered at the 2-yard line. On the next play, Levi Burns powered in for the touchdown and Fond du Lac went into halftime leading 42-0.

Levi Burns added another touchdown in the second half and Jack Cole scored twice for the final margin. Burns added 91 yards rushing on 11 carries as Fond du Lac averaged a whopping 8.2 yards per rushing attempt.

Vincent/Destiny…0 0 0 0 — 0

Fond du Lac…13 29 6 14 – 62

Scoring summary:

FON: Justin Maratik, 25 run (Joe Kuber kick).

FON: Maratik, 38 run (kick failed).

FON: Maratik, 21 run (Kuber kick).

FON: Reggie Hernandez, 3 pass from Quinn Woelfel (Kuber kick).

FON: Maratik, 13 run (Woelfel pass to Devon Krzanowski).

FON: Levi Burns, 2 run (Kuber kick).

FON: Jack Cole, 14 run (conversion failed).

FON: Burns, 3 run (conversion failed).

FON: Cole, 13 run (Zach Schmit run).

Individual leaders:

Rushing: FON – Justin Maratik 18-205, Levin Burns 11-91.

Passing: FON – Quinn Woelfel 1-3-0-3.

Receiving: FON – Reggie Hernandez 1-3.

Loss doesn’t knock Fondy from top seed

There may have been some trepidation about where Fond du Lac would fall in the WIAA playoff field in the minutes and first few hours following last week’s gut-wrenching loss at Marshfield. Although the Cardinals had already wrapped up the VFA South title, the loss kept the program from finishing off a perfect regular season and possibly a top seed in a Division 1 playoff bracket.

The latter, though, was not the case.

The Cardinals, who have won at least one playoff game in 13 of its 15 WIAA playoff appearances, did earn the No. 1 seed and will host Milwaukee Vincent/Destiny in a Level 1 playoff game Friday night at Fruth Field. “We’re looking at the silver lining and the silver lining is that we’re in the playoffs,” Mike Gnewuch said. “We like our bracket and now it’s time to get back on track.”

Destiny/Vincent comes in with a 4-5 record overall, but won its final two games of the regular season by a combined 102-6 margin. “They have a heck of a lot of speed in their backfield and when they get the ball to the edge, they can move. Those kids can scoot,” Gnewuch said, “On defense, they bring a whole lot of pressure.”

Yet, at this time of the year, Gnewuch isn’t as concerned about what the opponent brings to the table – obviously the team will be prepared for what Vincent/Destiny does – but rather the way the Cardinals perform. “We don’t care who we are playing. We are just focusing on what we have to do, where we need to improve and where we have to execute better,” Gnewuch said. “It doesn’t really matter who shows up on Friday (to play us), we are just going to try to be better than we were the previous week.”

Fond du Lac earns top seed for playoffs

Mike Gnewuch said it best — survive and advance. It’s that time of year once again. The WIAA football postseason has officially begun and for the Fond du Lac football team’s head coach, that simple mantra is what it’s all about. “We’re just taking it one game at a time,” Gnewuch said. “We’re hoping to improve. Survive and advance.”

Fond du Lac (8-1), the Valley Football Association South champion, earned a No. 1 seed for the 2015 playoffs and hosts an opening-round game on Friday night against No. 8 seed Milwaukee Vincent/Destiny (4-5), which plays in the Milwaukee City-Blackbourn league. After falling to Marshfield 22-21 in their regular-season finale, there was some question as to whether the Cardinals would receive a top seed, but their grouping — which includes Vincent/Destiny, Milwaukee Riverside, Neenah, Marquette, Milwaukee Morse-Marshall/Juneau/Lang/Carmen NW, Milwaukee Washington/Science/Collegiate and Milwaukee King — was favorable for that still occurring.

“When the groupings came out last night, I was hoping that we’d be the No. 1 seed based on the other teams in there,” Gnewuch said. “There was no contention. I spoke my piece. We play in a meat-grinder of a conference. We’ve been ranked third in the AP poll and fourth in the coaches poll. As a result, I thought we should be the No. 1 seed and that’s pretty much how it all shook out.”

Although Gnewuch is certainly familiar with No. 4 seed Neenah, a fellow VFA South team, the rest of Fond du Lac’s group is a bit of an unknown. No. 3 seed Marquette has been a power within the WIAA for years, but doesn’t play area teams very often and the rest of the Milwaukee schools typically have only played each other.

That in mind, if the Cardinals earn a victory against Vincent/Destiny, a Level 2 game against Neenah — which Fond du Lac defeated 21-0 earlier this year — seems like a possibility. “If we take care of business on Friday and Neenah does the same, then we’ll see Neenah in the second round,” Gnewuch. “We’ll see how Marquette and King would shake out in the second round and we could get a potential matchup with Marquette in Level 3, or King for that matter.”

 

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