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Parker keeps playoff hopes alive

JANESVILLE — What would the WIAA football playoffs be without Janesville Parker?

With 12 straight appearances, the Vikings have been a fixture in the postseason.

But with a 3-3 record and five wins needed to qualify for the postseason, Parker was forced to win two of its last three Big Eight Conference games to automatically qualify.

The Vikings took a big step Friday night, thanks to a 34-14 drubbing of Madison La Follette in Parker's homecoming game at Monterey Stadium.

Joe Allen and LaVell Hewlett scored two touchdowns apiece, and Parker broke open a 7-7 halftime deadlock with 20 points in the third quarter.

Parker coach Joe Dye, who is battling a bout of laryngitis, said the Vikings didn’t do anything special in the second half.

“We don’t have a switch that we turn on and off. It’s just a matter of coming out and making plays,” Dye said of his team’s play after intermission. “We had chances to make a few plays in the first half, and we didn’t.

“I thought we were maybe a little bit more physical the second half, especially up front, but I don’t think anything special was said at half.”

With the game tied at 7-7, Parker scored 20 straight points to take control. The fun for the Vikings started with Allen scoring on a 40-yard double pass play from Cody Simonson. Allen continued the trickery for Parker when he took a reverse from Hewlett and raced 66 yards for a touchdown with just over three minutes to play in the third.

Hewlett capped off the outburst with a 2-yard run with 48 seconds left in the third as Parker opened up a 27-7 lead.

La Follette’s D.J. Fuller, who played his first game of the season last week against Middleton, finished with 126 yards rushing but got loose only once on the Vikings’ defense—a 25-yard touchdown run early in the fourth.

“We knew they wanted to get on the edge with No. 22 (Fuller), and I thought our defense did a pretty good job of containing that,” Dye said.

“And getting a couple of quick scores in the third took La Follette out of what they like to do, and that’s get the ball in his (Fuller) hands.”

Parker finished with 293 yards of offense, including an uncharacteristic 121 through the air.

With Madison Memorial up next, followed by the regular-season finale against first-place Middleton, Dye knows his team hasn’t clinched anything yet.

“We’re still about getting better as a football each and every week, and I thought we did that tonight,” Dye said.

“There’s a lot of emotion this week with homecoming and everything, and I thought our guys handled it well.”

PARKER 34, LA FOLLETTE 14

Madison La Follette 7 0 0 7—14

Janesville Parker 7 0 20 7—34

Scoring summary: P—Jasen Solles, 2 run (Joe Allen kick). L—Brooks Jackson, 19 pass from Jake Zadra (Dayton Sheppard kick). P—Allen, 40 pass from Cody Simonson (Allen kick). P—Allen, 66 run (Allen kick). P—LaVell Hewlett, 2 run (kcik failed). L—D.J. Fuller, 25 run (Sheppard kick). P—Hewlett, 46 run (Allen kick).

Statistics: First downs—La Follette 16, Parker 8. Rushes—La Follette 44-129, Parker 31-172. Yards passing—La Follette 183, Parker 121. Passes—La Follette 24-13-0, Parker 8-4-1. Fumbles—La Follette 1-0, Parker 3-2. Penalties—La Follette 8-85, Parker 7-43.