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Big Foot wins Division 4 state title by 29 points

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Big Foot v Kewaunee Div 4 State Championship

Photos from The Walworth Big Foot Chief's 42-13 victory over the Kewaunee Indians in the Division 4 State Championship game at Camp Randall.

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MADISON — WIAA Division 4 state championship football games sometimes provide the gritty small-school warm-up for the Division 1 main event on Friday.

But graced with the raw talent of two-way performer Michael Walker, consolidated Walworth Big Foot High School stole the show under the bright lights of Camp Randall Stadium here Thursday night.

The unbeaten Chiefs were simply awesome and certainly as impressive as the 42-13 score in their decisive victory over Kewaunee (13-1) for the Division 4 title.

Walker dominated the helpless Indians with 255 rushing yards and a Division 4 championship game record five touchdowns in leading Big Foot to 14-0 season and its first state title.

The Chiefs’ stylish victory finally ended the painful memories of last season’s disappointing 20-0 loss to Wautoma/Faith Christian in the championship game.

“We came in here fired up after that sour taste that we had since last year, and it fueled our offseason pretty much,” Walker said. “And it just feels great.”

Big Foot coach Rodney Wedig agreed with his star athlete.

“It’s absolutely sweet,” Wedig said. “I’m kind of a competitive guy, and it’s one thing to get shown up in front of the Walworth people. But when you’re here in Madison, it’s a little motivation that I used in the offseason to kind of tweak some things and improve what we did.”

One thing Wedig didn’t tweak was his power running game.

On its third possession of the game, Big Foot featured its trademark power running attack six straight plays before quarterback Steve Dowden hit Alec McGreevy on a 9-yard touchdown pass in the right corner of the end zone to put the Chiefs up 7-0.

The Indians immediately responded with a Doug Delebreau 70-yard touchdown pass to Mike Lux, tying the game at 7-7 early in the second quarter.

Unfortunately for the Indians, the quick score just meant more punishment from Walker.

The Big Foot running back capped an 11-play, 83-yard scoring drive with a 17-yard run around the left end to put his team up for good at 14-7 midway through the second quarter.

“I don’t know if he (Walker) is the most talented guy we’ve faced, but he’s right up there,” Kewaunee linebacker Alex Schleis said. “There are a lot of talented guys on the line, too, and we’ve seen some studs up front, too.”

Big Foot certainly had plenty of “studs” on both sides of the ball.

After the Chiefs’ defense stuffed the Indians on fourth-and-one at the Big Foot 48, Dowden connected with Walker on a 29-yard touchdown pass to put the Rock Valley South champions up 21-7—still in the second quarter.

Walker later added a 1-yard touchdown run to make it 28-7 at halftime.

“What an effort—five touchdowns,” Wedig said of Walker. “He (Walker) makes some of your play-calling look really good when you might miss two blocks and go the wrong way and he still can go 50 yards.”

The Indians made one final effort to stay in contention early in the second half when Craig Christman capped a nine-play, 56-yard scoring drive with a 2-yard touchdown run to cut the lead to 28-13.

But that’s as close as the Indians would get as Walker finished off the state runner-ups with two more touchdown runs of 47 and 32 yards.

BIG FOOT 42, KEWAUNEE 13

TEAM STATISTICS

Kew WBF

First downs 17 16

Rushes-yards 34-64 43-295

Yards passing 215 85

Passes 10-22-4 5-10-0

Return yards 15 44

Punts-avg. 3-30.3 4-40.8

Fumbles-lost 2-0 1-0

Penalties-yards 4-30 4-36

Time of possession 23:06 24:54

SCORING SUMMARY

Kewaunee 0 7 6 0—13

Walworth Big Foot 7 21 7 7—42

First Quarter

WBF—McGreevy, 9 pass from Dowden (Kivlin kick), 2:17.

Second Quarter

K—Lux, 70 pass from Delebreau (Lux kick), 11:48. WBF—M. Walker, 17 run (Kivlin kick), 6:28. WBF—M. Walker, 29 pass from Dowden (Kivlin kick), 2:00. WBF—M. Walker, 1 run (Kivlin kick), :10.

Third Quarter

K—Christman, 2 run (kick blocked), 6:22. WBF—M. Walker, 47 run (Kivlin kick), 4:58.

Fourth Quarter

WBF—M. Walker, 32 run (Kivlin kick), 3:46.

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING—Kewaunee: Christman 13-35, Charles 7-20, Schleis 5-11, Delebreau 8-0, Schmidt 1/-2. Big Foot: M.Walker 29-255, Sorrentino 6-21, Wedig 1-8, Gottman 1-6, Petkoff 2-4, Dixon 1-3, Dowden 2-2, Volbrecht 1-(minus 4).

PASSING—Kewaunee: Delebreau 10-21-3, 215; Ledvina 0-1-1, 0. Big Foot: Dowden 5-10-0, 85.

RECEIVING—Kewaunee: Lux 3-117, Schmidt 2-40, Ledvina 1-14, Lemmens 1-12, Charles 1-12, Schleis 1-11, Christman 1-9. Big Foot: M.Walker 2-51, McGreevy 2-30, Gottman 1-4.