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Edgewood's late field goal stuns Big Foot

WALWORTH — Madison Edgewood High School football coach Alan Minnaert faced a huge dilemma late in the fourth quarter of his team’s WIAA Division 3 second-round battle with Walworth Big Foot.

Do you play for overtime or go for it all on the road?

With just a 1:40 remaining, the Crusaders faced a second-and-10 at their 29. That’s when Minnaert remembered the damage Chiefs running back Kenneth Walker had been doing to his tired defense and promptly took the gamble.

It certainly paid dividends.

Seven plays later, including a 36-yard double pass and a gutsy fourth-and-six conversion, Crusader kicker Jake Dragoo drilled a 27-yard field goal at the end of regulation to pull out a heart-pounding, 23-20 upset victory over Big Foot (10-1) here Friday night.

Edgewood (9-2), whose two losses this season have been to undefeated Division 2 powers Waunakee and Monona Grove, faces Mount Horeb/Barneveld in a Level 3 game next week.

“We struggled in that second half, but we pulled a few rabbits out of our hats,” Minnaert said. “But in the end, our kicker came through.

“I thought about it,” he said of running out the clock and going to overtime “But we were really reeling defensively and had no answers for what they (the Chiefs) were doing.”

The late-game heroics overshadowed Walker’s jaw-dropping 315 yards rushing and three touchdowns, including two in the second half that erased a 20-6 deficit late in the fourth quarter.

“He tried to carry us in the second half,” Big Foot coach Rodney Wedig said of Walker. “His season has been absolutely phenomenal. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen numbers like he’s put up.”

Another statistic proved to be the Chiefs’ downfall. Big Foot ended up with zero points on three possessions inside the Crusaders’ 10-yard line, including a lost fumble and interception.

“It was a tough way to lose,” Wedig said. “We outplayed them in the second half.”

But the first half was a different story. The Crusaders took advantage of Chiefs’ mistakes and opened a 20-6 halftime lead behind Jack Zwettler and Matt Schemmel touchdown grabs of 15 and 8 yards, respectively.

Spencer Brink also added a 70-yard interception return in the first half.

Walker’s 20-yard touchdown run in the first quarter kept the Chiefs in contention. The Chiefs, however, finally overcame their mistakes in the second half and drew even at 20-20 late in the fourth periood.

Big Foot had a chance to grab the lead on its next possession, but a costly holding penalty led to a punt.

That’s when Minnaert elected to go for broke on the last drive and unleashed his bag of tricks on the Chiefs.

“We were dominating the line of scrimmage late in the game, but the holding penalty set us back,” Wedig said. “I still think we’re a little better team, but they made the plays.”

EDGEWOOD 23, BIG FOOT 20

Madison Edgewood 14 6 0 3—23

Walworth Big Foot 6 0 7 7—20

Scoring summary: ME—Jack Zwettler, 15 pass from Seth White (Jake Dragoo kick). ME—Matt Schemmel, 8 pass from White (Dragoo kick). WBF—Kenneth Walker, 64 run (kick failed). ME—Spencer Brink, 70-yard interception return (kick failed). WBF—Walker, 20 run (Ian Gallagher kick). WBF—Walker 11 run (Gallagher kick). ME—FG, Dragoo, 27.

Statistics: First downs—ME 17, WBF 22. Yards rushing—ME 30-114, WBF 53-417. Yards passing –ME 168, WBF 29. Passes—ME 25-14-0, WBF 9-3-2. Fumbles—WBF 4-1. Penalties—ME 1-10, WBF 5-40.