---

DIVISION 7 PLAY-OFF LOOK
Iowa-Grant stunned previously unbeaten Cuba City in a SWAL wrap-up Friday and earned the #5 seed in their grouping. The Panthers will travel to Ithaca Friday to take on the Bulldogs in Division 7 action.
Ithaca is 7-2 in the Ridge and Valley conference and finished in second place at 6-1 to unbeaten Wauzeka-Steuben. Quarterbacking the Bulldogs is junior Aaron Huebsch who has passed for 729 yards. His reception leader is junior Michael Mueller who has caught passes for 173 yards.
Freshman Elija Smith, a 5-7, 155 pound speedster, has rushed for 625 and has a pass reception total of 196.
Senior Cade Rosenow who has covered 452 yards on the ground.
"Ithaca is a good team and is well coached," said Iowa-Grant coach Gary Allen. "We will need to play well. "
Friday's Win
On a rain-soaked venue that eventually turned to mud the Panthers pulled the biggest upset of the season in southwest Wisconsin, taking down Cuba City 13-7 in their SWAL finale Friay.
In doing so the Panthers shut down one of the most prolific offenses in the state, limiting the Cubans to seven total yards on the ground.
The Cubans scored their first and last touchdown of the night at the 9:03 mark of the first quarter. Andy Clendenen, who passed for 231 yards on 17 of 28 completions, found Breyden Holzmer open long enough to toss a 12 yard strike.
The Panthers answered at 2:29 in the second frame on a five yard blast by Brady Peat.
Peat, who got his number called 41 times in 48 running plays, turned in the game winner with a two yard explosion with 4:55 to play in the game.
The Panthers then stopped the Cubans on a heroic fourth down attempt and three running plays by Peat later, were able to go into victory formation.
Peat was the workhorse, gaining 158 rushing yards of the 182 the Panthers totaled for the night. They got 86 more as sophomore quarterback Ross Havlik completed six of 11. Three of the catches came courtesy of Michael Winders and went for 67 yards. Sophomore Colin Steffl had one catch for 11 yards.
Clayton Kite spelled Peat six times and picked up 19 yards via the rush.
Allen had plenty of praise for Peat's effort in helping the Panthers secure the much needed win to get into the playoffs.
"Although it wasn't Brady's biggest stat night it might have been his best performance so far," Allen said. "We were struggling to get much movement up front so Brady had to run very tough to get us yards and first downs. As the game went on our blocking improved and he took advantage of it. He always gives it everything he has and that helps everyone else."
The trenches are where football games are won and lost and that thought was not lost on the Panthers.
"Our offensive line got better as the game went on," said Allen. "Our quarterback Ross Havlik came through with some well executed passes and Michael Winders had a couple of big catches."
All that took some of the pressure off Peat and allowed the Panthers to move the ball.
Allen was happy with the way the defense took their assignments so seriously to assure the win, feeling it was a total team effort.
"We didn't have anyone who had a lot of tackles but we had many kids with some tackles," he said. "That's a good sign of everyone committing to their job. That stop was an example of good team defense. We had several kids help make that stop on fourth down."
When the chips are down, as they were with the Panthers needing the win against huge odds, the mental approach becomes a huge factor.
"All the credit goes to our leaders," Allen said. "Our practices were sharp and energetic due to our leaders setting a positive and focused tone which carried over to the game. The game plan wasn't much different than any other week but our kids' mindset was tuned in."