September 18, 2017 at 10:41 a.m.
Dodgers turn first half stall into a big win
Busch said the game was a teaching lesson in a couple ways as BRF rolled to an 18-0 first half lead before the Dodgers got started.
"In the first half nobody, offense, defense, or special teams, was getting the job done," Busch said. "If we are going to be competitive and win games, we have to have all three aspects doing well. Our defense did a nice job recovering from the early scoring and was able to keep us close enough through the first half to have a chance. In the second half we were able to force turnovers by BRF, and then the offense was able to turn those into points. Overall it was a great team win and that is what we need."
Busch felt the lesson learned continued throughout the second half.
"I think the most important thing for us to take away from this game is that we have to be ready to play every night, no matter who the opponent is," Busch said. "Going into the SWC, you are not going to get a chance if you give up 18 unanswered points to start a game. We have to be mentally ready, and this game showed us what will happen if we are not. This game also showed us that if we are, like we were in the second half, we can play and compete with anyone."
The first half it was three touchdown passes, Elliot Bird to Ethan Anderson that gave BRF the 18-0 halftime lead. The duo hooked up on a pair of five yard strikes and one from the 55.
What advice did Busch and his coaching staff offer at halftime?
"The first half it just seemed like we could not get out of our own way," Busch said. "We could not get things to click as we would drop a pass, miss one block, or make a wrong read and every time we did that it would cost us. At halftime we did not make any real adjustments. I told the kids that we were lucky to be down only 18, but if we focused on ourselves and continued to grind our way through, we were the better team. The kids did a great job of
doing that. We played with more intensity on both sides of the ball, and on the offensive side we established the run much more effectively in the second half, that is a credit to our offensive line."
With the blocking in sync the Dodgers started scoring. Senior back Zack Weber found an opening, raced 39 yards for the first score and RJ Veinberg kicked the conversion.
Next was a David McGuire to Nathan James pass that got the Dodgers into the end zone. Veinberg again kicked the conversion.
Before the BRF squad knew what hit them the Dodgers had the lead on a one yard plunge by Jonny Geisking that made it 20-18.
The Dodgers then nailed down the win when Weber broke free for a 47 yard scoring jaunt which completed a 26 point third quarter.
Busch was quick to credit the play on both sides of the football for the
win.
"Everyone see the touchdowns and interceptions. and those kids deserve a lot of credit," Busch said. "But our offensive line...Jarek Hlavac, Cooper Stewart, Brayden Boley, Wiley Hilst, and Shelby Jones really set the tone in the second half for us. They were able to open some holes that we took advantage of and really changed the momentum."
"Defensively, we rotated a lot of kids through the defensive line, and everyone contributed," Busch added. "We are slowly developing some depth. We lost Tanner Bockhop this past Wednesday as he has to have hand surgery and will be out for the rest of the year. We threw sophomores Lucas Klosterman and Riley Crook in at tight end and gave them two days to get ready. They did a nice job on short notice at that position."
Weber took over on the ground and rolled over the turf for 203 yards on 15 carries and a pair of scores. Joey Recob and Geisking both picked up 31.
McGuire completed seven of 16 tries for 99 yards and a touchdown toss to James who caught two passes for 28 yards. Mike Mikrut led the receiving corps with two grabs for 48 yards.
The Dodgers open their SWC season on the road with a long trip to Prairie du Chien Friday. The Blackhawks were picked for last in the SWC in preseason polls but have won their four non-conference games over Aquinas, Darlington, Viroqua and Arcadia.
"I don't pay any attention to the coaches picks, because they really do not mean anything," Busch said. "I know that they have some good athletes on the outside and have a quarterback who is very athletic as well as having a good arm. They are always physical. We have to be ready to match that and grind our way through. I expect it to be a great high school football game and I hope we have a good crowd that makes the trip to PDC."
