Cardinal senior Tanner Degenhardt tries to elude a Heights tackler. Photo by Jonelle Degenhardt.
The 2026 WIAA high school football season opened Thursday night for many Wisconsin teams, and Highland’s 8-player Ridge and Valley-8 matchup with Wisconsin Heights delivered plenty of drama. The Cardinals scored a fourthquarter touchdown and two-point conversion to rally past the Vanguards 22-20 at Tyler Field in Highland.
In the first quarter, the Cardinals drove to the Wisconsin Heights 2- yard line but turned the ball over on downs. On the next play, the Vanguards fumbled the snap in the end zone, and Highland’s Griffin Wineski recovered it for a safety, giving the Cardinals an early 2-0 lead.
Later in the opening quarter, Highland quarterback Brady Nankey faked a handoff, broke around the left side and raced untouched for a 38-yard touchdown. After the twopoint attempt failed, the Cardinals led 8-0.
Wisconsin Heights answered late in the first quarter when quarterback Lukas Lemke threw an 18-yard touchdown pass. The Vanguards’ two-point try failed, leaving Highland ahead 8-6.
With less than 10 seconds left in the second quarter, the Cardinals scored in unlikely fashion. On firstand-10 from the 15-yard line, Nankey mishandled the snap, backpedaled, picked up the ball and, under heavy pressure, found Wineski for a touchdown. The two-point conversion failed, but Highland took a 14-6 lead into halftime. It was Nankey’s only completion of the night, and it proved to be a big one.
Wisconsin Heights controlled the scoring in the third quarter, adding two touchdowns while missing both two-point conversion attempts. Lemke, who threw for 192 yards, connected with Grayson Wolf for an 11-yard touchdown, and a 14-yard touchdown run gave the Vanguards an 18-14 lead heading into the fourth quarter. A Wisconsin Heights safety early in the final period extended the lead to 20-14.
For Highland, the fourth quarter became Tanner Degenhardt’s time to carry the offense. Midway through the quarter he forced his second fumble of the night giving the Cardinals strong field position. Degenhardt finished with a game-high 166 rushing yards on 30 carries. After the recovery, he broke off a 28-yard run, picked up a crucial two-yard gain on fourth-and-1, and added a 24-yard run to set up first-and-goal inside the 5-yard line. Two plays later, Nankey scored his second rushing touchdown to tie the game at 20. He then kept the ball on the two-point conversion, running it in to give Highland a 22-20 lead with 1:25 remaining.
Wisconsin Heights’ final chance ended on its next possession, when the Vanguards fumbled on first down. Highland recovered and ran out the clock to secure its first win of the season.
“I thought we controlled the game through the first half but lost the momentum after a turnover on a kickoff return to start the second half. Our defense forced a big turnover midway through the fourth quarter. By this point of the game, our 215- pound running back Tanner Degenhardt became even more difficult to tackle. He rushed for nearly all of our yardage on a 12-play, 68-yard drive to win the game. We converted a one-yard touchdown run and twopoint conversion run with 1:23 left in the game and successfully held on for the win on Parents’ Night,” Highland Head Coach Jason Scanlan said following the game.
It was a game with two different styles but very evenly played statistically speaking. Highland had 251 total yards, 236 on the ground and 15 through the air. Wisconsin Heights totaled 252 yards with 192 through the air with 60 rushing yards. Both teams turned the ball over four times.
“Offensively, we were successful in establishing our option running game early in the game with our running back, Tanner Degenhardt, and our Quarterback, Brady Nankey. As a team, we will need to lean on both players for offense early in the season as we develop other parts of our offense. Eventually, we will need to be more balanced and provide more of an outside running attack and a passing game, but overall, as coaches, we were happy with our inside running game for the first week of the season. Tanner and Brady ran hard, and our young offensive linemen were more physical and aggressive than they were in our scrimmage, which was a sign of improvement,” Scanlan said.
Scanlan was especially pleased with how his assistant coaches had the defense ready to play. “Our defense was very well prepared for what Wisconsin Heights does offensively. Defensive Coordinator Clint Havlik and Defensive Backs Coach John Linscheid had a very good plan to limit their passing attack. Although they did accumulate quite a few yards, they did not really hit us with a lot of big plays. We made them work hard for everything they got and denied them on every twopoint conversion play, which turned out to be big in a two-point victory. The defense also came up with a number of important stops at key points of the game, and forced 4 turnovers, which is always important to winning football games. The effort defensively gave us a chance to hang around long enough to figure out a way to win the game. Individually on defense, Tanner Degenhardt was outstanding in his first game after converting from a first-team all-conference defensive end to middle linebacker with 19 tackles, including 2 tackles for loss, and 2 fumble recoveries.”
Highland will host Iowa-Scandanavia at home this Thursday with kickoff scheduled for 7:00 p.m. and Scanlan expects a good game. “They have a storied and recent history of success and have a high-powered offense, featuring a Wisconsin Badger recruit who will literally be a big match-up challenge for our defense and offense. We will do our best to prepare a plan and look forward to hosting them on Thursday night.”
