Edgar elevates its game

‘Cats easily beat archrival Tigers to gain first win

By Casey Krautkramer

Edgar senior Karter Butt on Friday scored the first five of his team’s six touchdowns in a dominating 40-6 road win against archrival Stratford. The Wildcats were so busy scoring on every offensive possession that Karter Butt never needed to punt the football to the Tigers.

The Wildcats were clearly hungrier than the Tigers to win Friday’s game. Edgar lost its season opener, 8-6, to a solid Ellsworth squad at home while Stratford easily defeated Mosinee, 3314, on the road.

Stratford was awarded the number one ranking in the first wissports.net Division 6 coaches poll last week after its big victory against Mosinee, which is a favorite to win the Great Northern Conference this season. Edgar, meanwhile, was ranked fourth in Division 7 going into its game against Stratford.

Edgar head coach Jerry Sinz, who celebrated his 73rd birthday this week, said his players thought they had a pretty good team going into this season until the loss to Ellsworth.

“They set some pretty lofty goals this season because they thought they were a pretty good team but then after last week’s loss, they were wondering what happened,” he said. “Although we knew Ellsworth was a good Division 4 team that went to state a few years ago and got beat by the state champion in Level 4 last year, it graduated a bunch of guys. We had a lot of experience returning this season but we didn’t play that way against Ellsworth like we did against Stratford, which is now probably wondering how good of a team it has, after ev- erything went wrong for them against us like everything went wrong for us against Ellsworth.”

Edgar spoiled Stratford’s first home game on its new grass football field. The Tigers played all of their home games in Marshfield last season to give the new grass roots enough time to grow. Last year’s Tigers squad was known as the “Road Warriors” because it played every game away from Stratford, including its 32-14 win against Mondovi in the WIAA Division 6 state championship.

Edgar beat Stratford on Friday for the second straight season after also defeating the Tigers, 14-0, at home last year.

“It’s a great feeling to beat Stratford,” Karter Butt said after Friday’s road victory against the Tigers. “We don’t need to see the state rankings to know that we defeated a very good team. We looked tired against Ellsworth last week so we focused on having good body language this week against Stratford. We kept our heads up and none of us had their hands on their knees or hips. It was pretty big just having all 11 players on the football field showing they weren’t tired, and a team that shows positive body language like that is tough to beat.”

Karter Butt said besides the state championship game, Edgar’s other biggest game of the season is always against arch-rival Stratford in the second week.

“Ever since the conference realignment occurred, our game against Stratford hasn’t meant as much now that it’s non-conference but we still try to fire up our guys for it because it’s still Stratford and we know every person on its team,” he said. “Our conference game against Colby is also a big one but each summer we definitely look forward to our game against Stratford.”

Wildcats lead the series

Edgar’s varsity football team increases its regular-season series lead to 30-26 against Stratford since they began playing each other in 1965. Edgar also leads Stratford, 6-2, in the playoffs series. Stratford did beat Edgar, 7-3, in the 2008 WIAA Division 6 state championship. Edgar now leads Stratford, 36-28, in regular season and playoff games combined.

Friday’s 40-6 Edgar win against Stratford was the most lopsided final score between the two schools since Edgar defeated Stratford, 41-6, in 2011 and 41-8 in 2012.

Wildcats score first Friday

Edgar and Stratford battled to a scoreless opening quarter one Friday at Tigers Stadium. Then the fireworks started. Karter Butt punched the football into the end zone from three yards out with just under 11 minutes left in the second quarter, but his twopoint conversion run failed. Stratford answered Edgar’s score with junior quarterback Jack Tubbs’ two-yard plunge. Stratford sophomore Mason Miller’s extra point kick went through the uprights, but it didn’t count when the Tigers were penalized for an illegal substitution. The kick retry failed and the score was tied at six points for each team.

Karter Butt leaned the football over the goal line for a one-yard rushing touchdown with just over six minutes remaining in the second quarter. His two-point conversion run was good as Edgar took a 14-6 lead against Stratford. Butt scored his third rushing touchdown in the second quarter on a three-yard plunge with just over one minute left before halftime. Stratford junior defensive back Jett Schoenherr intercepted Edgar quarterback Teegan Streit’s two-point conversion pass in the end zone. Edgar’s student fans still chanted, “Why so quiet?” to the Stratford fans.

Butt scored his fourth rushing touchdown in the second quarter on a two-yard plunge with only 29 seconds remaining until halftime. Butt attempted to run for the two-point conversion but Stratford’s defense had him covered, so he pitched the football to Teegan Streit who was tackled. Edgar still led Stratford, 26-6, at the break.

Karter Butt wasn’t finished scoring touchdowns yet. He ran for a 21-yard touchdown with just over two minutes left in the third quarter. Edgar senior running back Kohlbe Weisenberger’s two-point conversion run failed. Weisenberger was able to get on the scoreboard with a 36-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter to seal the victory. Butt ran for the successful two-point conversion.

Coach Sinz believes his Edgar football squad is in a pretty good place heading into its road game at 7 p.m. this Friday, Sept. 1, against Stevens Point Pacelli at Goerke Field in Stevens Point.

“We found out who are our best football players in our games against two really good non-conference teams to start this season,” he said. “We still need to figure out who our top reserves are so we can rest our starters more, because we can’t just ride Karter Butt all the time.”

Stratford will look to get back on track at 7 p.m. this Friday, Sept. 1, in its road conference opener at Amherst, who are always tough to beat. Stratford lost to Amherst in the final regular- season game last season in Marshfi eld, but the WIAA ruled the Falcons had an ineligible player and needed to forfeit its wins, which meant Stratford and Wittenberg-Birnamwood shared the Central Wisconsin-Large Conference championship in 2022.

LEAP FROGGING HIS TEAMMATE- Edgar senior running back Kohlbe Weisenberger (8) on Friday jumps over senior offensive tackle Marcus Huehnerfuss (55) while running with the football in the first quarter of the Wildcats’ 40-6 road win against the Stratford Tigers.STAFF PHOTO/CASEY KRAUTKRAMER