Edgar, Stratford notch playoff wins

By Casey Krautkramer

The Edgar football team’s junior players scored all five touchdowns in Friday’s 360 home WIAA Division 7 Level 1 football playoff win against Pittsville.

Edgar junior tight end Lucas Stahnke hauled in two touchdown passes from junior quarterback Tucker Streit, and junior defensive back Gavin Mauer broke the game open with a 100-yard interception return for a touchdown in the second quarter. Mauer’s huge play gave Edgar a 22-0 halftime advantage.

Wildcats head coach Jerry Sinz credited his team’s stout defense for shutting out Pittsville for the second time this season. Edgar also beat Pittsville, 35-0, in a home regular-season game.

“I thought our kids played well,” he said after Friday’s opening playoff victory. “They didn’t get fooled. Pittsville threw a couple trick plays at us and we responded and covered them well by picking off three passes. Our defensive backs are very experienced. All of them are back this year except for Teegan Streit who graduated. Four of our top five guys are back this year so we are a fairly difficult team to pass against. We haven’t allowed a touchdown pass all year yet so the kids take a little pride in that.”

Tucker Streit completed nine of 14 passes for three touchdowns. His first touchdown throw was a nine-yard completion to Stanhnke at the goal line in the first quarter. Stahnke caught the football over the middle while muscling his way through the defender into the end zone. Streit threw a corner fade pass to senior receiver Letyton Schuett for the successful two-point conversion to give Edgar an 8-0 lead at the end of the first quarter.

Streit connected with Stahnke along the sideline in front of Edgar’s bench in the second quarter, and Stahnke did the majority of the work in shaking off a defender for a 45-yard touchdown. Stahnke was understandably excited after the big playoff win.

“It all comes down to that it’s the playoffs now so everyone is playing for their lives,” he said. “Everyone is working hard because there’s a greater sense of urgency. We just want to play for that next week.”

Pittsville’s offense was driving the football into Edgar territory toward the end of the second quarter when Mauer intercepted Panthers junior quarterback Logan Zickert’s pass in the end zone and he returned the football 100 yards for a touchdown. Mauer described how he executed this huge play that broke the game open.

“I knew the play and I just saw the ball and picked it off,” he said. “Our linebacker Ty Schnelle blocked two guys and I beat one of them and our defensive end Lucas Stahnke was there to block the last guy.”

Mauer is playing hard for the team’s two injured seniors, his brother Brock Mauer and Jase Apfelbeck, who hurt themselves in the team’s second game of the season against Stratford and are out for the season.

“We have two seniors hurt so we just got to step up and help out the other seniors to see how far we can go and hopefully we will get that gold ball,” Mauer said.

Edgar scored a pair of touchdowns in the third quarter on Streit’s six-yard touchdown pass to Stahnke. German foreign exchange student Jarvis Kofent kicked the extra point. Junior Maverick Butt ended the team’s scoring with a one-yard touchdown plunge and Kofent again made the extra point.

Besides Mauer, Streit and Butt also intercepted Zickert passes. Senior Will Hackel led Edgar’s defense with 11 tackles while Schnelle added 10 and senior Corey Koeppl had nine along with a quarterback sack.

No. 1 playoff seed Edgar improves its record to 9-1 this season and now plays a Level 2 home playoff game against No. 5 seed Shiocton, 4-6, at 7 p.m. this Friday, Nov. 1. Shiocton beat No. 4 seed Manitowoc Roncalli, 20-13, in the Level 1 playoff game.

Tigers win playoff opener

Stratford’s football team beat Horicon/ Hutisford, 48-14, in Friday’s home WIAA

See FOOTBALL PLAYOFFS/ page 16

STAHNKE’S A TOUCHDOWN SCORING MACHINE - Edgar junior tight end Lucas Stahnke is shown scoring his first of three touchdown receptions in Friday’s 36-0 WIAA Division 7 home Level 1 playoff win against Pittsville.

STAFF PHOTO/CASEY KRAUTKRAMER