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Chisago Lakes 42, Columbia Heights 12

Playing on a wet, muddy field that made the game seem like trench warfare from World War I (not that I'm quite that old), the Wildcats struggled to a 7-6 halftime lead at Columbia Heights. But the Wildcats burst out of the gate after halftime, got their footing on the sloppy field and literally ran away with this one, pounding the Hylanders 42-12 Wednesday, October 21 at Columbia Heights.

The Hylanders opened the scoring with a 13 play drive started with just over four minutes left in the first quarter. On fourth and 7 from the Wildcat 8 yard line, Hylander quarterback Nick Liebelt made a quick pass up the middle to running back D'Karlos Craig, who made a nice one-handed grab and stepped into the end zone for the touchdown. The Wildcats blocked the Heights extra point attempt to keep the score at 6-0.

The teams exchanged fumbles on their next two drives, with the Wildcats taking over at the 50 after a Brandon Dawson fumble recovery. On second and 10 from midfield, quarterback Jeff Sargeant ran up the middle for 20 yards. Fullback Cody Bergquist had 3 carries for 14 yards on the drive. The Wildcats decided to go for it on fourth and goal from the two. Steven Wagner took the handoff and went off tackle right into the end zone to tie the score at 6-6. There was a high snap on the extra point attempt, but holder Jeff Sargeant did a great job catching the ball and bringing it down quickly to not throw off the rhythm of kicker Dominic Novak. Novak split the uprights, and the Wildcats led 7-6 with three minutes remaining in the first half.

The Hylanders started the first drive of the second half from their own 20. A wide open Craig hauled in a pass and headed upfield for what looked like big yardage. But a nice open field tackle by Bryan Eichten kept the gain at 13 yards. Three plays later, the Hylanders had gone nowhere and were forced to punt from their own 30. With a Hylander player right in his face, Cory Lushanko picked up the punt off the ground at his own 40 yard line. He slipped by the first tackler and ran ten yards down the left hash mark. He cut back horizontally toward the right side, slipped a couple of tackles as he headed upfield and outran the Heights punt coverage team all the way to the end zone. The exciting broken field run and extra point put the Wildcats up 14-6, and the rout was on.

On the Hylanders' next possession, Kyle Hagglund's tackle for a 5 yard loss made it third and 14 at the Hylanders' 16. After an incomplete pass, Heights was forced to punt. A bad punt gave the Wildcats the ball in excellent field position at the Hylander 33. The Wildcats moved the ball to the 10 in four plays. On first down, the Wildcat offensive line opened up a huge hole up the middle, and Lushanko ran through the hole untouched into the end zone. As the Wildcats lined up in their offset formation for the extra point, Sargeant took a quick snap and ran to the right for two points to make the score 22-6.

The Hylanders went for it on fourth and 2 from the 35 on their next drive, but Dawson and Bergquist stuffed the run for no gain and the Wildcats once again had excellent field position. A pass for 22 yards from Sargeant to Dawson moved the ball to the 13. Joey Reed went 8 yards on first down, and then ran up the middle for a touchdown on the next play.

On their next drive, the Wildcats faced third and 3 from their own 31. Sargeant took the snap, ran around right end and was off to the races. He broke through an ankle tackle at the Hylander 20 and went all the way to the end zone. Heights lost a fumble at their own 20, and 3 plays later Josh Wilson ran it in from the 8 on what looked like a counter right. Novak tacked on the extra point to make the score 42-6. Kyle Duncan had a nice sack for the Wildcats late in the fourth quarter. The Hylanders scored a late touchdown on a 55 yard run to make the final score Chisago Lakes 42-12, Columbia Heights 12.

Early in the third quarter, Eichten's tackle and Lushanko's punt return shortly thereafter were the turning points in the game. And despite the lopsided score, this wasn't a big statistical game for the Wildcats as they scored on a punt return and on three drives started deep in Hylander territory. Jeff Sargeant was the leading rusher for the Wildcats, with 11 carries for 124 yards and one touchdown.

"We didn't really put it together in the first half in this one," said Wildcat head coach Bill Weiss. "And we can't blame the field conditions for that, because the field and the wind affected both teams. But it all came together for us in the second half and we were able to put up a lot of points and win by a comfortable margin. "

SECTION QUARTERFINALS

Chisago Lakes 62, St. Paul Harding 0

In the section 4AAAA quarterfinals against fifth-seeded St. Paul Harding, the fourth-seeded Wildcats scored on their first possession and never looked back. The Wildcats led 22-0 at the end of the first quarter on their way to a 62-0 shutout of Harding this past Tuesday, October 27 at Chisago Lakes. Cory Lushanko led the Wildcats with 156 yards and tree rushing touchdowns on just 5 carries as the Wildcats finished with 352 rushing yards overall. The win earned the Wildcats a date with the top-seeded Mahtomedi Zephyrs this Saturday, October 31 at Mahtomedi at 2 p.m.

Lushanko scored two touchdowns in the first quarter. On the first one, he went up the middle, cut left and ran down the sideline into the end zone for a 7-0 Wildcat lead. Later in the quarter, he ran around right end and down the right sideline for a 50 yard touchdown. Working out of the offset left formation in the extra point attempt, long snapper Tyler Keesee's 15 yard snap to Brandon Dawson was perfect and Dawson ran it in for 2. And only a couple of Harding defenders got a hand on quarterback Jeff Sargeant as he ran 21 yards up the middle and into the end zone to give the Wildcats a 22-0 lead at the end of the first quarter. Sargeant finished the game with 55 yards on 10 carries.

Harding moved the ball well to open the second quarter, and found themselves on the Wildcats' doorstep with first and goal on the 3. On third and goal from the 5, the Harding quarterback pitched right and it looked like the running back was headed into the end zone. But Steven Wagner tackled the runner at the one to set up fourth and goal. Harding, which used the shotgun on every play - yes, every single offensive play, including punts - snapped the ball and the quarterback ran right. Lushanko and another player slowed him down a little in the backfield, allowing Clay Olson and Kyle Hagglund to stuff him at the 2, turning the ball over to the Wildcats on downs.

The Wildcat offensive machine went 98 yards in 14 plays. A 55 yard run by Lushanko around right end gave the Wildcats a first down at the Harding 28. Two Joey Reed runs later, the Wildcats had a first down at the Harding 17. Then, starting with second and 7 from the 14, a strange series of plays occurred. The Wildcats were called for 4 penalties in a row - two false starts, then two holding - and found themselves facing second and 13 from the 20. Sargeant dropped back and fired his best pass of the year over the defense to Jordan Hickcox in the end zone. Hickcox stretched a little to make a nice over the shoulder catch, and the Wildcats were up 28-0.

A 30 yard hookup from Sargeant to Brandon Dawson highlighted the Wildcats' next drive. Josh Wilson scored from the 1 on his only carry of the game to give the Wildcats a 35-0 halftime lead.

Lushanko scored his third touchdown of the game on a 12 yard scamper around right end early in the third quarter. The Wildcats emptied the bench after that. Jesse Houle scored on a 4 yard run and had five carries for 45 yards in his first extended action of the season. Late in the third quarter, the Wildcats blocked a Harding punt from the Harding 10. The ball bounced into the end zone, and defensive end Bryant Nelson covered it for yet another Wildcat touchdown. Kyle Hagglund replaced Jeff Sargeant at quarterback for most of the second half and scored a touchdown during running time in the fourth quarter to make the final score Chisago Lakes 62, Harding 0.

Dominic Novak was a perfect 6 for 6 on extra points. Backup kicker Kyle Buchanan saw his first action of the season, averaging 50 yards on four kickoffs. Freshman fullback Daniel Sargeant got his first taste of varsity action due to injury issues with two of the other Wildcat fullbacks, picking up 20 yards on 6 carries.

Said Wildcat head coach Bill Weiss. "At times, we've been slow out of the gate this season, but tonight we were focused and set the tone early. We scored on our first drive, shut them down on their first possession and rolled from there. Momentum is a huge factor in football, and we had it from the beginning of the game. Harding is actually a pretty decent football team. They were 4-4 this season, and the only reason we have a home game in the playoffs with a 3-5 record is because we won the tiebreaker by beating a 5A team, St. Francis. Harding has come up here the last two years in the playoffs and given us dogfights. We just put things together and jumped on them right away tonight."

Weiss talked about this Saturday's 2:00 p.m. Section 4AAAA semifinal matchup at Mahtomedi, who beat the Wildcats n the section championship the past two seasons. He said "It's going to be a great challenge for us. We're looking forward to playing them on a short week, and our guys will be ready to bring it, force on force. If our kids play aggressive and hard like they did tonight, good things will happen."

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