WIAA state football championship preview: Spencer/Columbus defense searches for ways to stop Amherst

This story is sponsored by Total Electric

By Paul Lecker
MarshfieldAreaSports.com

SPENCER – The Spencer/Columbus Catholic football team knows it will have its hands full with an Amherst team that is about as explosive as they come.

When the two 13-0 teams meet up in Thursday’s WIAA Division 5 state championship game at Camp Randall Stadium in Madison, it will match strength against strength as both teams have dominated on each side of the ball this season.

Amherst boasts Wisconsin Football Coaches Association State Offensive Player of the Year Garrett Groshek, a senior quarterback who has thrown for 2,226 yards and 37 touchdowns, and rushed for 1,271 yards and 14 more scores.

Running back Brandon Piotrowski leads the Falcons’ running game with 1,560 yards and 27 touchdowns, and 10 different receivers have caught at least one touchdown pass this season, led by Josh Cisweski, who has 27 catches for 763 yards (27.3 average) and 14 scores.

The numbers may be mind-boggling to the average fan, but the Rockets are more concerned with just doing what they do.

Spencer/Columbus has not allowed a point in the first quarter all season, and had outscored their opponents 405-29 in the first half of its 13 games.

“We have got to stop their running game and limit their big plays right away,” Rockets senior running back/linebacker Hunter Hildebrandt said. “It’s going to come down to tackling. We have to make plays when they are there for us.”

The Falcons have been ranked as the No. 1 team in the Wissports.net Division 5 state rankings all season, while it wasn’t even known until the playoff seedings were announced what division Spencer/Columbus would be in.

“They are definitely a very good team,” SC coach Jason Gorst said. “They’re physical, they’re fast and they are well-coached. It’s a quality program.

“I feel as if we’ve been put back in that underdog role, which is a place that we relish. We like that challenge of going out and performing at your highest level when then level is needed.”

The Rockets reached Level 3 in the Division 4 playoffs a year ago, losing in overtime to Little Chute in a game that they led 14-0 with just more than 6 minutes remaining.

That bitter loss didn’t sit well with the returning players and served to motivate them during their offseason preparation for the 2015 campaign.

“It was a huge motivator,” Gorst said. “I always tell the guys that you never want to second-guess yourself in a situation. If you end your season in defeat, you want to know that you did everything in your power to not let that happen. Whatever happened this year, they didn’t want to have any regrets. I think for a lot of guys, it really did prove as a motivator in that sense.”

The Spencer/Columbus co-op, in its 14th season, has never made it this far. Spencer’s program has only made it to state once, losing in the 1982 Division 5 title game to Osseo-Fairchild.

The Rockets didn’t even make the playoffs two years ago, finishing 3-6, before putting together the two best seasons in the SC co-op’s history.

“It starts with the senior class,” Hildebrandt said. “We’ve always been solid at all the sports we’ve played. We’ve always been hard-working and that helps. We gained some guys, younger guys, like Max Johnson, Hunter Luepke, Noah Zastrow. It really compliments the senior class.