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By Paul Lecker
MarshfieldAreaSports.com
STRATFORD – Friday’s Marawood Conference football game is as big as it gets – for this week anyway.
When 5-0 Chippewa Falls McDonell invades Tiger Stadium to take on 4-1 Stratford, two of the top-ranked teams in the state will square off to keep its hopes for a Marawood championship alive.
Stratford is 4-0 in conference play, and with a battle against bitter rival and undefeated Edgar looming next week, it will be concentrating on the task at hand – stopping a McDonell team that is averaging 233 yards a game passing.
“We can’t afford to look ahead,” Stratford coach Cal Tackes said. “We certainly have a bitter taste, losing last year against McDonell. This is a game we circled on our schedule and we were looking forward to.”
Stratford is ranked 10th in Division 5 and McDonell second in Division 7 in this week’s WisSports.net Wisconsin State Coaches Poll.
The Macks biggest threat is their passing game, led by quarterback Kyle Cody, who threw for 389 yards and six touchdowns last week against Phillips, completing 21 of 34 passes. He had three TD passes and one rushing in first quarter alone of McDonell’s 50-9 win. He leads the Marawood with 13 touchdown passes.
“McDonell is a team that steadily improving,” Tackes said. “They played some tight games early in the season and lately have been putting up a lot of points. I think they tried to run ball early in the year and it didn’t work for them. They turned to the passing game and it’s worked well.”
A week after suffering its first loss, a 21-20 overtime setback in a nonconference game to Osseo-Fairchild, Stratford came back with a dominating 48-28 win over Marathon in which it rushed for 499 yards.
Despite what Tackes called “some defensive breakdowns,” he was pleased with how Stratford bounced back from a tough home loss.
All three of Stratford starting running backs rank in the top 10 in the Marawood in rushing, led by Jamie Aschebrock, who is fifth with 413 yards. Mark Marquardt is eighth with 331 yards and Austin Shelley ranks 10th with 301 yards.
“We have a lot of weapons,” Tackes said. “For us, it’s a matter of playing a physical game and keeping the ball out of their hands.
“Coming into the year we knew we had some decent athletes in backfield and not much experience. All three of our backs have been doing great and I’ve been impressed with how many yards they get after contact.”