This story is sponsored by: Valley Communities Credit Union
By Paul Lecker
MarshfieldAreaSports.com
STRATFORD – Following a humbling 32-0 loss to Edgar on Oct. 8, the focus of the Stratford football team changed from winning a Marawood Conference championship to finishing the season strong and heading into the playoffs on a good note.
The Tigers did that, winning their final two games 53-21 over Chequamegon and 33-7 over Rib Lake/Prentice to sew up second place in the Marawood.
Now Stratford (7-2) moves on to the WIAA playoffs for the 19th straight season and will play at Captiol Conference North Division co-champion Poynette (7-2) in a Division 5 Level 1 game Tuesday night.
The winner moves on to a Level 2 game against the winner of the Darlington-Lancaster game on Saturday.
The Tigers are looking to erase the bad taste left from last year’s postseason, when Stratford had its streak of six straight WIAA state championships snapped with a first-round loss to Colby.
“We feel OK health-wise. We are in good shape,” Stratford coach Cal Tackes said. “We were banged up after the Edgar game and into the Chequamgon game, but we rested some guys (last week) and came out of the game very well from that stand point. We were very inconsistent and had opportunities to put more points on the board. We didn’t see them play aggressive enough.”
The three-headed rushing attack of Stratford’s Mark Marquardt (667 yards), Jamie Aschebrock (663 yards) and Austin Shelley (533 yards) have carried the offense to 339 yards rushing and 38 points a game.
Poynette also relies heavily on its rushing attack. Levi Campion leads the way with 1,033 yards rushing and 13 touchdowns. Quarterback Adam Ray added another 368 yards on the ground and only 570 yards through the air.
This will mark the final year the WIAA will have the three games in 10 days format, where the season ends on Thursday and first two rounds of the playoffs are played the following Tuesday and Saturday.
Tackes said he doesn’t see it as a problem to have to prepare so quickly for a playoff game.
“The kids get more excited and pay attention a little bit more,” Tackes said. “You have to be more confident with what each kid is going to do in certain situations. There is some quick planning, but we’ve been in the playoffs before so you get used to that.”