This story is sponsored by: American Family Insurance-Randy LeMoine Agency
By Steve Pilz
For MarshfieldAreaSports.com
AUBURNDALE – The Auburndale football team kept its undefeated record intact on Friday night at Auburndale High School, but visiting Loyal put up a pretty good fight before the Eagles finished off a 27-8 victory.
The Marawood Conference-Central Wisconsin Conference Small Division matchup counts as the conference opener for both teams.
It’s true, the Eagles, now 3-0 were undefeated and had racked up an obscene 105-0 point differential in their two previous games, but after running out to a 14-0 lead Friday, things ground to a halt.
The Greyhounds fumbled on the third play of the game and gave the Eagles a short field.
Evan Scholl started a trend, carrying three times on the seven-play drive for 14 yards, but it was quarterback Kaden Anderson hitting Blake Raab with a 15-yard scoring strike to give the Eagles an early 7-0 lead at the 8:47 mark of the first quarter.
Just under eight minutes later, Anderson found Aden Cherney for a 15-yard TD making it 14-0 after a quarter.
Then the Greyhounds defense took over, giving Auburndale just 13 plays in the second quarter while running 22 of their own. They put the clamps on Anderson, Scholl and company holding them to minus-2 yards rushing and just 10 through the air.
Loyal finally broke its scoring drought when sophomore tight end Cain Toufar hauled in a 19-yard touchdown pass from classmate Reed Stieglitz to make it 14-8 at the half.
“Coach (Chris) Lindner had them ready and they played hard,” commented Auburndale coach Jay Anderson. “They were physical. They played fast. They played confident. Everything you want out of a team, they did. That second quarter got us reeling, but I reminded our guys that we still had the lead and you’ve got to play like you have the lead regardless of the swing in momentum. We came out in the second half and took charge.”
That they did, riding the “Scholl Train.”
Scholl had 67 yards on eight carries in the first half and 117 on 13 carries in the second for 184 yards on 21 tries in total.
Scholl scored from 27 yards out near the end of the third quarter and once again from 19 yards out with just 46 seconds left in the game to finish off the scoring. Loyal played valiantly but couldn’t come up with another score.
When asked what happened to his starting quarterback, Coach Anderson answered and continued his praise for the Greyhounds.
“Kaden Anderson rolled his ankle a bit which is why Raab finished the game under center. I think Kaden will be OK. It’s nice to have Blake step in if we need him. That was a heck of a challenge. We had two easy wins early on. A ton of respect for Coach Lindner. He brought them over here ready.”
Loyal plays at home next week against Colby while the undefeated Eagles travel to Oconto Falls.
Eagles 27, Greyhounds 8
Loyal 0 8 0 0 – 8
Auburndale 14 0 6 7 – 27
First Quarter
A – Blake Raab 12 from Kaden Anderson (Aden Cherney kick), 8:27.
A – Cherney 15 from Anderson (Cherney kick), 0:38.
Second Quarter
L – Cain Toufar 19 from Reed Stieglitz (Louis Nikolai run), 0:48.
Third Quarter
A – Evan Scholl 27 run (Pass failed), 2:12.
Fourth Quarter
A – Scholl 19 run (Cherney kick), 0:46
Team Statistics
First downs: L 8; A 17.
Rushing (att.-yards): L 40-162; A 36-243.
Passing (att.-comp.-yards-int): L 4-10-17-2; A 6-15-73-1.
Total yards: L 179; A 316.
Fumbles (total-lost): L 1-1; A 0-0.
Penalties (no.-yards): L 9-61; A 4-25.
Individual Statistics
Rushing: L, Louis Nikolai 21-87, Tryn Scheel 13-45, Eli Zettler 3-33. A, Evan Scholl 21-184, Kaden Anderson 11-59.
Passing: L, Reed Stieglitz 4-10-17-2. A, Anderson 5-13-0-60, Blake Raab 1-2-1-12.
Receiving: L, Cain Toufar 2-20, Scheel 2-minus 3. A, Raab 3-32, Nathan Richardson 2-26, Cherney 1-15.
Records: Loyal 0-3, 0-1 Central Wisconsin Conference Small Division. Auburndale 3-0, 1-0 Marawood Conference.