By Murray Gleffe, Correspondent
The 2017-18 Jaguar football team continued their streak of making the playoffs for the past 20 years despite finishing the season with a 4-6 mark.
Sitting at 2-5 after seven games, the Jaguars knew they had to win their last two games of the season over the Golden Raiders and Redwings and get help from the WIAA Football Committee to ensure they got into the field with a sub .500 conference mark.
They took care of business and were amongst the 224 overall schools selected to participate in this year’s playoffs.
“We really felt like we were a couple of plays away from being a 6-3 football team. The first two games were tough and helped shape the season. Unfortunately, we didn’t come out on top on those, but the kids fought back to qualify for the playoffs two straight decades,” said Jonas
On the year, the Jaguars had wins over De Pere, Manitowoc Lincoln, and the aforementioned Sheboygan schools.
Jonas, “I loved what the running backs brought this year. Alex Stanko was who we thought he was, and Troy Lo really filled in for Alex when he was injured in a great way. They are both very physical runners.”
“We were very proud of our three-line dudes who went both ways all year: Anthony Boyd, Katayean Gardner, and Tanner Mellinger. They were iron men! Anthony Guarascio continued the stellar play of our QB’s throwing for over 2,000 yds.”
With their high-powered offense, and physical defense, the Jaguars were rewarded with eight all conference selections.
2017 Fox River Classic Conference Jaguar Football Honors
1st Team Offense:
QB-Gurarascio
2nd Team Offense:
OL-Nolan Reese
WR-Will Adair
RB-Stanko
2nd Team Defense:
OLB-Cam Wheeler
DB-Diego Zastrow
Honorable Mention Offense
OL-Katayean Gardner
TE-Evan Wood
Honorable Mention Defense
DL-Gardner
Punter-Guarascio
Jaguar Football Final Offensive Stats
Passing
Gurarascio 2298 Yards, 22 TD’s
Rushing
Stanko 887 Yards, 10 TD’s
Troy Lo 157 Yards, 3 TD’s
Jonathan Maldonado 106 Yards, 1 TD
Receiving
Adair 674 Yards , 7 TD’s
Parker Murphy 344 Yards , 1 TD
Wood 271 Yards, 5 TD’s
Griffin Baierl 263 Yards, 1 TD
Collin Secor 259 Yards, 2 TD’s
Stanko 184 Yards, 4 TD’s
Ben DeLaurelle 181 Yards, 1 TD
Jaguar Head Football Coach, Mark Jonas: “This year’s senior class is going to be a tough one to see graduate. The 30 young men are a super group and we will miss them.”