BY MURRAY GLEFFE
CORRESPONDENT
ASHWAUBENON-The Ashwaubenon Jaguars saved their best outing of the year for week number nine (homecoming) and extended their playoff streak to 21 straight years by defeating the Sheboygan South Redwings 35-0. (Oct. 12)
On a cold mid-October night, Jaguars quarterback Cadian Vang threw for 111 yards and 3 touchdowns.
Running back Jonathan Maldonado led the ground attack with 57 yards and 2 touchdowns (one rushing and one receiving), and Luke Schroeder hauled in 2 receptions for 55 yards and one touchdown.
The Jaguars defense held the Redwings to just 63 yards of total offense while the Jaguars amassed 227 yards.
“Ashton, Jaxon, and Riley played exceptionally well on the defensive side of the ball tonight,” said Mark Jonas, Ashwaubenon football coach. “They made plays early to allow us to get out to the lead.”
Defensively, both Marcus Wagner and Cam Wheeler had two tackles for losses and 13 combined tackles.
The Jaguars didn’t even run an offensive play before they had a 7-0 lead thanks in part to the 32 yard punt return by Riley Siudzinski after the Redwings first series.
The touchdown almost didn’t occur after the Jaguars coaching staff was yelling to get out of the way of the line drive.
However, Siudzinski came out of nowhere to field the punt and took it to the house.
“I saw a hole, took the ball, and just ran down the left sidelines to the endzone,” said Siudzinski. “It was a bit of a risk but I knew I could catch the ball and make a play for the team.”
The turnover bug then reared its ugly head for both teams.
The Redwings fumbled and threw an interception on their next two possessions.
However, they were offset by two costly interceptions that Vang threw inside the Redwings five-yard line.
“He’s (Cadian) a first year starter so he’s going to make some mistakes,” Jonas said. “I wish we would have ran it a bit more, but give South’s secondary credit for stepping in front on those two passes.”
At the end of the first quarter, the Jaguars finally got their running game going and Maldonado capped off a four-play drive with a one-yard bolt up the middle to give them a 14-0 lead with just 1:03 left in the first.
Redwings quarterback Trey Klessig then threw his second interception of the night to Jaguars cornerback Jaxon Gauthier who brought the ball back and gave Ashwaubenon excellent field position.
They needed only one play to capitalize.
Vang stepped back and hit Schroeder in the flat. He shook off his defender and rumbled 52 yards to pay-dirt to give the Jaguars a 20-0 lead (missed PAT) with 11:42 left till halftime.
Three plays into their next series, the Redwings once again turned the ball over when Jaguars cornerback Ashton Steinike stepped in front of Redwings receiver Karl Mattern to garner the interception. It was Steinike’s second of the game, and fitting ending to the regular season for the senior that had to endure a position change at the beginning of the season.
“We knew they liked to throw the ball,” said Steinike. “I just made a play on the ball and did what I could to run downfield with it. It feels great to make plays on defense. I am so proud of the defense tonight to force five turnovers.”
After the turnover, Vang did it with his feet on the first two plays, and then connected with burly tight end Kyle Krueger from 12 yards out to extend the Jaguars lead to 28-0 (after 2-pt. conversion was successful) with still 8:10 left till intermission.
The Jaguars forced a Redwings punt that had them moving in the wrong direction and two plays later, the Jaguars executed a beautiful throw back, screen from Vang to Maldonado from 24 yards out to give the Jaguars a 35-0 lead heading into the break.
As with all five touchdown margins, a running clock was put in motion.
Each team ran only 14 offensive plays in the second half with neither team putting any points on the board.
The Jaguars improve to 5-4 on the year and will find out who they face in the playoffs Saturday afternoon.
“It’s satisfying for me to know that these kids get to keep playing football after week nine,” said Jonas. “To continue the streak shows just how hard these kids have worked. We have a lot of sophomores and juniors on this team….just proud of the way they finished strong these past two Friday’s.”
Box Score:
Ashwaubenon 14, 21, 0, 0 35
Sheboygan South 0, 0, 0, 0 0
