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Jaguars make late defensive stand to topple Trojans

By Murray Gleffe

Correspondent


GREEN BAY—With a precarious 7-point lead with five minutes to go in the fourth quarter, Evan VandenElzen made a key defensive stop for the Ashwaubenon football team. Six plays later they iced the game after quarterback Cadian Vang found Luke Schroeder on a 58-yard touchdown reception to give the Jaguars a 20-7 victory, August 22, over the Green Bay Southwest Trojans at Dahlin Family Stadium.

In doing so, Brian Ryczkowski picked up his first win as the new Ashwaubenon head coach.

“It’s like drinking water out of a firehose,” said Ryczkowski. “It truly has been a whirlwind. The players, coaches and parents all gave me a fair shot and we persevered through some moments tonight.”

Vang passed for 144 yards and two touchdowns while Connor Ramage ran the ball 16 times for 137 yards and one touchdown for the victorious Jaguars.

Ashwaubenon held Southwest to 133 yards of total offense.

The game was marred by 15 penalties.

After the Trojans had to punt on their opening series, the Jaguars drove down to the 12-yard line, but Micky Kiernan missed a 29-yard field goal to keep the game scoreless.

The Jaguars, however, got the ball right back after linebacker Nathan Moynihan intercepted Southwest quarterback Alex Kowalczyk.

Two plays later Ramage bullied his way into the endzone from four yards out to give the Jaguars a 7-0 lead with 1:40 left in the opening quarter.

“He’s (Ramage) a wrestling kid and I’ve never had those types of athletes that can’t play other sports,” added Ryczkowski. “Tough kid that loves contact. You saw what he could do tonight with a 5’9, 170 lb. frame.”

A second interception by the Trojans in their own territory to open the second quarter gave Ashwaubenon great field position and they went up two touchdowns after Vang found Kyle Krueger from 15 yards out.

Despite having next to nothing in total yardage, Southwest wasn’t about to go away on this night.

On their next series, the Trojan’s Taejon Richard got loose in the open field and went 50 yards to pay-dirt to cut the Jaguars lead to 14-7 with 3:44 left till halftime.

“We found our comfort zone there right before the half with some good blocking up front,” said Patrick Wallace, Southwest head coach. “We stayed in the game much of the night despite having two turnovers and multiple miscues with penalties.”

With neither team putting points up in the third quarter, the Trojans got the ball back just past midfield with 8 minutes left in the contest.

After consecutive runs and a pass completion, Southwest found themselves in the red-zone with five minutes left in the game.

That’s when Ashwaubenon’s defense made two consecutive stops on third and fourth down to take over on offense.

“I read the quarterback’s eyes and just got up as high as I could,” said VandenElzen on the key defensive deflection. “Our defense played great tonight when it mattered most.”

The Jaguars then put the dagger into the Trojans after Vang and Schroeder connected on a bomb on third and seven from their own 42 to go back up two touchdowns with 2:55 left in the game to seal the deal.

“I’m proud of the guys for playing four quarters,” Ryczkowski said about the victory. “We have a lot to work on but we‘re 1-0 now.”

Box Score:

Ashwaubenon: 7, 7, 0, 6—20

Southwest: 0, 7, 0, 0—7

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