The Aquinas High School football team has become accustomed to starting its season with a challenging nonconference schedule.
Prairie du Chien has been part of that for years now, and the Blugolds found a way to beat the Blackhawks 22-0 in Week 1.
Up next is a much different challenge with Columbus (1-0), which will be motivated after a couple of high-profile losses to Aquinas the past two seasons, on Friday.
“They are the real deal, but it’s good for us,” Aquinas coach Tom Lee said of the Cardinals, who have had their last two postseasons ended by the Blugolds but beat them during the 2024 regular season. “We are at the point where we have to play tough teams.
“(Columbus) might have the top three players on the field when we line up.”
And while Lee was happy with the way his Blugolds performed defensively against Prairie du Chien, a trio of players — offensive lineman Wyatt Graffin, receiver Jordan Mobry and quarterback Peyton Powers — are going to make that difficult to duplicate in this 7 p.m. kickoff at the Veterans Memorial Field Sports Complex.
Graffin is a 6-foot-3, 270-pounder who has committed to Central Michigan, and Mobry caught a 52-yard touchdown pass in a 29-28 loss to the Blugolds in a WIAA Division 4 state quarterfinal last season.
Powers is in his third season as the Cardinals’ starting quarterback and had 2,286 passing yards and 31 touchdowns to go with 963 rushing yards and 14 touchdowns during his first two seasons.
Columbus had 495 total yards in last week’s 51-14 win over Greenfield, and Powers passed for 165 yards and two touchdowns and rushed for 72 and another score.
“I saw him at a combine,” Lee said of Powers, “and he had some of the fastest shuttle numbers in the entire state of Wisconsin.”
None of that even accounts for senior running back Owen Cowell, who carried 15 times for 184 yards and four touchdowns against Greenfield after serving in a complementary role to 2,000-yard rusher Connor Roche last fall.
Lee was encouraged by most of what he saw when it came to his defense against Prairie du Chien. The Blugolds allowed just 64 total yards in the shutout.
The solid rotation of play on the defensive line and linebacker Marcus Klar, Lee said, led that effort.
“We were able to really throw a lot of defensive linemen out there and rotate them through,” he said. “That’s a tough position to lean on someone all game long. It’s better when you only have to do a handful of plays, and we can get fresher legs in there.”
“Marcus Klar was fantastic, and (PdC’s) quarterback couldn’t get comfortable.”
That will have to be duplicated against Columbus if the Blugolds want to be a 2-0 team heading into the Coulee Conference season next week.
Aquinas will also look for some more offensive consistency after gaining 317 yards last week.
Eight players helped the Blugolds rush for 138 yards and senior Ryan Johnson completed 14 of 16 passes for 179 yards. Senior Logan Becker has six of those catches for 78 yards.
“We had too many plays that went backwards, and we had some bad snaps at the end of the game because out center hurt his back,” Lee said. “We only had seven possessions, but we scored on three of the first five.
“We need more explosive plays. That’s what our brand is. We only had one play go more than 20 yards. We had some 15s, but we like the big ones.”
