Onalaska High School football coach Tom Yashinsky is ecstatic about the growth of senior quarterback Ian Kowal through two weeks of the season, and Holmen coach Travis Kowalski is excited about the level of physicality his team has shown in the first two games.
Friday night’s game between the Hilltoppers and Vikings at Empire Stadium with come down to several factors, but the victor will walk away with a significant victory during the first week of the MVC season.
Yashinsky and Kowalski spent some time preaching perspective on Thursday. Their focus, they both said, is on playing best at the end of the season. Wins in Weeks 9, 10 or maybe 11, for instance, are more important than victories in Weeks 2, 3 or 4.
But to get to those big games, teams have to win enough against good opponents, and this is a chance for both teams to pick up a win that will mean something for the rest of the season.
“We know this is the toughest part of our schedule coming up, but this is what you play for,” said Yashinsky, whose 2-0 team follows this game by playing state-ranked Reedsburg next week. “There is pressure, but that pressure is a privilege.”
The Hilltoppers have engaged that pressure by beating West Salem with the help of an opportunistic 90-second stretch of the fourth quarter in Week 1 and manhandling Medford in Week 2.
The Vikings (2-0) have done the same with a pair of dominant performances against Medford in Week 1 and Sauk Prairie in Week 2.
Onalaska and Holmen have given fans a reason to believe they can contend for a conference championship, and the way they have each played offensively and defensively give this rivalry game some extra bite for what will be a substantial crowd to witness it all.
For starters, a defense that Yashinsky said has played very well aside from a few plays against West Salem will be challenged significantly by an offense that has rushed for 689 yards and scored 97 points.
The Vikings have had little trouble finding the perimeter and unleashing the speed of seniors Jack Barth and Eli Kane the first two weeks.
Barth has touched the ball 14 times, and those touches have resulted in 320 rushing and receiving yards and five touchdowns. Kane has rushed for 331 yards and scored six times.
“Our offensive line has really been getting off the ball,” Kowalski said when asked to give an example of the physicality he has seen. “(Quarterback) Colin Williams has also been good at distributing the ball the way we need him to.
“Medford was insisting that we weren’t going to just be able to give the ball to Jack, and they tried to stop us from giving it to Eli, but then Williams hit a big pass to Jack and that opened up some things.”
Yashinsky said Holmen’s depth in the backfield would be a concern for any defense and said the Vikings can use far more than Barth and Kane to inflict punishment.
“Our defense didn’t have the defensive lapses (against Medford in Week 2) and is getting more consistent,” he said. “Holmen can stress you in a lot of different ways.”
Stopping anyone from getting to the edge will be a priority for the Hilltoppers, who held Medford to 143 total yards — all on the ground — last week.
Holmen’s biggest concern defensively will be Kowal, who has completed 25 of 34 passes for 327 yards and five touchdowns. Junior running back Kaeson Stettler has rushed for 179 yards, and senior Luke Siegel has seven catches for an area-best 186 yards with two touchdowns.
“They are very balanced,” Kowalski said of the Hilltoppers. “Kowal is poised and has grown a lot in terms of understanding what they do, and he’s been very accurate.
“Stettler is a really good athlete, and Tom always does just enough formation-wise to make a defensive back or linebacker sit on his heels a little longer, so we have to be ready for that.”
