HOLMEN — Holmen High School coach Travis Kowalski knows all too well what his team has to be ready for when it lines up against visiting Reedsburg for a Homecoming game Friday night at Empire Stadium.
He has spent this week preaching exactly what opposing coaches preach when preparing their teams to play his Vikings.
“We have to be fundamentally sound,” he said when discussing defensive priorities. “We have to make sure we know where we’re going and how to get there.
“We have to keep our eyes on the right things.”
The nuances in defending any run-heavy offense — Holmen (4-0, overall, 2-0 MVC) runs a triple option and Reedsburg (3-1, 1-1) a Wing-T — comes down to those goals, and success against it comes down to executing them consistently. The last thing a defense wants to do against a team that has no real intention of passing is make a mistake that allows for a big play.
To see which team has better success at stopping or executing those big plays, kickoff is set for 6 p.m. Potential weather moved the start time up one hour.
Holmen is a pass-happy team when compared to the Beavers with 17 attempted throws. Reedsburg has thrown five passes and completed one that happened to go for a 33-yard touchdown.
One thing the Vikings have going for them is a stingy defense that has allowed 31 points. Included in that performance is a 42-0 win over a 3-1 Sauk Prairie team that averaged nearly 30 points in its three other games and a 45-0 blanking of Sparta (2-2) last week.
Holmen’s physicality and speed will have to be a factor against a team that rushed for 319 yards against Onalaska last week and averages 370 per game. An injury to senior back Landin Purifoy (82 carries, 529 yards,7 touchdowns) against the Hilltoppers could change things for Reedsburg, but there are surely other waiting in the wings.
Senior quarterback Will Mikonowicz has rushed for 405 yards and seven touchdowns. Sophomore Ian McClure (12-200, 5 TDs) and senior Gavin Budnik (24-164, 2 TDs) have also been effective after combining for 102 yards and two scores last week.
That, of course, makes quality tacking.
“Our starting defense has really only given up 13 points,” Kowalski said. “They gave up nothing against Medford (a 55-16 won that included two late Medford TDs), and two of the 15 against Onalaska were on a safety.
“I guess if you are holding opponents to that, you are getting pretty good tackling.”
Kowalski added other measurables to his defensive assessment. His team is doing a consistent job of getting of the field on third and fourth down and has done a good job of controlling field position.
That defense has been helped by an offense that has moved the ball very well after a bit of a hiccup against Onalaska in Week 3. The Vikings had zero total yards until taking possession late in the second quarter and found ways to move the ball enough for a 19-15 victory after Jack Barth threw a 72-yard scoring pass to Ryland Eickhoff with just over a minute to play.
Senior quarterback Colin Williams rushed for 54 yards and completed three passes for 61 as he continued his improvement within the offense. Williams was bumped up from backup after an injury to starting quarterback Alex Berget just before the season began.
“I don’t need Colin to do anything crazy, just run the offense,” Kowalski said. “Teams will come out and say that Jack or Eli (Kane) are not going to beat us, and Onalaska kind of did that.
“They are going to make Colin beat them. Most people don’t realize he has started four games in his life, and he played a game-and-a-half in pieces last year. He’s getting his feet underneath him.”
Barth and Kane, who scored three touchdowns each last week, have combined for 815 rushing yards and 15 rushing touchdowns this season
