LA CROSSE — The performance was worth celebrating, so Logan High School junior followed up a cartwheel with a successful back flip as he approached his teammates in the end zone at Swanson Field on Friday night.
Senior Sam King followed Check with the same goal but couldn’t stick the landing.
“I had a little confidence because I could do it when I was younger,” King said with a smile. “I haven’t tried it in a while, but we won and I had to go for it.
“It didn’t look too good.”
But the Rangers did look good in a 37-0 nonconference victory over Wausau East, and Check and King played solid parts in the performance.
Logan (2-0) posted its second consecutive shutout and surprised the Lumberjacks with an 80-yard touchdown pass from Check to junior Charlie Zellner on its first snap of the game.
If a run-heavy team can do that, the opponent might get flustered and that may have happened to East, which also lost running back Cash Ryan Seefeldt to an injury on its first snap. Seefeldt rushed for 110 yards in a win over Shawano last week, and his quick exit seemed to rattle the team’s offensive approach.
The Rangers took full advantage and cranked up the pressure. Wausau East had just 83 total yards in the first half and finished with 167 as the second half played with a running clock.
“That’s tough when you lose your starting running back like that,” Logan coach Casey Knoble said. “He’s a tough kid and runs really hard.”
Logan senior Jameson Degenhardt also ran hard and finished with a game-high 120-yard rushing performance that included two touchdowns and was highlighted by a 34-yard scoring run in the second quarter.
Degenhardt averaged 12 yards per attempt and scored the Rangers’ final two touchdowns.
Check rushed for 79 yards and completed 5 of 7 passes for 148 yards and two touchdowns — the 80-yarder to Zellner and a 51-yarder to senior Bubba Leaver. King also scored on a 1-yard run in the second quarter.
This shutout follows a 35-0 win over Ellsworth in Week 1. Wausau East was able to cross the 50-yard line four times but only had one real chance to score. That opportunity ended with a missed field goal on the opening drive of the game.
Check connected with Zellner on the very next play to put the Rangers in charge for good.
“Our talk at the beginning of the season was that our D-Line was going to be really good,” Knoble said. “What we’re seeing is that our linebackers are going, and our back end is solid.
“We know we are setting our defense off of how good our D-Line can be, and I’m really happy about how they are playing right now and the growth of our kids who are brand new starters this year.”
King said he likes the way the defense is taking care of the little things. The Rangers also scored a safety when a bad snap put the quarterback in a tough spot, and he was pushed out of the back of the end zone by junior Mason Welch.
Read more about this game Saturday at couleesports.com.
