WEST SALEM — A glorious stretch of 1 minute, 24 seconds for the Onalaska High School football team was equally disastrous for West Salem as a new football season for both began Friday night.
Two turnovers, two touchdowns and a complete reversal of what was happening when the third quarter of their nonconference game came to a close.
West Salem was building momentum and 21 yards away from a chance to tie the score when quarterback Drew McConkey encountered heavy pressure as he looked for an open receiver on a second-and01 snap that started the fourth quarter.
As he was hit and taken to the ground, he tried to complete a pass to the right side. It appeared the ball would fall harmlessly to the ground, but a diving attempt at it by Onalaska senior Tanner Siebert turned into an interception.
An 81-yard double pass for a Hilltoppers touchdown was immediately followed by a West Salem fumble and 29-yard touchdown run that officially broke open a close game.
In 84 seconds of clock time, the Panthers had gone from trailing by 7 points to trailing by 21 in what eventually became a 35-26 victory for Onalaska.
“It’s kind of funny because Carson Campbell always asks if he can work this move or that move, and I tell him we’re only going to play one team that passes the ball,” Yashinsky said of the senior defensive end involved in the pressure that set up the interception. “Sure, work whatever move you want, but it won’t matter when we have Holmen, Medford, Reedsburg and Baraboo on the schedule because they are just gonna run the ball.
“But he did a heck of a job tonight with his pass rushing, he and Jackson Egan both. It really was a good effort.”
Siebert’s interception gave Onalaska the ball at its own 19-yaard line, and that set the stage for a double pass that started with an Ian Kowal toss to Wylder Burch and continued with Burch hitting Luke Siegel down the right sideline for what became an 81-yard touchdown.
“I’m always ready, and I was reading the field to see if I needed to tuck (the ball) and run,” Burch said of his roll to the right after catching the first pass on the play. “He had a full head of steam and was wide open, and I thought, ‘Oh, yeah, this is the play to get us going.'”
Still reeling from the sequence, West Salem yielded a sack to begin its next possession before chasing McConkey again on second down. The hit on that play not only resulted in a fumble, it briefly sent McConkey out of the game.
The first-down snap after junior Kaeson Stettler recovered the fumble was given to Adam Kuhn, and he ran through two tackles on his 29-yard run to the end zone to turn what was a 21-14 lead when the fourth quarter began into a 35-14 lead with 10:36 remaining.
“We had a rough few minutes of the game there,” West Salem coach Ryan Olson said. “We were moving it well, and then we had a couple tough drives.
“It’s not the end of the world. It’s the first game. It’s Onalaska. It’s one we want to win, but we have to pick our heads up.”
The Hilltoppers set the tone with a passing game that finished with 300 yards. Kowal completed his first 14 passes and wound up with 219 passing yards and a pair of touchdown completions.
Kowal’s 7-yard TD pass to Stettler — he also rushed for 94 yards — put Onalaska in front 15-7 with 11:23 left in the second quarter, and the Panthers never caught up.
Carson Zinnecker also had a touchdown run for the Hilltoppers, and McConkey and Rory O’Neill had scoring runs for West Salem.
McConkey also threw a touchdown pass to Josiah Wolbrink to get the Panthers within that 21-14 deficit late in the second quarter.
