While it’s hard to imagine, the coaches and players for the Aquinas and West Salem high school football teams will get the first real look at their identities eight weeks into the season.
The Blugolds did play — and win — games against Prairie du Chien and Columbus — back in August, and the Panthers lost a nonconference game to Onalaska in Week 1, but neither team has been seriously challenged since.
That changes Friday night when one team walks out of the Veterans Memorial Field Sports Complex at UW-La Crosse with a Coulee Conference championship. Technically, a share of the title is on the line, but West Salem (6-1, 5-0) closes out against Black River Falls (1-6, 1-4) and Aquinas (7-0, 5-0) against Viroqua (0-7, 0-5) in Week 9.
“We’ve both kind of been able to go out there and what we want when we want,” Aquinas coach Tom Lee said of the balance of the season. “This will be different.”
The Blugolds had to create their own competition last week after Westby canceled their scheduled game to due to a lack of healthy players. Lee did that with an intrasquad between teams picked by captains Ryan Johnson and Will Flottmeyer.
“At our practices, there is no hitting, and I mean none,” Lee said. “This was live, and we put them in game uniforms. We had red jerseys on Ryan and Owen Ludlow, who played quarterback for the other team, and we let them go.
“You get better at football by playing football.”
West Salem coach Ryan Olson said there are many aspects of his team — alignment, reaction, knowledge of the game plan as examples — that he can say he is understands well. But its ability to execute on the field against a good team is harder to gauge with it not being pushed since Aug. 22.
“We’ve seen flashes of some really good things, but the big thing is we haven’t been tested since Week 1,” he said. “We haven’t punted since Week 2, we haven’t had a drive of more than five plays since Week 2.
“We’re not gonna score in four plays because this is a really good team, and we’ll have to be assignment-sound and do the little things right and show we can adapt if something goes wrong.”
There is no doubt that this matchup, however it ends, will make both teams better as the WIAA postseason approaches.
Both have the ability to control a game offensively and defensively, so something will have to give.
The Blugolds average 42 points and allow a shade over 11 per game. The Panthers allow 9.9 points per game and average 37.3. Both have maintained these numbers by resting starters liberally for the past six weeks. While Aquinas didn’t get to play its game against Westby, West Salem had Arcadia concede their game after just a couple of series when lightning and storms invaded the area a few weeks ago.
“I feel like we both have strengths and both have weaknesses,” West Salem junior quarterback Drew McConkey said. “I feel like we got it down, and I feel like they got it down, and it’s gonna be fun.”
McConkey will have to be the focus for the Aquinas defense with his ability to throw and run. McConkey has passed for 757 yards and 10 touchdowns on 67 attempts and rushed for 296 yards and seven touchdowns on 28 carries.
McConkey’s 29-yard touchdown pass in the third quarter of last year’s game against the Blugolds gave the Panthers an 18-8 lead before Aquinas scored the final two touchdowns in a 20-18 victory.
“He can run the ball, he can throw the ball, and he does a great job of commanding their offense,” Lee said. “He’s special, a real good one.”
The Panthers are also without junior running back Rory O’Neill (44 carries-308 yards, 5 TDs) for the rest of the season after a knee injury against Arcadia, but junior Lucas Fry (27-294, 8) and sophomore Kaden Langrehr (15-233, 5) have both averaged more than 10 yards per carry with the expanded opportunity.
West Salem has 12 players with at least one carry and 12 players with at least one catch.
Aquinas has 16 players with at least one carry and 14 players with at least one catch.
No matter where Lee decides to put the ball, he knows he is up against a physical and fast defense led by senior lineman Landon Michlig.
Michlig has been credited with 16 tackles this season in limited snaps, but 11 of those have been behind the line of scrimmage, and two have been sacks on the quarterback. He has also forced three fumbles, recovered two, returned one for a touchdown and intercepted a pass.
“If you see a football on the ground, you can bet it’s because he got a shoulder pad on it,” Lee said. “He’s disruptive and a game-wrecker. He is a physically imposing guy who makes impact plays.”
The weight of the game is not lost on Michlig, who is excited to play against Aquinas after an injury kept him out of last year’s battle, and blowouts limiting his snaps since he was credited with two TFLs in the season-opening loss to the Hilltoppers. This is a game that was circled by everyone involved the day the schedule was released.
“Our focus has been on going 1-0 each week, but we also know in the backs of our minds that we have been practicing for this game all year,” Michlig said. “This is a big game, and they’ve beaten us the last couple of years. It’s our turn now.”
He and his defensive teammates will be tasked with making life uncomfortable for Johnson, who has completed 55 of 76 passes for 1,035 yards, 13 touchdowns and no interceptions. They will also have to contain very dangerous receivers in seniors Logan Becker (18 catches-294 yards, 4 TDs) and Waylon Hargrove (11-202, 3).
No Aquinas running back has rushed for more than junior Landon Teachout’s 172 yards, but the Blugolds average just over 100 rushing yards per game in what has remained been a pretty balanced offense.
The balance on both sides makes the potential of this game fun. The stars on both sides make it fun. What’s at stake makes it fun, too.
“It’s a rivalry game, and it’s an important game,” Olson said. “It’s for a conference championship.
“We keep playing after this week, but this is a big game.”
