HOLMEN — The Reedsburg High School football team made its mind up that Holmen senior Jack Barth wasn’t going to get the best of it when Friday night’s MVC showdown began.
That continued into Saturday after weather — mainly lightning — stopped the game at halftime.
The philosophy continued as the sun beat down on Empire Stadium during Saturday’s second half.
The Beavers did a good job of controlling Holmen’s run game and used senior safety Will Mikonowicz to run with Barth in passing situations.
But when that heat forced Mikonowicz to leave the field for a couple of plays in the fourth quarter, Holmen coach Travis Kowalski knew his Vikings had to strike.
“He followed Jack everywhere,” Kowalski said. “When they subbed for him, and he went out, it was time to take a shot with Jack.”
Quarterback Colin Williams completed two passes to Barth — one a 25-yarder and the other a 12-yarder — and Barth ripped off a 21-yard run during a 65-yard scoring drive that produced a huge 22-21 victory for Holmen.
“On the long one, we sent Jack on a wheel route, and Williams underthrew it,” Kowalski said. “We wanted him to put it where Jack could go up and get it, and he made the play.”
Williams completed a 12-yard touchdown pass to Barth with 1 minute, 34 seconds remaining to get the Vikings within 21-20 before deciding to go for the two-point conversion rather than kicking an extra point to tie the game.
Barth completed a pass to AJ Alesch for those points and a victory that moved the first-place Vikings’ record to 5-0 overall and 3-0 in the MVC. Holmen is tied with Central (3-2, 3-0) for the conference lead after the RiverHawks completed a 13-12 win over Logan about 20 minutes after Holmen finished off its win.
“It was wild,” Kowalski said of the two-day contest. “I was just glad we were at home. You could see that going back and forth really wore on those guys.
“When that sun came up (Saturday), I don’t know what it would have been like if we had to play a whole game. Our guys were wiped, and they were wiped.”
The Vikings made their difference through the combination of quarterback Colin Williams and a couple of turnovers forced by their defense.
Williams threw eight passes and completed eight passes for 155 yards and two touchdowns. Holmen had more passing yards than rushing yards for the first time in recent memory, and Williams added 57 rushing yards and another touchdown.
“Williams had a heck of a game,” Kowalski said. “They took Barth away (nearly) the entire game, and he had to have a game like he did.”
Holmen and Central have a one-game lead over third-place Logan (4-1, 2-1) and are two games ahead of both Reedsburg (3-2, 1-2) and Onalaska (3-2, 1-2) with four games left.
An injury to running back Landin Purifoy prompted the Beavers to move Mikonowicz from quarterback to running back, and he carried 30 times for 235 yards and all three of his team’s touchdowns in addition to what was needed from him defensively.
His last touchdown came on a 67-yard run in the third quarter. The extra point gave Reedsburg a 21-14 lead.
The go-ahead touchdown drive was set up when sophomore Ian McClure fumbled the ball after a 22-yard run to the Holmen 35. Senior Ayden Smith pounced on it to stop the drive and give his team possession.