Prep Football: Fondy takes another tough loss

The Fond du Lac Cardinals have dropped two straight games as we head down the home stretch of the 2006 regular season. Last night it was Appleton West downing the Cards 30-28 at the Banta Bowl in Appleton.

Early on, Fondy's defense had trouble tackling Terror RB Chad Baeten. The Cards struggled a bit tackling early in the season but got better as the season went on. Last night, Chad Baeten, ran through a lot of Fondy tackles on his way to 201 yards and a touchdown. I think Baeten could be the best running back in the FVA, his combination of speed and power are as good as anyone I've seen this year. Also, West QB Jake Knuppel was great with the football on the play-fakes. He had the Cardinal defense and the radio announcers doing double takes looking for the football all night long.

One positive note from last night was that Fondy's offense seemed to find its Mojo a bit. Granted Appleton West wasn't the 1985 Chicago Bears, but the line did a nice job giving Anderson some time to throw which is good. Appleton North will be a tougher challenge in the regular season finale and confidence is key.

I do give Fondy some credit for not mailing it in as well. The kids battled last night. Fondy had a 13-10 lead to start the 2nd half and got the ball, a TD would have put them in position to run away from West, but a turnover and a quick TD put the Terrors in the lead..they scored again to go up 24-10. Fondy didn't fold though, they battled back to cut the lead to a field goal...West came right back to score, but Fondy had the answer as well on a Mike Shea TD run and after a two point conversion were just down 2 at 30-28. The defense held, and Fondy got the ball back in good field position. They drove down inside the 20 and were looking to punch it, but with no timeouts...Ben Anderson got sacked and the clock ran out.

Now, already I've gotten emails from fans asking why when Fondy got that deep, why didn't they just center the football and try for the field goal since they were only down by 2. We'll my response to that is, this is high school football, it's not the NFL, even a 30 yard field goal is no gimme at this level. Trying to punch it in the end zone was the right call from the Fondy coaching staff, it's just a shame that the only thing that couldn't happen did...a sack.

The loss leaves Fondy at 5-3, and when it comes to playoff pairings there's now a good chance Fondy will head on the road for the first round. If the Cardinals can beat Appleton North on Wednesday night at 6-3 there is a chance for a home game. If they fall to the Lightning on Wednesday on Wednesday, and finish 5-4 on the season, there is a good chance the Cards get sent to #1 ranked Hartford (who lost last night), or Manitowoc who has clinched at least a share of the FRVC title. A Fondy-Manty matchup would get lots of hype as Coach Kozaczuk is a Manitowoc Lincoln grad.

Just an FYI, we are now putting our high school games up on the Internet at kfiz.com. The games are not live, but I'll upload them usually by the early afternoon of the next working day. The Appleton West game is up on the site right now.

With just one week left in the regular season, News-Talk 1450 KFIZ will wrap up the regular season in style with three high school games this week. On Wednesday, Fond du Lac Springs came become playoff eligible if they can win at Kettle Moraine Lutheran. With no lights at KML, that game will kickof at 4pm on Wednesday, the at 7pm Fondy wraps up their regular season as they host Appleton North. KFIZ will have both games on the radio. Coverage begins at 3pm on Wednesday with the Backyard Grill Kickoff Show. On Thursday night, WLA closes out their regular season at Berlin. You'll also hear that one on News-Talk 1450 KFIZ. Coverage will begin Thursday night at 6:45pm. The kickoff is set for 7pm.

OK...I've got a few more sportscasts to do this morning on the News-Talk 1450 KFIZ Breakfast Club...Then it's off to The Camp to see Bucky whip up on Goldy The Gopher.

As Always, I'll see you at the games!