By CHRIS RANDAZZO
of The Gazette
On the scoreboard Brad Heegs's 93-yard touchdown pass to Jake Owens was worth only six points, but in game terms it was worth far more than that. "Something like that can put a spark on and move momentum to your side," said Pacelli coach Bob Raczek.
The pass came midway through the second quarter with the Cardinals down, 9-0, to fellow unbeaten Weyauwega-Fremont, with the team unable to move the ball against a tough defense.
However, the long touchdown seemed to energize the Cardinals' and was instrumental in the team's 32-22 victory. The victory allowed Pacelli to hold on to a share of the Central Wisconsin Conference large school lead with Wittenberg-Birnamwood, which is also 3-0 in conference play.
Pacelli scored on its next possession, when Heeg hit Jim Milkowski with a 28-yard touchdown strike. The traditionally run-oriented Cardinals also scored through the air in the third quarter on a short pass from Heeg to Nate Domaszek.
"I think for the first time we've got a good balance between the run and the pass game. We've got a quarterback with a year of varsity experience under his belt already and a great group of receivers that's as good of a group that we've had since I've been here," Cardinals' offensive coordinator Nick Brilowski said.
The Cardinals didn't give up on the run though, as Ahren Cashin bulled his way 106 yards on 23 carries. Cashin scored on a 41-yard run in the second quarter as well as on an 87-yard kickoff return to seal the victory in the fourth.
Raczek credited some of the team's success running the ball to the offensive line. "I think they're getting better every ball game," he said.
Cashin's scoring run was setup by an onside kick by the Cardinals' after the Milkowski score. "We've worked on it (the onside kick) for years, though we've never tried it much," Raczek said. "It seemed like a good opportunity to try it because there was only about 30 seconds left in the half and we were playing some good defense. It was a perfect kick."
Alex Riordan kicked it and Ahren Cashin added another big play by recovering the onside attempt.
Despite the fact that it gave up 198 rushing yards, the Cardinals' defense had a solid night. Most of those yards came early in the game before the Cardinal's made some adjustments. "We knew what they were going to do against us and we started to stunt a little bit and were penetrating too far. Raczek said. "We stopped stunting as much and let our defenders adjust to the ball."
Raczek singled out linebacker Joe Usher as having a great day. Raczek said Usher had 16 solo tackles on the night.
Pacelli faces another tough opponent when it travels to Madison to play Manawa at Camp Randall stadium on Friday, Sept. 29. "They've got a good sized team, and they're two and one in the conference right now. They've got a pretty good running game so we're going to have our hands full," Raczek said.
Raczek said that playing at Camp Randall should be a good experience for his team. "The kids are looking forward to it and so is the coaching staff. It should be a fun game."