Campbellsport Football Finishes Regular Season with a Win

BEN PRIESGEN

JOURNALIST

On October 18, Campbellsport football beat Omro 40-20 to finish their season on a winning note.

“We played well on Friday night, especially on defense, and we had some big plays on offense but still didn’t play a complete game,” said Head Coach Todd Wondra.

Campbellsport (6-3, 4-3) got stopped on a fourth and one at the Omro (1-8, 1-6) 39-yard line.

The Cougars’ defense rose up with a combined tackle for a loss by Amadeo Rodriguez and Blake Heltemes which forced the Foxes to punt but the Omro punt pinned Campbellsport at their own one-yard line.

Omro caused a Campbellsport fumble, which was scooped by the Foxes’ Jason LaKosh for a four-yard return for a touchdown at the 5:08 mark in the first quarter to give Omro a 6-0 lead over the Cougars.

Luke Pendowski provided a major spark on the ensuing kickoff with a 73-yard return for a touchdown to give Campbellsport a 7-6 lead with 4:55 on the first quarter clock.

“Luke responded big for us with that kickoff return for a touchdown after the miscue on offense,” said Wondra.

Campbellsport got the ball right back on Omro’s first play after the kick return when Rodriguez caused and recovered a Foxes’ fumble at the 48-yard line.

The Cougars’ Heltemes took the handoff and burst down the left sideline for a 48-yard rushing touchdown at the 4:43 mark in the first quarter to make the score 14-6 in favor of Campbellsport.

Campbellsport’s defense forced a three and out to give the ball right back to their offense at the Omro 48-yard line.

Heltemes produced another big play when he went down the right sideline by sprinting away from the Omro defense for a 28-yard rushing touchdown to extend the Cougars’ lead to 21-6 with 1:27 remaining on the clock.

The two defenses traded stops during the next three offensive possessions in the game before Campbellsport got another explosive play from their running game with Pendowski scoring a 30yard rushing touchdown with 4:06 left in the first half to push the Cougars’ lead to 28-6.

Trent Schladweiler had a leaping interception to stop the next Omro drive to give the ball to his offense at the Omro 41-yard line.

Campbellsport’s offense drove to the Foxes’ eight-yard line before a Cougar fumble ended another opportunity for them to add points before halftime.

Omro got a 29-yard passing touchdown from Lucas Kasuboski to Mason Huth on their first drive of the second half to make the score 28-12 in favor of the Cougars with 8:31 on the third quarter clock.

The two teams traded punts to each other before Campbellsport took possession of the ball at the Omro 45-yard line. On the first play, Riley Kohlmann broke multiple tackles to get through the defense then galloped the rest of the way into the end zone to push the Cougars’ lead to 34-12 with 3:09 left in the third quarter.

The Cougars’ forced another Omro fumble caused by Kohlmann to stop the Foxes’ next offensive possession to give the ball back to the hands of their offense.

“Our defense has been our strong suit all season, and we will need the defense to stay on top of their game as we head into the playoffs,” said Wondra.

Campbellsport got a passing touchdown from Braden Bothe to Pendowski for a 22-yard passing touchdown with 7:08 left in the game to extend the Cougars lead to 40-12.

The touchdown was Pendowksi’s third touchdown of the game with scores showing off his skills in the passing, rushing and return phases of the game.

“Luke is a special athlete with his speed being a big weapon, and he never comes off the field by making plays in all three phases of the game for us,” said Wondra.

The two defenses each got fourth down stops to stop the respective offenses in their tracks.

Kasuboski connected with Brock Frye on a 49yard passing touchdown for Omro to bring the score to 40-20 in favor of the Cougars.

Campbellsport’s running game, which had 313 yards on the night, was able to run out the final four-plus minutes of the game to finish off the 4020 road, conference victory.

“Our running game was able to come up with some big plays this week but I believe we missed a couple other big plays,” said Wondra.

Campbellsport received a No. 6 seed in Division 4 of the WIAA tournament and will travel to three-seed Berlin in the first round of the playoffs on October 25 at 7 p.m. during the upcoming week.