G-E-T gets breakthrough win with thrashing of Arcadia

Throughout the 2026 season, the G-E-T football team has shown glimpses of who they want to be with constantly competitive games, even against the top teams in the Coulee Conference. Yet seven weeks into the season, they were still missing that signature win.

That finally changed in the penultimate week of the regular season, as the Red Hawks went on the road and handed their archrival a stunner of a defeat.

G-E-T (2-6, 2-4) hit the Arcadia Raiders (5-3, 3-3) like an avalanche in the final quarter and thrust themselves into playoff contention with a 40-16 upset win during Arcadia’s homecoming game last Friday at Cashen Field.

With the Red Hawks having played some strong teams tough and the Raiders still possibly smarting from a frustrating loss to Aquinas the week prior, the potential was certainly there for a competitive, entertaining latest entry in their rivalry. That’s exactly what the first half provided.

Following a turnover on downs for both teams to start the game, Arcadia’s Logan Breska forced a G-E-T fumble midway through the first quarter that Khyle Updike scooped up and ran in for the touchdown. Carter Wegman’s conversion pass to Updike made it an 8-0 lead.

On the next Red Hawk possession, quarterback Lachlan Daffinson broke free for a 30-yard touchdown scamper to cut the deficit to 8-7. The Raiders marched right down the field in response and extended the advantage to 16-7 on Wegman’s short pass to Trevor Pronschinske that the latter took for a 16-yard TD and another successful conversion pass.

Brode Eiken’s 45-yard counter run helped take G-E-T deep into Arcadia territory, which the Red Hawks capitalized on with Daffinson’s eight-yard touchdown run. After that score, G-E-T ran a successful fake extra point pass to make it 16-15 Raiders.

The Red Hawks nearly took the lead into halftime, but Bryson Herman’s 33-yard field goal attempt late in the second quarter was off the mark.

G-E-T started the second half with a bang with an onside kick recovery, though ultimately turned the ball over on downs on a fake punt pass attempt. Nevertheless, Eiken picked off Wegman on a fourth-down pass to end a potential Arcadia scoring opportunity.

The Red Hawks again navigated their way down their field and seized their first lead of the night when Daffinson connected with Chase Repaal for a 28-yard touchdown pass and a 21-16 advantage in the final minute of the third quarter.

Once they fell behind, everything seemed to go wrong for the Raiders. 

After Arcadia worked their way into Red Hawk territory, Daffinson made perhaps the biggest play of the night when he picked off Wegman and took it about 75 yards back to the house for a touchdown. G-E-T then recovered an onside kick and put together a game-sealing six-minute scoring drive, capped off by Daffinson’s two-yard touchdown run.

A short pick-six by Repaal with 1:23 to go provided the exclamation point to the sort of statement win that G-E-T football has desperately been seeking.

“We really had no shot at playoffs coming into this week,” Repaal said. “But beating this winning team, it really just gives us an extra shot and a big hope that we’re going to go to the playoffs.”

Daffinson ran for 151 yards and three touchdowns on 24 carries while also completing 9 of 10 passes for 84 yards and a touchdown. Eiken added 92 yards on the ground on eight rushes.

For the Arcadia offense, Wegman completed 11 of 22 passes for 135 yards and a touchdown but was picked off three times. Jonah Slaby made two catches for 51 yards. The Raiders were only able to put together 57 rushing yards while averaging 2.6 yards per carry.

With that win, G-E-T vaulted themselves up from No. 40 in Division 5 to No. 32 in the unofficial rankings from Madison LaFollette assistant coach Andy Lavoy, who helped develop the WIAA’s football playoff matrix. That means, the Red Hawks enter the final week of the regular season as the last team in the D5 playoff field.

Regardless of how their postseason hopes shake out, what they did last Friday was the type of culture-setting win that first-year head coach Dan Henken has been looking to get all season long.

“We’ve played some good football. I think we’re always fighting a confidence game for these kids. We know we can play good football against good teams, but it’s to make the plays when they matter and at the right time and to shake off mistakes and believe in not only themselves but the guy next to them,” Henken said. “Tonight, things came together, and I think that’s a good football team. Arcadia’s got a very classy outfit. They made a few mistakes they don’t normally make, but we took advantage of them.”

The Red Hawks look to solidify their playoff prospects when they host Viroqua (0-8, 0-6) on Friday at 7 p.m. Meanwhile, the Raiders seek to avoid a tailspin entering the playoffs when they go on the road to face Black River Falls (3-5, 3-3) on Friday.