Raider aerial assault leads to blowout win over Viroqua

Much like the late country music star Eddie Rabbitt, the Arcadia football team loves a rainy night. Or at least a rainy half.

A wet opening half couldn’t put a damper on the Raiders’ aerial attack, and more favorable conditions in the second half allowed Arcadia (3-1, 1-1 Coulee) to pull away even further for a 38-0 shutout of Viroqua (0-4, 0-2) last Friday at Cashen Field.

Junior quarterback Carter Wegman consistently made the Blackhawk defense pay for stacking the box to combat the run, completing 12 of 21 passes for 251 yards, five touchdowns and an interception in by far his most productive performance of the season.

For comparison, Wegman had compiled just 179 total passing yards in the first three games of the year combined.

“I had a lot of touchdowns, a lot of passing yards, but I credit it to Max Blaschko. In these previous games, he’s got over 500 (rushing) yards in three games,” Wegman said. “They load the box and there’s no safety over the top, it’s easy to throw. The receivers got open, the line blocked great. I haven’t got sacked all year, so the line’s been doing great.”

Even with a steady enough rain falling throughout essentially the whole first half, Arcadia didn’t have too much trouble pushing the ball downfield through the air early on. Wegman completed a pair of lengthy touchdown passes to sophomore Deklyn Grzadzielewski in the first quarter to put the Raiders ahead 16-0.

The Arcadia offense stalled out a bit in the second quarter, though both Grzadzielewski and junior Jonah Slaby picked off Viroqua quarterback Alex Klum to help keep the Blackhawks off the board.

Once the rain stopped in the second half, the Raiders put the throttle down further. Blaschko ripped off a 38-yard run on the first play of the third quarter to help set up Wegman’s 15-yard touchdown pass to sophomore Khyle Updike. Wegman completed two more touchdown passes to Updike (another in the third, one in the fourth) to wrap up the scoring for the night.

Grzadzielewski made the most of his two catches, going for 94 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Updike reeled in six catches for 89 yards and three touchdowns while Slaby had four receptions for 68 yards.

Blaschko piled up 115 yards on 19 carries to once again lead the Arcadia rushing attack. Defensively, senior Juan Barrientos and junior Logan Breska each recorded a sack while junior Ben Lightfoot recovered a fumble. 

“We’re the kind of team that I think from day to day or night to night, Friday night to Friday night, you don’t really know who you’re going to get. We feel like we can be balanced if we need to be,” said Arcadia head coach Derek Updike. “One of the things that’s exciting is our communication on defense. We just didn’t blow any coverages tonight, and that was something that was a real point of emphasis for us.”

The Raiders get a tough challenge this Friday when they face the state-ranked West Salem Panthers (3-1, 2-0) at 7 p.m. in West Salem.

Arcadia

Rushing (att./yds) — Blaschko 19/115, Breska 8/21, Grzadzielewski 2/18, Wegman 3/11, Lightfoot 1/4, Lorenzo 3/1

Receiving (rec./yds) — Grzadzielewski 2/94, Updike 6/89, Slaby 4/68

Passing (comp./att./yds) — Wegman 12/21/251

Tackles — Breska 7, Grzadzielewski 6, Glenzinski 5.5, Lightfoot 4, Gomez 3.5, Tamke 3, Munoz 3, Luna 3, Blaschko 2.5, Slaby 2, Updike 2, Barrientos 2, Pichler 1, Fernholz 1, Rebhahn 0.5, Hund 0.5