By Mike Ramczyk
Sports Editor
KETTLE MORAINE – Franklin football coach Louis Brown and his staff and players treat Saturday, the day after Friday night games, as their day of rest.
A day to relax. One where members of the program focus on family and recharging their batteries.
This past Saturday must have been the most serene, peaceful day of the entire season.
The night before, the Sabers put on offensive and defensive clinics in a 35-8 rout of Mukwonago in a Division 1 state semifinal.
Senior quarterback Sean McGuire, a Western Illinois recruit, completed 12 of 17 passes for 173 yards, accounting for four total touchdowns as Franklin jumped out to a 21-0 lead in the first half and never slowed down.
Mukwonago star linebacker/running back Dominic Cizauskas, who torched Oconomowoc and Sun Prairie this postseason, was deemed virtually ineffective by Franklin’s large, experienced defensive line.
The Sabers took away the Indians’ dive play, which is the catalyst of their wishbone offense, all night long. Mukwonago totaled 168 yards on the ground one week after totaling nearly 500 against Oconomowoc. The Indians’ rush total may seem good, but when you can’t really pass consistently, it spells trouble.
Cizauskas was held to 67 yards rushing. Also, Mukwonago quarterback Aaron Nixon mustered only 80 yards passing with an interception.
Now, Franklin will play in its second-ever state championship game and first in Division 1. The Sabers (12-1) face defending state champion and Classic 8 Conference champion Arrowhead (12-1) Friday at 4 p.m. at Camp Randall Stadium in Madison.
“I’ve dreamed of this since elementary school,” said Franklin senior defensive lineman Chad Kanugh after the game. “There’s not even words to describe how I’m feeling right now.”
Twitter beef is real, folks. According to Kanugh, there was heavy back-and-forth all week leading up to the game between Indians and Sabers players on Facebook and Twitter. Kanugh said Mukwonago players were calling the Franklin defense “soft.”
The fact that the Indians did absolutely nothing offensively in the first half and most of the game negated that theory.
“That fueled the fire and got us going,” Kanugh said. “We wanted to show them who is soft. It was the best defensive line effort this entire year. We flew to the ball and took away the dive.”
McGuire had a 1-yard touchdown run to put Franklin up, 21-0, in the second quarter. A couple minutes later, a special teams play turned the tide for good.
The Indians’ long-snapper hiked the ball over Cizauskas’ head. When the Indians’ star picked the ball back up and attempted a desperation kick, it was blocked and Franklin recovered and embarked on a back-breaking drive.
A balance of runs and passes, Chad Walton capped off Franklin’s definitive series with a one-yard touchdown run, giving the Sabers an insurmountable 28-0 lead with almost four minutes left in the first half.
Walton finished the game with 133 yards on 17 carries, and Franklin racked up 411 total yards. With wide splits among its offensive linemen, and receivers spread out in all corners of the field, the Mukwonago defense never knew what was coming.
The fear of McGuire’s cannon-like arm and big-play potential allowed Walton plenty of running room.
The 6-foot-3, 200-pound gunslinger connected on a 60-yard bomb to Austin Meyer in the first quarter, and he hit Nick Plath and Meyer for his other, shorter touchdowns.
McGuire showed his throwing range with scoring tosses on a rollout, a deep post and a deep fly.
An offensive master who checked out of plays at the line of scrimmage a la Peyton Manning, McGuire can flat-out deal.
“You work for one thing,” McGuire said. “It’s in the back of your head all year, and now it’s here. We’re going to state. It’s awesome. You prepare to play like this, so in a way, you expect it.”
Brown said Mukwonago is a very good team, but it hasn’t seen a team like Franklin.
“We had to work long and hard on defending that option,” Brown said. “I don’t think they’ve seen an offense like we have with our weapons. I’m very proud of the defensive effort.”
“When you stop the option and make them throw, you take them out of what they do.”
Franklin has 28 seniors, the most in Brown’s 21-year tenure. Even in 2006’s Division 2 state title run, there wasn’t this much experience.
“We’ve never had over 20 seniors,” Brown said. “They work their tails off in the offseason, and they’re reaping the rewards right now. They do everything right in the classroom. They’re great kids. They’re very supportive of each other.”
Ever since the late 1990s, the program has turned into a football powerhouse.
“It wasn’t very good when I first got here,” Brown said. “Our youth program is outstanding, and it’s a Polish community. The Polish kids are pretty dang tough and hard-nosed. That’s good when it comes to football.”
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