By Dan Truttschel
Sports Correspondent
The defense continues to shine for the Southern Lakes Blue Devils football team.
And it comes at just the right time.
The Blue Devils broke a scoreless tie four minutes into the third quarter and never looked back in a 21-8 victory at the Shorewood Monarchs. The playoff victory improved Southern Lakes to 6-4 overall and sends them to the Ironman League semifinals this weekend at the Wauwatosa Spartans.
“Like I’ve been telling the guys all year it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish,” Blue Devils’ coach Tom Hawkins said. “It feels great to get the win. … Having a couple key people back was huge.”
The winner of the American Conference title game will face either Madison or Muskego in the Ironman Bowl Sept. 8. Those two teams will battle in the National Conference title matchup.
Southern Lakes broke the scoreless tie on an electrifying punt return that covered more than 90 yards by rookie Jaleel Johnson. The two-point conversion failed.
“He was breaking ankles,” Hawkins said. “I don’t know how he kept going. It looked like he may run out of gas at the end, but he (got to the end zone). It was definitely a highlight (of the game). He probably ran 200 yards.”
The Blue Devils added to their lead at the beginning of the fourth quarter on a 9-yard run by Auton Terry, who then converted the two-point conversion to put Southern Lakes firmly in control.
With about five minutes left, the Blue Devils tacked on an insurance score, this time on a 17-yard run around the left side by Chris Calhoun.
Shorewood finally got on the scoreboard with a little more than one minute left, but it was too little, too late.
Hawkins again was pleased with the defensive effort.
“They really came together and played well,” he said. “They shut a team down that was 6-4 and had a pretty good run themselves.”
Final team and individual statistics were unavailable by press time.
The Blue Devils’ focus now turns to the second round of the playoffs and a rematch with the Spartans. Wauwatosa edged the Blue Devils 14-12 back in June. The game will kickoff at 7 p.m. at Hart Park.
But Hawkins enters the rematch confident his team can turn the tables this time around.
“We thought we should have won (the first game),” he said. “There were a couple iffy calls (by the officials) that we found out later that should have went our way but didn’t.
“We want to show we can play head to head with these guys and show we can beat them. We match up well with them.”
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