Coach says Broncos took Comets too lightly
By Tim Wester
Sports Correspondent
After watching his team struggle to slow down the Delavan-Darien offense, Union Grove coach Craig McClelland said his team may have taken its opponent too lightly.
Whatever the case, the Broncos saw their three-game winning streak come to a painful end after a disappointing 51-20 home loss to Delavan-Darien in Southern Lakes Conference action Friday night.
Matt Nelson ran for one touchdown and threw for another to lead Union Grove, which is searching for answers heading into a tough matchup at Wilmot last week.
The Panthers, who improved to 2-0 in the Southern Lakes Conference after defeating Elkhorn 30-6, feature a similar set of athletes to Delavan-Darien.
“We may have underestimated Delavan-Darien a little bit,” McClelland said. “Their speed really showed here, and their quarterback was very efficient and tight end Ethan Cesarz was playing on a different level for them. We will need to figure it out right away because it only gets harder from here.”
Delavan-Darien was indeed on a different level against the Broncos.
Comets quarterback Jake Benzing fired six touchdown passes, including three to Cesarz, to lead the onslaught.
“We came in with a game plan and honestly the kids perfected it through the first three quarters or so,” Delavan-Darien coach St. Arnauld said. “We had a game last week where we had six turnovers and tonight no turnovers, and I said before the game what would the score be if we had zero turnovers tonight, and sure enough, we had zero turnovers.”
With no turnovers, St. Arnauld was able to unleash a full complement of offensive weapons, led by Benzing, who completed 12 of 20 passes for 217 yards and six touchdowns.
The senior quarterback got things rolling with two first quarter touchdown passes of 18 and 17 yards to Cesarz and Ben Ingersoll, respectively, to make it 16-0 Delavan-Darien.
After Nelson answered with a 2-yard touchdown run, Benzing responded with two more touchdown passes to Cesarz and Seth Kirsch to make it 36-6 at halftime.
Nelson finally got things rolling with a no-huddle offense in the second half that was capped by his 24-yard touchdown pass to Jack Pettit. That made it 36-12 Delavan-Darien.
But that was as close as the Broncos would get.
Benzing and the Comets responded with a Ryan Gengler 53-yard touchdown run, and then Mike Alder grabbed a 24-yard touchdown pass from Benzing to make it 51-12.
The Broncos added a fourth quarter touchdown on backup quarterback Alex Spang’s 17-yard touchdown pass to Gavin Erickson to make it 51-20. But it was too little, too late for Union Grove.
“We definitely had an eye opener tonight, especially for our seniors as we experienced our first loss of the season,” McClelland said. “Hopefully they can rally the troops this coming week and get us going. It will be a fight for us from here on out.”
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