Greendale Martin Luther 34, Burlington Catholic Central 13
By Mike Ramczyk
It’s been a long, challenging season for the youthful Catholic Central football team.
A lack of consistent offensive production surfaced again Friday night at the Topper Bowl in Burlington, as the Toppers took an early lead but were eventually overmatched in a 34-13 loss to conference foe Greendale Martin Luther.
Sitting pretty at 5-0 at this time last year, the Toppers are 1-4 overall and dropped to 1-2 in the Metro Classic Conference.
Though the conference season and playoff chances are far from over, Catholic Central must play the league’s top two teams, Kenosha St. Joe’s and Racine Lutheran, in the next two games.
For head coach Tom Aldrich, it’s been a combination of assignment breakdowns and simply submitting to better teams – but effort isn’t to blame.
“Winning is a habit, and we expect to win and perform well,” Aldrich said. “When it doesn’t happen, are we frustrated? Sure. We’re disappointed in our ability to put these kids in positions where they can win. We have to do a better job. They’re giving us their best effort.”
“We’re trying to give them our best effort. We need to do a better job of that.”
An aggressive, attacking defense backfired for the Toppers, who allowed touchdown passes of 74 and 35 yards.
Toppers senior Kyle Goethal started things for Central with a 65-yard interception return three minutes into the game.
But the 6-0 lead quickly evaporated, as Martin Luther scored 34 unanswered points before Goethal found paydirt again in the fourth quarter.
Greendale led 27-6 at the half.
Junior quarterback Chad Zirbel hit Goethal for a 70-yard score with 7:57 left in the game to make it 34-13.
Catholic Central had two turnovers, but one was particularly costly.
A second-quarter fumble turned into a 36-yard return for a score by Luther’s Darlos Garrett. Martin Luther followed that with the 74-yard touchdown pass, a hookup between quarterback Nik Mueller and receiver Jake Blazei that put things out of reach at 34-6 early in the second half.
The Toppers ran for 109 yards, led by Zirbel’s 76. But leading rusher Aaron Rueber was held to 31 yards on 14 carries.
Greendale defended the pass with great success, as Zirbel’s long TD was the only big play.
Zirbel struggled to a 2-for-15 performance overall for 82 yards, 1-for-14 for 12 yards without the touchdown.
Catholic Central held Luther to 49 yards on the ground and less than two yards per carry, but Mueller torched the Topper secondary for 235 yards.
The Toppers picked off two Mueller passes.
Aldrich said there’s still some confusion among the offense regarding what needs to be run and where players need to be on specific plays.
“We need to get more consistent with our blocking assignments,” Aldrich said. “I think the kids get confused, and we need to eliminate some of that uncertainty.”
Aldrich said the kids need to keep plugging away. The chance to forget this one comes next Friday with another Metro Classic tilt at Kenosha St. Joe’s.
“The kids kept battling and clawing tonight,” Aldrich said. “The effort’s there. Our kids played hard. Tonight, Martin Luther was a better team. We threw some punches, and they threw back. We didn’t consistently respond.”
“If our kids don’t give up, it’s not over yet.”
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