LANCASTER 10/13 – With a convincing 44-14 victory over visiting Brodhead/Juda last Friday night, coach Jordon Rolland’s Flying Arrows finished up the nine-week regular football season with a 5-1 mark in Southwest Wisconsin Conference action, and an overall record of 8-1.

The Arrows head into their division 6 playoff bracket as the No. 3 seed, facing off against visiting Cambridge (5-4) this Friday night.

Against Brodhead/Juda last Friday evening, the Arrows wasted little time displaying their dominance, scoring touchdowns on their first two offensive possessions to take an early 16-0 lead.

Senior running back Peyton Alvarado scored his first of three touchdown on a 15-yard run with 6:50 to play in the opening quarter, and added the two-point conversion run for an early 8-0 lead.

After Lancaster’s defense forced a three-and-out, the offense followed with an 11-play scoring drive, capped off by a 19-yard yard TD pass from quarterback Nolan Wolf to Quinton Ploessl. Alvarado’s second two-point conversion run gave the Arrows a 16-0 lead with 12 seconds showing on the first-quarter clock.

The Arrows  closed out the first half with an 81-yard scoring drive, ending with a seven-yard TD pass from Wolf to Semaj Venson with just six seconds remaining in the half.

The second half saw Alvarado add two more touchdown runs of one and nine yards, while Venson hauled in his second touchdown pass from Wolf later in the fourth quarter.

Alvarado finished the night with 320 yards rushing and three touchdowns on a whopping 43 carries, while Nolan Wolf was the team’s next highest rusher with 38 yards on nine attempts.

“I think we were a little bigger up front than they were and we leaned on them a little bit,” said coach Rolland. “We went unbalanced just to run behind the big guys and kind of just wash it all down and gain yards.”

Alvarado’s 320-yard rushing night is the fourth-best single-game performance in school history, and becomes one of only five rushers from Lancaster to reach the 300-yard mark in a single game. Others to reach the mark include: Evan Gates (387 & 326), Nic Wood (349), Trevor Landon (319) and Jon Schmitz (307).

Despite the windy, rainy conditions, Wolf completed 8-of-12 passing attempts for 111 yards and three touchdowns. Venson had three catches for 24 yards and two scores, followed by Logan Wolf with two receptions for 36 yards. Taylor Williams had two receptions for 32 yards and Quinton Ploessl one receptions for a 19-yard score.

Defensively, the Arrows were led by Colby Lull and Devin Tydrich, who each had six tackles, and werefollowed by Logan Wolf, Andrew Spurgeon and Jackson VanNatta with five tackles each. 

“I thought our defense actually took a huge step up,” coach Rolland said. “Knowing that they are going to try to run, we needed to stop it and I thought they did a really nice job. Our linebackers played well, and we had a lot of kids rotating on the defensive line that played well.”

The Arrows now head into the playoffs, where they find themselves amongst familiar company in their division 6 tournament bracket.

The top seed in the bracket belongs to the Redbirds of Darlington (8-1), with the second seed going to Kenosha St. Joseph (9-0). Lancaster (8-1) is the third seed and Racine Lutheran (7-2) the fourth.

Last year, Kenosha St. Joseph was the No. 1 seed, and was knocked off by No. 2 seed Darlington, 20-7. Lancaster, who was the No. 5 seed a year ago, lost to Kenosha St. Joseph, 35-6, in the second round.

This year the Arrows will host No. 6 seed Cambridge (5-4) in Friday night’s opening round, with the winner most likely facing Kenosha St. Joseph next week.

Cambridge concluded the regular season with an overall record of 5-4, going 4-3 and finishing in a tie for fourth place in the Eastern Suburban conference.

The Blue Jays love to throw the ball, averaging 229.2 yards passing per game and 118.1 yards rushing. Quarterback Matt Buckman (#4) has completed 127-of-210 (60.5%) passing attempts for 2,038 yards and 24 touchdowns, to go along with just six interceptions.

Buckman has four weapons to throw to, led by Kelfer Parish (#2) who has 39 receptions for 620 yards and 10 TDs. The Blue Jays also have three other receivers who have combined for 1,106 yards and 12 TDs this season on 80 receptions.

Coach Rolland sees a lot of similarities to what Platteville likes to do, and will look to single out Parish for a one-on-one match up, but will throw to the other side of the field where they like to bunch up three receivers.

Defensively the Blue Jays have given up an average of 181.3 yards rushing per game this season, and should have their hands full with the potent rushing attack of the Flying Arrows.

Lancaster comes into the playoffs averaging 270.9 yards rushing per contest and 112.2 yards passing. Nolan Wolf has completed 61-of-101 (60.4%) passing attempts for 957 yards and 14 touchdowns, having thrown just two interceptions this season.

Alvarado leads the Arrow rushing attack with 1,502 yards and 21 touchdowns on 228 carries.

“We’re trending in the right direction for sure,” coach Rolland said of his squad. “Brodhead is a very good team, and as a whole, I thought that was probably our best overall game. You could argue we played our best offensive game against Platteville, but I think that’s the best that we’ve looked as a whole in all three phases.”

Coach Rolland hopes to get an extra boost this week with the return of center T.J. Nelson and defensive lineman Jack Gallagher, who have both missed multiple games with injuries.