Greendale's Big Plays Too Much For Cedarburg

Last night was the first official night that high school football games could be played and apparently head coach Rob Stoltz couldn't wait until Friday to see just what kind of team he and the rest of the coaching staff had.  What they discovered is that they had big play power and could strike from anywhere at anytime as the Greendale Panthers overwhelmed the visiting Cedarburg Bulldogs 51-33 in an offensive slugfest.

The Panthers made things look easy in the 1st quarter as they put up 10 points on a 14-yard field goal by senior Frankie Rutkowski capping off a long drive, and a huge 44-yard touchdown pass reception by junior Cody Kmetz from junior Josh Ringelburg.

It must have taken that 1st quarter for the Cedarburg Bulldogs to warm up for in the 2nd quarter, they scored 21 unanswered points to take the lead as the Panthers now seemed to struggle on defense.  With less than 2 minutes left in the first half, Ringelburg found senior Mitchell Brees down the left sideline for a huge 60-yard touchdown pass.  Rutkowski kicked the extra point but Cedarburg would still own the lead going into the locker room at half by a score of 21-17.

The 2nd half was when things started happening for Greendale for on the first Bulldog drive, they fumbled of which Greendale recovered.  A few plays later, they would make Cedarburg pay as Ringelburg connected with senior Nate Miller for an 8-yard touchdown pass.  On the following Bulldog drive, Greendale would intercept a pass and again they made Cedarburg pay as Ringelburg found Miller again for a 6-yard TD pass.  The Bulldogs would answer going the length of the field-eventually scoring on a 6-yard TD run.  The extra point try failed so the score was now 31-27 in favor of Greendale.  On the very first play of the next Panther drive, the offense would show its explosiveness again as Ringelberg connected with Kmetz on a 66-yard TD pass making the score 38-27 at the end of the 3rd quarter.

In the fourth quarter, turnovers were starting to haunt the Bulldogs as Greendale put up another touchdown on a 6-yard TD pass from Ringelburg to Kmetz and then scored on a 6-yard TD run by Ringelburg.  Cedarburg would only find the end zone one more time on a 6-yard run to complete the scoring for the night.

It was a special night for quarterback Josh Ringelberg as he threw for 6 touchdowns and ran for another in the 51 to 33 victory.  The fact that Cedarburg out gained Greendale on total yards 395 to 322 tells you that Greendale must have been more efficient with their yards.

Greendale will host Franklin next week, as this game will showcase two of the top quarterbacks in the area.  Franklin defeated Sussex Hamilton 44-16.  This game should be very exciting and if you're smart, you will get there early for it will be a packed house.