Fond du Lac hits 25-yard field goal with less than a minute to go for momentous season-opening victory.
Video: Carson Raddatz highlights Fond du Lac quarterback in action during junior campaign.
The longest winning streak in high school football is over.
Kimberly (Wis.) entered its season opener Friday night without a defeat since Nov. 2, 2012 – a span of 70 games. But the Papermakers met their match against conference rival
Fond du Lac.
The five-time defending Division 1 state champions played from behind the entire game, ultimately falling 31-28 on a 25-yard field goal as time expired.
With the game knotted, Fond du Lac worked down the field and lined up a field goal with a second on the clock. Jared Scheberl calmly drilled the game-winner to sink the streak.
The Papermakers, which returned just three defensive starters and two on offense, showed a lot of heart, but fell just short.
"It was an incredible run," eighth-year Kimberly head coach Steve
Jones told MaxPreps. "We had unbelievable players along the way and I'm
blessed with a great coaching staff. I'm proud to be a part of it, not
only how many games we won but I'm proud of how we went about our
business week in and week out. I think our kids played with class and
played the game the right way." Fond du Lac — which ironically is coached by former Kimberly coach
Steve Jorgensen, who started the program's dynasty — came into the
contest with one of the top defenses in northeastern Wisconsin.
It showed throughout the contest, but ultimately the offense came through in the final seconds.
"Our guys exploded, went nuts," Jorgensen told MaxPreps. "I know they
were happy after the field goal. I just kind of watched it go through
and said, ‘Thank God.' And went over and shook Steve's hand because I
have a lot of admiration for him. I'm not going to jump up and down in
front of him because no one needs to jump up and down in front of him.
He's done such a great job. You certainly don't want to show someone
like that up ever."
So, coach, what's it like to snap the nation's longest winning streak?
"To
be honest with you, I just don't look at things that way," said
Jorgensen, who coached Kimberly from 2004-10. "It's a good win against a
great opponent. I'm not any more excited about who had the longest win
streak in the nation, I'm really not. I know we just beat the team that
had the best players, the best coaches, the best everything at their
school. They just do it first class administratively and everything, and
you're not going to get many wins against them. We're just fortunate to
get one."
Kimberly and Fond du Lac faced off twice last season and both times the Papermakers came away with seven-point victories.
But this time, Fond du Lac got the job done.
"It hurts,
obviously," said Jones, who is now 88-5 as Kimberly's coach. "Anytime
that you work really hard and invest a lot of time and things don't go
your way it's painful. I don't think that's a bad thing. I told them,
‘We don't want to get used to losing.' But just like a win, we're going
to sit down for 24 hours and we're going to go back to work on Sunday."
Fond du Lac led 14-0 in the second quarter before Kimberly cut its deficit in half on 1-yard touchdown plunge by
Will Fischer.
Zavier Ellis scored his second touchdown of the game on a 5-yard run to put Fond du Lac up 21-7.
But Kimberly had an answer again right before half as
Cody Staerkel hit
Jack Kieffer for a 35-yard score with 45 seconds on the clock to make it a one score game.
Kimberly didn't fold and came out of the second half with a Fischer 9-yard touchdown run to tie the game at 21. But 56 seconds later, Fond du Lac answered with a 74-yard score from quarterback
Carson Raddatz.
Fischer’s third touchdown of the night came with 2:59 remaining in the fourth quarter, tying the game once again at 28.
That set up the clutch game-winning field goal by Scheberl.
"Obviously they're a really good football and proud of how our kids
battled — they're really resilient," Jones said. "Give credit to Fond du
Lac, they had the ball last and made a field goal to seal it."
The nation’s longest winning streak now belongs to
Lamar (Mo.) at 49 games.
