Stillman Valley drops Wauconda

Branden Rowe is still new at Wauconda. Enough so that somebody didn’t recognize the Marian Central transfer Friday night.

That person was Rowe himself.

A week after throwing for 279 yards and rushing for 113 in a season-opening win at Woodstock, Rowe completed just 5 passes for 59 yards, was sacked three times and found himself on the bench to start the fourth quarter of Wauconda’s 38-21 home loss to defending Class 3A state runner-up Stillman Valley.

“I wouldn’t think it was the same person,” said Rowe, a senior who started attending classes at Wauconda in January. “A total disappointment on my part.”

Wauconda coach Dave Mills didn’t want to use the word “benching” in explaining his decision to replace the 6-foot-5 Rowe with 6-1 junior Austin Swenson after Stillman Valley built a 31-7 lead after three quarters.

“It’s a learning curve,” Mills said. “We said from the beginning that we got two very, very good quarterbacks. Branden happened to win the battle.”

Playing against Stillman Valley’s second unit, Swenson was 11-of-14 passing for 102 yards. He threw touchdown strikes of 14 yards to A.J. Malisheski and 9 yards to Jake Ziolkowski.

Wauconda plays Round Lake next.

“Do I go back to (Rowe)?” Mills said. “He’s going to tell me that in practice. Do I anticipate going back to him? Absolutely.”

Stillman Valley (1-1) snapped a “two-game losing streak.” The Cardinals fell to Illini West in the state championship game last fall and started this season with a loss to Aurora Christian.

“It’s amazing what one loss will do to your confidence when you’re used to winning,” said Stillman Valley coach Mike Lalor, whose team won it all in Class 3A two years ago and has won 28 of its last 30 games. “(There was) a lot of anger during the week and disappointment all matched up into one, and then (losing) the first game, you’re wondering, ‘Maybe we’re nowhere near where we thought we could be.’ So it was a very, very long week, to put it mildly.”

The Cardinals responded on their opening drive against Wauconda (1-1), marching 80 yards, with quarterback Jeff Cialkowski using a dogged effort to score from 6 yards out.

The first of 2 TD runs by fullback Jake Wold (9 carries, 108 yards) had the visitors up 13-0 after one quarter. A 44-yard burst by Wold keyed the drive. Wold busted off a 45-yard touchdown run late in the third quarter, making it 31-7.

A 28-yard TD run by reserve Britton Vernon early in the fourth extended Stillman Valley’s advantage to 38-7.

“They executed everything well,” Rowe said. “They’re just a good team. They work together. They’ve run that same (power) offense for a while now, and they execute it almost perfectly.”

Stillman Valley, which rushed for 330 yards, also got 2 touchdown runs from running back Eric Boettcher (2 and 16 yards). Boettcher’s first score came with 3 seconds left in the opening half, making it a 19-7 game.

“I thought we did some real good things,” Lalor said. “We made some pretty big mistakes here and there, too, but Wauconda has gotten a lot better since last year. I think they’re going to be a pretty solid club.”

Despite his team allowing 6 touchdowns, Mills praised his defense. Erik Fuller, Keith Blomberg, Shawn Sundquist, Erik Eischen and Jake Sherman were active all night for the Bulldogs.

“Our defensive guys did everything you could ask of them,” Mills said.

Wauconda also got a touchdown from running back Pete Merker, who scored from 3 yards out.