Aquinas the last Coulee or Dairyland team in playoffs
The first year of full Coulee Conference play has proven to be a success for the La Crosse Aquinas football team as they are the last team in either the Coulee or Dairyland conference still playing.
Aquinas extended its season with a 47-8 win over Stanley-Boyd last week. S-B was the fifth seed and had upset (4) Arcadia 35-18 in Level One of the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association Division Five playoffs.
The Blugolds will host Saint Croix Falls at University of Wisconsin-La Crosse on Friday. SCF defeated (2) Stratford 19-14 last week and has a 7-4 record on the season.
The WIAA moved Aquinas to the Coulee Conference as part of the 2020 statewide realignment plan. There had been talk for years that the school could no longer compete in the Mississippi Valley Conference due to a lack of players. A full Coulee slate wasn’t played in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but in 2021 Aquinas was joined by the rest of the teams, fielding a roster that lists 20 more varsity player than Arcadia had in its entire high school program. The Blugolds went undefeated in regular season play and enter Level Three of the playoffs with an 11-0 record.
The only other team from either the Dairyland or Coulee to advance past Level One was Pepin/Alma. The Eagles season ended on Friday with a 27-21 loss to Spring Valley. P/A qualified for Level Two with a 47-14 win over Elmwood/Plum City.
The Dairyland had five teams qualify for the playoffs, four lost in the first round.
The biggest upset came when (7) Gransburg beat (2) Augusta, the undefeated conference champions, 14-12. Melrose-Mindoro also lost a home game, falling to Mondovi 40-7. As covered in last week’s Times, Cuba City beat Whitehall, 42-8 and Eau Claire Regis defeated Blair-Taylor, 43-14. Cuba City and Regis are both still alive in their playoff brackets.
Outside of Aquinas, the Coulee Conference’s playoff performances were similar. In addition to Arcadia’s loss to S-B, Stratford beat Westby 34-6 and Osceola beat Altoona 36-6 in Level One. Arcadia and Aquinas — the top two teams in the conference — were the only teams to play at home in Level One.
The volleyball teams in both conference had similar struggles. Neither conference had a single team make it through its regional.
The top two Coulee Conference teams, West Salem and Westby, both lost in the regional final round with West Salem losing to Reedsburg 3-1 and Westby getting swept by Fall Creek.
The Dairyland Conference teams were closer, but both Eau Claire Immanuel Lutheran and Alma/Pepin lost in the regional final round, 3-2. ECI fell to state-qualifier McDonnell Central and A/P lost to a Bangor team that was later defeated by state-qualifier Wonewoc-Center.
