Red Hawks miss out on postseason despite Viroqua win

Thanks to back-to-back lopsided wins to close out the regular season, it looked like the G-E-T football team was in good shape to just barely sneak into the postseason field. However, they wound up being the last team out in Division 5.

Coming off a 40-16 win at Arcadia the week prior, the Red Hawks (3-6, 3-4 Coulee) did all they could in the final Friday of the regular season by hammering the winless Viroqua Blackhawks (0-9, 0-7) 53-14 in Galesville.

G-E-T put together perhaps its most comprehensive performance of the fall last Friday, building up a 25-0 halftime lead and scoring 14 more points in the third quarter to bring the running clock into effect.

The Blackhawks found the end zone twice in the fourth quarter to avoid the shutout, but even then, the Red Hawks matched that with 14 points of their own over the final 12 minutes.

The G-E-T rushing attack combined for 259 yards and seven touchdowns while averaging 10.8 yards per carry. They were led by senior Brode Eiken with 83 yards and a touchdown on seven carries, senior Isaiah Carroll with 51 yards and a pair of TDs on four attempts and sophomore Lachlan Daffinson with 35 yards and two touchdowns on four rushes.

Senior Wyatt Nichols and freshman Nolan Lilla each tallied a rushing touchdown as well. Daffinson also completed 6 of 11 passes for 91 yards, including a 54-yard touchdown pass to Carroll.

Though the hope for the Red Hawks was that would be enough to narrowly earn their way into the D5 field, they were instead the No. 33 overall team in the WIAA playoff matrix. They finished behind both Wittenberg-Birnamwood and Columbus, who each went 2-7 on the year.

Despite that frustrating close call, G-E-T can still head into the offseason with some positive program momentum after outscoring their final two opponents of the season by a combined margin of 93-30.