Raiders run through regional before loss in final

After finishing the regular season with a .500 record, the Arcadia boys basketball team was motivated to prove its record wasn’t a true indication of how good the team is at its best.

The seventh-seeded Raiders accomplished that in the postseason, winning two games and taking down one of the top teams in its Division Three regional before falling to county rival Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau in the regional final last Saturday (see story elsewhere in sports).

Arcadia finishes its season with a 14-13 record in a season that coach Ryan Sonnentag described as the program taking a step forward.

The Raiders won a home playoff game for the first time since 2018 and reached the regional final for the first time since they won the regional in 2015.

“It’s a step in the right direction as far as our program goes, and I’m so proud of my seniors,” Sonnentag said.

“They just gave it everything they had every single day. It was an incredible group to coach because there’s such different personalities and ways that they lead, and I’m gonna miss this group.”

Arcadia 72 Ripon 39

Senior Maverick Drazkowski was hitting every shot he took to open last Tuesday’s regional quarterfinal against 10th-seeded Ripon (7-18 this season)

Drazkowski scored 13 of the Raiders’ first 17 points and was a big reason Arcadia nearly doubled up—the Raiders led 39-20 at halftime—the visitors in the first half.

“He’s a senior on his last dance, and he played like it tonight. I really liked his leadership tonight on the court, off the court and in the locker room he was really sound,” Sonnentag said of Drazkowski. “This is the kind of stuff you build programs around. To see him step his game up in a big game like this in the tournament, that trickles down to the other guys and I’m really proud of the way we played tonight.”

Drazkowski finished with 30 points for the Raiders and also had 11 rebounds. He went on to earn his 1,000th career point in Saturday’s sectional final.

Last Thursday’s regular season finale, a loss at Viroqua, saw the Raiders struggle rebounding. They used that as motivation for last week.

With a better defensive effort and an early 17-4 lead, Arcadia’s playoff opener was never in danger of ending in a negative way for the hosts.

“It was one of our goals,” Sonnentag said of getting an early lead. “You don’t want to put too much pressure on the start of a game, but last year in the tournament we did not get off to a good enough start. … Maverick was really good from the opening tip tonight, and getting off to that good start was huge for us.”

Kaiden Rotering found his offensive rhythm in the first half as well, scoring 10 of his 14 points prior to halftime.

Arcadia (field goals/attempts-free throws/attempts-rebounds-fouls-points)—Lockington 0/1-0/0-6-0-0; K. Rotering 6/8-0/0-6-1-14; J. Rotering 1/1-0/0-1-0-2; Teske 4/4-1/1-7-1-9; Scow 2/6-0/0-5-1-5; Drazkowski 8/14-12/14-11-3-30; Baier 2/6-4/6-2-5-8; Wegman 0/0-0/0-2-0-0; Blaschko 1/3-0/0-2-0-2; Smith 0/0-2/2-0-0-2.

Arcadia 71 Omro 61

The Raiders came out firing against the second-seeded Foxes (21-4, 14-0 Flyway Conference) last Friday.

Arcadia showed up ready to play on the road and built a 39-28 advantage by halftime against a team that only had three losses prior to last week.

Arcadia finished the upset in the second half against the strong shooting Foxes and were led by a 23-point night from senior Prestin Scow.

Drazkowski had 18 points of his own for Arcadia, enough to offset 22 points from Omro’s Keenan Rahn and 19 more from Ryan Schoeni.

Arcadia (field goals/attempts-free throws/attempts-rebounds-fouls-points)—Lockington 2/4-0/0-0-3-4; Rotering 5/13-1/1-7-2-12; Teske 3/6-0/0-4-2-6; Scow 6/10-9/10-4-1-23; Drazkowski 7/15-3/5-9-4-18; Baier 4/6-0/2-6-2-8; Blaschko 0/2-0/0-0-2-0.