Muskego Hitmen Football

Before the start of the game against the Monarchs, it was announced that one of the Muskego vets, Rich Beilke would be moving to Texas, and therefore retiring from the team following the game.  Rich was in his 4th season with Muskego, although, he had never played organized football prior to joining the Hitmen. Rich was not known for making big plays out on the football field.  What he lacked in ability, he more than made up for in heart, desire, and effort.  Rich never missed practice, always did what was asked of him, and was invaluable to the Hitmen organization the last few seasons.  It was only fitting that on the first play of the game, Quarterback #19 Andrew Janatis noticed Rich uncovered in the slot, and called an audible, hitting Rich for a 3-yard gain.  It was Rich first career reception, and well deserved. Unfortunately, not soon after the elation of watching Rich pull one down the Hitmen drive would stumble as Janatis would throw an interception deep in Monarch territory, ending what looked to be a promising opening drive.  This was the beginning of yet another "slow start" by the Hitmen offense, as they would fail to score in the first quarter.  The Hitmen defense was not without it's problems early in the game as well, as they let a few deep passes fall into the hands of Monarch receivers. The Monarchs began to show that they were not going to lay down for any team on their home field. The Hitmen finally got on the board in the second quarter, when Janatis found Kurt Bork in the back of the endzone for the score.  That would be all the scoring that would take place in the first half, as penalties and missed assignments kept the Hitmen offense from mounting an attack. The second half began much like the first half had ended.  Muskego needed a spark, and looked to their ground game to provide one; and provide one they did.  Led by Booker Stanley, the Hitmen offensive line and running backs took over the game to the tune of 131 yards on the ground in the second half. Not to be out done, JoJo Moore, Darrell Ellison and Carmelo Velazquez peiced 198 yards on the ground, weighing in at 7.3 yards a carry. Ellison would add the third touchdown of the game on a 4 yard run, capping off a very efficient Hitmen ground game. ['Duh] rel -n Noun, -a AttitudeDarrel often takes a good deal of flack for the pronunciation of his name which is foreign to most Muskego-ians. You can often hear Mr. Ellison letting people know, "It is spelled D-A-R-R-E-L-L, but it is pronounced DUH-RELL" Despite having several key players out for this game with injuries, the Hitmen defense bounced back from allowing a few plays early to take charge and assert themselves as a dominant force in the game.  The Monarchs finished the game with 93 yards of total offense, despite having 4 "explosive plays" that went for 137 yards total.  What that means is that, take away those 4 plays and the Hitmen defense holds the Monarch offense to -44 yards of offense!  Leading the way for the Hitmen in tackles were linebackers #15 Corey Sticker, #41 Trevor Hunt, and #50 Tony Saglin.  The Hitmen were able to keep the pressure on the Monarch quarterback all night, sacking him 6 times. Tom Alexander led the way with 2 sacks. The defense as a group forced 5 Monarch turnovers  - 4 of those in the form of interceptions. Trevor Hunt started a trend on the evening when he jumped a pass by the Monarch quarterback and returned the interception 40 yards into the endzone.  Unfortunately a personal foul penalty would nullify the touchdownFollowing suit were Jackson Clerveaux, as well as Mike Liebert  who added 2 more INTs to his already growning team record. The final turnover came from a Monarch fumbled  which was picked up by Dustin Strekow who proceeded to march his way into the endzone for the final score. The lone Monarch score would come after a Hitmen fumble following a vicious hit on Janatis that would be picked up and ran down to the 1 yard line leaving only a blade of grass between the Monarchs and 6 points.The final score would read Hitmen 27, Monarchs 6. "I was not pleased with another slow start. We also had 11 penalties which once again haulted promising offensive drives and even took points off of the scoreboard for us.  As much as I was unhappy with how we started the game, I was pleased with how we finished.  Our shorthanded Defense played extremely well, and scoring 20 unanswered points in the 4th quarter is something that this football team needed heading into a tough conference battle with the reigning IFL Champion Mustangs."-Head Coach Jason Blawat Next Saturday the Hitmen take on the aforementioned Madison Mustangs at Middleton High School in Madison. The Mustangs have an undefeated streak that dates back to last season, and have not showed any signs of slowing down this year, dominating every opponent they have faced. This will certainly be Muskego's toughest game to date. However, after two games where the Hitmen did not look sharp, they are due to put a complete game together and play well on both sides of the ball. If they can do that, it should be a good NFC battle.