Badger completes emotional climb to first WIAA state football title with win over Waunakee

MADISON - The Badger football team completed a historic underdog run with the first WIAA state football title in program history with a 34-33 win over Waunakee on Friday at Camp Randall Stadium.

A 10-yard JP Doyle rushing score with 2:19 remaining proved to be the winning score, as a two-point conversion that would have given the Warriors the lead with 40 seconds remaining was thwarted by the Badgers.

The ensuing Waunakee onside kick attempt was covered up by the Badgers as well to seal the win in the WIAA Division 2 state title game. Senior quarterback Doyle and the offense took the field for a pair of kneel downs in a variation of the Badgers' flexbone offensive scheme that head coach Matt Hensler had longed to see.

"There is not a guy in the state that, as a coach, that you don’t want to end it like that," Hensler said. "Get in the victory bone formation, get a little victory bone there at the end of the game, at the end of a state championship. That’s what we’re all looking for."

BOX SCORE: Badger 34, Waunakee 33

REPLAY: WIAA state finals, with winners Rice Lake, Badger and Marquette

Hensler and father Keith Hensler, who coached Mukwonago to a 2004 D1 title, became just the fourth father-son duo in state history to coach teams to a WIAA title game. They are the first to each win it.

"Yeah that’s a big deal obviously for my little chunk, it is for me and my family, it’s a big deal," Matt Hensler said. "The old man did it first, and it was exciting to finish it off here."

Raising the D2 gold ball proved to be the culmination of several emotional weeks for the Badgers and Hensler in particular. The coach was a 'game-time decision' to be on the field Friday after suffering a heart attack during the Badgers' Level 3 playoff victory over Kettle Moraine, and his family had also endured the passing of Matt's mother Mary on Nov. 1.

'It was everything' to bring home the title for the leader of their program," senior running back Landon Nottestad said. "Our guys were more motivated than anybody in the state of Wisconsin. We’d go out there and beat any one of these teams with the motivation we had."

The win came in shootout fashion with one of the perennial state powers in Waunakee, a fellow 13-0 team on the season that remained close throughout the game. Badger dominated in time of possession 33:27 to 14:33, but the quick-strike ability of the Warriors did not allow that to translate to a similar disparity on the scoreboard.

Badger ran with impunity to a Division 2 state title game record 451 yards on 70 rushing attempts, led by a season-high 198 yards on 27 carries from Nottestad. Also contributing to the total were 131 yards on 17 carries from sophomore Matthew O'Grady, 118 yards on 22 carries from Doyle and seven yards from senior Anthony Richardson on two carries. The Badger team total eclipsed the existing record of 391 yards set by Germantown in 2003.

"(Coach Hensler) is an amazing playcaller. We run the damn football and we’re gonna tell you where we’re going, and you better stop it," Nottestad said. "Obviously Waunakee couldn't."

Badger's first lead of the game lasted 21 seconds near the end of the first half. A 20-yard receiving touchdown by Nottestad from Doyle gave Badger the 14-13 advantage with 28 seconds left, but the Warriors answered two plays later on a 60-yard go route completed down the right sideline for a score from junior quarterback Vance Johnson to senior receiver David Emerich.

Badger opened the second half with an 18-play, 9-minute and 43-second possession capped by a six-yard Matthew O'Grady touchdown to take a 19-14 lead.

Waunakee was still able to enter the fourth quarter with a 20-19 lead, as a two-minute drive ended with a 25-yard touchdown pass from Johnson to Robert Booker II.

The Badgers got a sudden score of their own on the next drive to open the fourth, as Nottestad broke loose on a run up the middle for a 40-yard touchdown. A two-point conversion by Badger senior Anthony Richardson, combined with a 36-yard touchdown from Johnson to Emerich on the next Waunakee drive, knotted the game at 27 with 6:42 remaining. The back-and-forth scoring possessions set the stage for Doyle's go-ahead scamper, and eventually an emotional release for a program starving for one.

"We’ve always been an underdog as a team, so really my whole life has been an underdog story," Nottestad said. "I just absolutely broke down when we stopped them on that two-point conversion, and I couldn’t imagine doing this with another team or another group of guys."

DIVISION 1 RECAP: Marquette shuts down Franklin to win first state football title since 2009

DIVISION 3 RECAP: Grafton football team's memorable run to the state final ends with a valiant effort in 28-20 loss to Rice Lake

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Badger completes emotional climb to first WIAA state football title