Hawks stun third seed Sugar River before falling in regional final
A group of Prairie du Chien/Wauzeka-Steuben/Youth Initiative boys soccer players, including Garrett DeHart (#2), October Bartelt #4), Ezra Mask (#13), Asher Pitzer (#1), Adrian Morales-Fuerte (#17), Brock Torgerson (#11), Matisse Enjalbert (#7), Yee O'Dwyer (#5), Pelle Arnold (#8), Brecken Toberman (#9), Daven Becwar and Landon Smith (#12). (Derick Kelly/Courier Press)
Hawks freshman Ephraem Carns-Hilliker (6) keeps the ball away from the Sugar River defender as senior Pelle Arnold trails the play. (Derick Kelly/Courier Press)
Garrett DeHart flies through the air to kick the ball away from the Hawks goal near the end of the second overtime period. (Derick Kelly/Courier Press)
Freshman October Bartelt celebrates after pushing the ball past the Raiders goal keeper for the Hawks second goal of the match. (Derick Kelly/Courier Press)
Sophomore Max Moon kicks the ball downfield during the Hawks 3-2 overtime win last Thursday night at New Glarus High School. (Derick Kelly/Courier Press)
Asher Pitzer gets ready to kick the ball back downfield as teammates Ezra Mask (13), Max Moon (10) and Landon Smith (12) head back to their positions. (Derick Kelly/Courier Press)
Pelle Arnold (8) battles Sugar River's Owen Griffin for control of the ball as Adrian Morales-Fuerte (17) heads down the field. (Derick Kelly/Courier Press)
Prairie du Chien senior Brock Torgerson (11) leads the charge of Hawks back to the sideline after celebrating their 3-2 overtime win at third seed Sugar River. Also pictured are Garrett DeHart (2), Ezra Mask (13), Matisse Enjalbert (7), Max Moon (10), Torgerson, Brecken Toberman (9), Adrian Morales-Fuerte (17) and Landon Smith (12). (Derick Kelly/Courier Press)
By Derick Kelly
The Prairie du Chien/Wauzeka-Steuben/Youth Initiative Boys Soccer tri-op traveled to New Glarus High School last Thursday, Oct. 23 looking to make some postseason magic and boy did they.
The Hawks (seeded 14th in their D3 sectional) defeated the sixth ranked team in D3 (and the number three seed in their sectional) the Sugar River Raiders (Belleville/New Glarus co-op) by a score of 3-2 in double overtime.
The Hawks were the first team to get on the scoreboard thanks to a Garrett DeHart goal in the 35th minute of the first half. The two teams entered halftime with the score 1-0 in favor of the Hawks. Prairie du Chien went up 2-0 on the Raiders in the 65th minute with a goal from freshman October Bartelt. Sugar River soon showed why they were ranked sixth in D3 coming into the game with a 14-3-1 record (which included a 3-0 win the previous week over the sectional’s number seed McFarland) by quickly scoring two goals in less than two minutes at the 69th and 71st minutes respectively.
PdC/Wauzeka-Steuben/Youth Initiative regrouped and managed to keep Sugar River away from the goal for the last nine minutes of regulation. The game went to overtime, which in Wisconsin consists of two 10 minute periods (which are not sudden death) before going to penalty kicks to decide a winner if needed. The Hawks didn’t need the full 20 minutes of overtime as in the fourth minute of overtime period number one, DeHart knocked in his second goal of the game to give the Hawks a 3-2 lead and once again quiet the Raiders crowd. Prairie’s defense, including goalkeeper Asher Pitzer, came up big in both overtime periods, not allowing the Raiders to tie the game as the Hawks (6-8-2) earned a stunning postseason victory.
The win was just the eighth postseason victory all-time in program history as well as being just the third postseason road win in program history (2015, 2022). The Hawks were also one of just two teams (regardless of division) in the entire state seeded 12th or worse to reach the regional final round this year. Menomonee Falls (also a 14th seed) won their regional in D1.
The win moved PdC/Wauzeka-Steuben/Youth Initiative to the regional final two days later at 11th seed Fort Atkinson, who had upset sixth seed Wisconsin Dells 3-0 in the regional semifinal round. The host Blackhawks scored first in the regional final, taking a 1-0 lead into halftime. Fort Atkinson would add two more goals in the second half before DeHart wrapped up his terrific soccer career for the Hawks with one final goal at the 79:25 mark of the game as the Hawks concluded their season with an overall record of 6-9-2 and a third place finish in the SWC with a record of 3-4-1.
PdC/Wauzeka-Steuben/Youth Initiative will graduate five seniors - DeHart, Pitzer, Pelle Arnold, Brecken Toberman and Brock Torgerson.
Due to space constraints, find photos from this game and others from this week on our website at pdccourier.com, our Facebook page at facebook.com/courierpress.newspaper.
