Amherst senior quarterback Garrett Groshek breaks into the open field for a 79-yard touchdown run in the 2015 WIAA Division 5 State Championship Game. (John Kemmeter photo)

This story is a reprint from the Nov. 27, 2015, edition of The Portage County Gazette.

Portage County Gazette

By John Kemmeter

Just as it had done all season, the Amherst High School football team turned in a dominating performance to win the 2015 WIAA Division 5 State Title.

The top-ranked Falcons scored on their first four possessions of the first half to jump out to a 28-0 lead against Spencer/Marshfield Columbus Catholic in the WIAA Division 5 State Championship Game at Camp Randall Stadium in Madison Thursday, Nov. 19.

Amherst added touchdowns on its first two possessions of the second half to push its lead to 42-0 and went on to shut out Spencer/Columbus (13-1) in a 42-0 victory to claim the second State Title in program history and close out a perfect 14-0 season.

“It’s amazing,” said senior offensive tackle/defensive end Tyler Biadasz. “You dream about it, and now it’s a reality, and I’m just so happy for my guys.

“It’s a perfect season, and we played a perfect game out there today,” he said.

“We’re ecstatic right now,” said senior wide receiver/cornerback Amaziah McCall. “We lost last year, and we knew we had to prove something, so we came back this year with a vengeance.

“And we took care of business today,” he said.

Amherst entered its third State Championship Game appearance in four years unbeaten at 13-0 and averaging 53.4 points per game, while Spencer/Columbus), the second-ranked team in Division 4, was also 13-0 and came in averaging 42.7 points per contest.

After losing to Lancaster 41-21 in last year’s Division 5 State Championship Game, the Falcons struck on their first possession Thursday, as senior quarterback Garrett Groshek faked a handoff, ran around the left side of the line and broke away down the left sideline, where he ran through a pair of would-be tacklers in the secondary for a 29-yard touchdown run to give the team a 7-0 lead with 5:58 left in the first quarter following the extra-point kick from senior Cam Gaulke.

“I just made the right read, I got to the outside, and those guys on the edge blocked well,” said Groshek. “Then I just had a couple of smaller guys in front of me, so I gave them ‘the boom,’ and then got into the end zone.”

Amherst took over again after another Spencer/Columbus punt, and on the second play of the drive, Groshek kept the ball and bounced it outside toward the left sideline, where he ran free for a 79-yard touchdown run to give the Falcons a 14-0 lead with 26 seconds remaining in the first quarter.

“It was nice to have the Jumbotron,” said Groshek. “I looked up at it and then I saw that I had five yards (on the closest defender), and I was going to do all I could to make sure he didn’t catch me.”

On the first play of the second quarter, Amherst senior safety Ben Gutschow picked off a pass from Spencer/Columbus senior quarterback Calvin Lenz at the Spencer/Columbus 46-yard line, and the Falcons proceeded to go 46 yards in five plays, capped off by a 12-yard touchdown pass from Groshek to senior wide receiver Amaziah McCall to make it 21-0 with 9:49 to play in the second quarter.

“Any guy in our offense can score at any given time,” said McCall. “It’s all about where Garrett’s looking and who he wants to throw it to at the time, or who’s covering who.

“I just ended up being open on that one, he connected with me on a great pass, and I hauled it in,” he said.

Spencer/Columbus sophomore running back Hunter Luepke returned the ensuing kickoff 67 yards to the Amherst four-yard line, but was held to three yards over the next three plays, to set up fourth-and-goal from the one-yard line.

On the next play, Luepke was stopped short of the end zone and the ball popped loose as he went to stretch the ball out over the goal line, and Gutschow recovered the fumble in the end zone to give the Falcons the ball back at their own 20-yard line with 7:27 to go in the first half.

Amherst took 3:59 off the clock to go 80 yards in 10 plays, as Groshek fired to junior wide receiver Josh Cisewski in the end zone for a 17-yard touchdown pass to increase the lead to 28-0 with 3:37 left in the second quarter.

On the next series, Spencer/Columbus used 12 plays to reach the Amherst 11-yard line with 14 seconds remaining in the half, but following a pair of incomplete passes, McCall picked off a pass at the goal line to end the threat and the half, as the Falcons went into halftime with a 28-0 lead.

“Once we scored (to go up 21-0), the floodgates kind of opened,” said Amherst football head coach Mark Lusic. “They turned the ball over on the goal line, and then we marched down and put a touchdown up.

“And the second half we came out throwing the ball right off the bat,” he said.

Amherst got the ball to start the second half and proceeded to go 80 yards in eight plays, which was capped off when McCall went up in the end zone and pulled down a 23-yard touchdown pass from Groshek to give the Falcons a 35-0 lead with 9:51 to go in the third quarter and bring on a running clock.

Following a punt, the Falcons took over at the Spencer/Columbus 42-yard line, and after a pair of completions, Groshek went deep to Cisewski, who was wide open down the right sideline and hauled in a 33-yard touchdown pass to make it 42-0 with 5:29 to play in the third quarter, as Amherst scored touchdowns on its first six possessions of the game.

Meanwhile, the Amherst defense limited Spencer/Columbus to 25 total yards on 14 plays in the second half to preserve the shutout, as the Falcons went on to a 42-0 win to claim their second State Title in the last four years.

“I’ve never had a feeling quite like this,” said senior linebacker Dylan Heck. “We worked our (butts) off for nine months, plus all the years before that, and it finally paid off.

“It’s crazy how good it feels,” he said.

“I give Spencer/Columbus a lot of credit, they’re a damn good team,” said Lusic. “They just ran into a pretty good team on this side of the ball.

“We were a buzz saw today,” he said.

Cisewski caught four passes for 61 yards and two touchdowns, and McCall had three catches for 52 yards and two touchdowns, as they tied the Division 5 State Championship Game record with two touchdown receptions that was previously held by five others, including Joel Biadasz of Amherst in 2012, while junior running back Brandon Piotrowski added 78 yards rushing on 14 carries.

Groshek, the 2015 Wisconsin Football Coaches Association (WFCA) State Offensive Player of the Year, rushed for 161 yards and two touchdowns on 12 carries and completed 11-of-14 passes for 172 yards, with four touchdowns and zero interceptions, as his four touchdown passes set the Division 5 State Championship Game record and tied the all-Division mark, and he tied the Division 5 record for most passing yards in a State Championship Game.

“He’s the best offensive player I’ve ever coached, by far,” said Lusic. “Whatever Garrett does in the future, he’s going to do something great. He’s very smart cognitively, he knows what’s going on, and he’s a helluva leader.”

Meanwhile, Gutschow had five tackles, an interception and a fumble recovery; McCall had four tackles and an interception; and sophomore linebacker Bryce Holderman led the team with seven tackles. The Amherst defense limited the Spencer/Columbus offense that came into the game averaging 311 yards rushing per game to 67 yards rushing on 32 carries and 124 yards of total offense.

“We always shut the run down first, and then we went from there,” said Tyler Biadasz, who will play football at the University of Wisconsin next season. “They didn’t get much passing, and I’m happy our guys did what they needed to do.

“We did our job tonight, and we were relentless out on the field,” he said.

“To have a shutout in the State Title Game is unexpected,” said Amherst defensive coordinator Doug Spadoni. “But they did exactly what we wanted them to do, and then they made the plays.

“They’re a special group,” he said.

Thursday was the final game for Amherst’s 16 seniors, who finished as the winningest class in school history with a 51-3 record, as the Falcons won two State Titles and finished as the State Runner-up once in the last four years.

“Through all four years of high school, this has been the goal we’ve all been working toward senior year,” said Gutschow. “And we got the job done, so it’s a great feeling.”

“That’s four or five years of work,” said Groshek of the State Title. “A lot of weight room, a lot of doing off-season drills without coaches, getting out and throwing passes and doing stuff on our own.

“Coming in as freshmen, we knew that this was our goal, how to end our senior year,” he said. “And it feels great just to be able to go out and dominate our last game.”