Kimberly wins fifth straight title, 70th straight game
MADISON – Another championship game. Another deficit. Another impressive comeback.
That’s been par for the course for the Kimberly football team the past two seasons. and the Papermakers’ 27-7 victory over Sun Prairie in the WIAA Division 1 state championship game Friday was no different.
Kimberly (14-0) extended the nation’s longest winning streak to 70 games and captured its fifth consecutive gold ball by scoring 27 unanswered points after falling behind, 7-0, early in the first quarter at Camp Randall Stadium.
It had happened before. The Papermakers rallied from a 42-21 deficit to win the state title, 49-42, over Arrowhead in 2015, and then bounced back from a 14-0 hole against Franklin before upending the Sabers, 29-14, last season.
“I give credit to our entire coaching staff,” Kimberly coach Steve Jones said. “They did a great job of making adjustments. Our kids do a great job, year-in and year-out and week-in and weekout, of taking the coaching and being able to adjust on the fly.”
Kimberly found itself down when the Cardinals took advantage of a fumble and converted it into an 18-yard touchdown strike from quarterback Jack Zander to receiver Cooper Nelson in the corner of the end zone.
The Papermakers stumbled early, with their first five possessions producing four punts and the fumble.
Kimberly finally regained its swagger late in the first half, with DJ Stewart ripping off a 52-yard run to put the Papermakers in Sun Prairie territory and set up their first score.
John Nett finished the drive with a sensational 25-yard TD run in which the junior back spun out of trouble at the line of scrimmage, regained his balance and powered in for the touchdown to tie the game.
That momentum carried over into the second half, with quarterback Alec Rosner breaking off a 50-yard touchdown run to give the Papermakers a 14-7 lead.
Sun Prairie (13-1) didn’t help itself with overthrows and dropped passes, short-circuiting potential scoring drives.
DJ Stewart put the game out of reach with touchdown runs of 25 and 3 yards over the final 13-plus minutes. The 6foot, 172-pound senior finished with 189 yards on 32 carries after rushing for more than 200 yards in his previous three games.
“We really seem to be that secondhalf team,” Stewart said. “I feel like we just know how to play four quarters of football. Just simply, straight up. We never think the game’s over no matter what the score. We just come in the second half and do what we do.”
Kimberly (14-0) hasn’t lost since Nov. 2, 2012, when it suffered a 31-7 defeat to Arrowhead in the state quarterfinals.
“We came in very inexperienced at the beginning of the year,” Jones said. “And to see them evolve as a group and as a team — to see them grow — has been unbelievable experience for me as a coach.”