This story is sponsored by: Sternweis & Sons
By Paul Lecker
MarshfieldAreaSports.com
The 2023 WIAA football playoffs continue Friday night with Level 3 matchups across seven divisions.
Winners will move on to Level 4 divisional semifinal contests next Friday, Nov. 10, and the playoffs will conclude with the 2023 WIAA State Football Championships at Camp Randall Stadium in Madison on Nov. 16-17.
One local team will be playing for a state finals berth next week as two matchup Friday night as No. 2 seed Stratford plays at No. 1 Auburndale.
The two schools play in the Marawood Conference in all other sports, but were split with WIAA realignment in 2020 and have not met since 2019, when Stratford earned a 55-0 shutout victory. Stratford won all 16 matchups between the teams from 2004-19.
Division 6
No. 2 Stratford Tigers (10-1) at No. 1 Auburndale Eagles (10-1)
When and where: Friday, Nov. 3, 7 p.m., at Thorpe Field, Auburndale High School.
About Stratford: Stratford used a dominant defensive performance to take down No. 3 seed Mondovi 21-0 in a Level 2 game on Oct. 27 at Marshfield High School…It was the second-straight shutout in the playoffs for Stratford, and fifth overall this season…The Tigers allowed just 125 total yards in the victory, and used a grinding running game that produced a pair of 100-yard rushers. Gavin Leonhardt finished with 139 yards on 18 carries and Koehler Kilty had 121 yards on 21 carries to push Stratford to the win in a rematch of last year’s Division 6 state championship game which was also won by Stratford…Kilty leads the Tigers’ offensive attack with 1,420 yards rushing and 17 touchdowns…Quarterback Jack Tubbs has thrown for 1,191 yards and 20 touchdowns, with only one interception…Kilty also leads the defense with 84 tackles, including nine for loss.
About Auburndale: The Eagles racked up 251 yards on the ground and used a pair of fourth-quarter defensive stops to hold off No. 5 seed Coleman 33-22 in a Level 2 game on Oct. 27 at home…Quarterback Kaden Anderson ran for 196 yards and three touchdowns, and threw two TD passes to running back Evan Scholl in the victory…Despite allowing 332 yards on the ground to Coleman, the Auburndale defense forced one turnover and buckled down at the end to stave off two Cougars’ drives in the fourth quarter of a one-score game to secure the win…Scholl surpassed the 1,000-yard mark with 55 yards rushing in last week’s win, and now has 1,003 yards while averaging 6.2 yards per carry…Anderson has totaled 908 yards rushing and thrown for 1,024 more, and has accounted for 31 (16 rushing, 15 passing) of the team’s 45 TDs this season. He is also the team’s leading tackler with 96, including 17 for loss.
Next up: The winner moves onto a Division 6 semifinal against the winner of No. 3 Cameron (9-2) at No. 1 Grantsburg (11-0) on Friday, Nov. 10.