Big third quarter leads Falcons to 35-0 rout of Cudahy

Brown Deer - A flat first half led directly into a 21-point third quarter explosion as the Brown Deer football team kept a straight path to the WIAA state playoffs squarely in its sites with a 35-0 rout of Cudahy on Friday.

"I think we came out (in the second half) with a sense of urgency," Falcons coach Rob Green said. "We were hoping that would have happened a little earlier. We were hoping to put a little pressure on them but we left at least 14 points on the field in the first half.

"We just didn't finish drives, but then the third quarter became a real frenzy."

High-scoring game up next

The victory kept the Falcons (2-1, 3-2) in a tie for second in the Woodland Conference. They can pull into a tie for the lead Friday when they host division leader Whitnall (3-0, 4-1) at 7 p.m. at Brown Deer's annual homecoming game.

Whitnall likes to score almost as much as the Falcons do, so this game has the potential to be a track meet, said the old track coach Green.

"I think it will be action-packed for sure," he said. "This is the kind of game that we train as hard as we do for. We're really looking forward to the challenge of facing another strong passing attack.

"It should be a fun and exciting game."

Brown Deer used a little wrinkle in the Cudahy game, using back Jordan Smith in a direct-snap formation a number of times. Smith completed 13 passes out of this formation for 149 yards including a five-yard second quarter touchdown pass to Pietro D'Amato.

D'Amato had scored in the first quarter on a 31-yard reverse.

Coming up empty

But Green had reason to be concerned about the offense in the first half.

The Falcons got inside the five on one drive and failed to finish, then another threat ended with a blocked field goal.

But that changed in the third quarter, as a long pass to Jack Wallisch, who just came back from an injury in this game, set up a Zack Rhodes' three-yard TD run. That was followed in short order by another 20-yard reverse by D'Amato for a TD.

Linebacker Kyler Cyiark then picked up and raced 20 yards with a fumble for the game's final score.

At that point, it was 35-0 in the third quarter and the running clock was in order.

"We were then able to get a lot of different kids in different positions," Green said. "All that occurred in the first eight minutes of the third quarter."