Rockets win battle of quarterbacks

Two of the area's best quarterbacks squared off in the high school football season opener, but only South Milwaukee's Sam Oliden walked away with the victory.

Oliden threw two touchdown passes to Brandon Proesel and rushed for two more as the Rockets defeated visiting New Berlin West, 27-13, in a nonconference game between two 2009 WIAA playoff qualifiers Friday.

The South Milwaukee senior signal-caller rushed 10 times for 99 yards, including scores of 21 and 17 yards. He also completed 5-of-10 passes for 113 yards with one interception.

"I don't know about weight on his shoulders; I don't think he looks at things like that," South Milwaukee coach John Galewski said. "He's such a responsible young man, and he just takes things in strides and is really a competitor. Nothing he does really surprises me."

Bledsoe shines as well

West's Dominique Bledsoe was nearly as impressive. He completed 15-of-26 passes for 266 yards, including two touchdown strikes to receiver Chad Mathwig in the first half.

But his receivers were plagued by drops in the second half. After starting 9-of-12 for 201 yards in the first half, Bledsoe was only 6-for-14 for 65 in the second.

"(Oliden) made a few more (plays) with his legs," said Aaron Mack, who lost in his debut as the Vikings coach. "Ultimately, as a quarterback, you're not judged by how many touchdowns you throw or how many yards you throw for. You're judged by whether you win or lose. Tip your hat to their kid, he won."

Bledsoe's drop in production was a direct result of the drops and the Rockets' ability to shut down Mathwig in the second half. The 6-foot-6-inch, 210-pound receiver caught four passes for 58 yards before intermission but was shut out in the second half.

"He's probably one of the top five receivers in the state," Galewski said. "I mean, I haven't seen them all, so maybe I shouldn't say that, but he's pretty doggone good. We had to bracket him, put two guys on him and take our chances in other places. They had other opportunities deep with some other guys that didn't catch the ball so we were a little bit lucky in some ways."

Mack agreed.

"Chad's two touchdowns, their answer might be to try to take him away and that's fine. I feel we have three other guys that can win," he said. "We spread it around tonight. It just comes down to we need to make more plays. We had enough opportunities to make plays, we didn't come up with them. I think we had four drops in a row (in the fourth quarter). You catch it and you're gone. That's the way they chose to play defense (Friday). There was no one over the top. It was one-on-one. Those are plays that we have to make and until we make them, teams are going to prove that we can do it."

West grabs an early lead

Bledsoe did get his team going, leading the Vikings on touchdown drives during their first two possessions, giving them a 13-6 lead with 2 minutes, 39 seconds remaining in the first quarter. But an impressive touchdown by Oliden early in the second gave the Rockets momentum for good.

With 9:13 left in the quarter, Oliden fumbled a bad snap out of the shotgun, chased down the ball and while rolling to his right while on the run, he delivered a perfect pass to Proesel 29 yards down field and in the end zone.

"The second touchdown, the snap goes over his head, bounces around and he still finds a way to get it done," Galewski said. "That's what makes him special."

Oliden and the Rockets took the lead for good on the senior quarterback's 17-yard TD run with 4:11 left in the third, and on the first play of South Milwaukee's next possession, Oliden hooked up with Proesel for a 51-yard TD.

Missing a key performer

The Vikings were without senior fullback Steve Vogl, a 1,000-yard rusher a year ago. Vogl injured his hamstring in the scrimmage one week earlier. With him sidelined, the Vikings passed 26 times, but Mack said that wasn't just because their star runner was in street clothes.

The Vikings passed "more than we wanted to, but I think it was dictated (by the defense), and we could," Mack said. "We had one-on-one matchups. They can't cover all of our guys. I thought we had some things in the pass game without Steve. I thought there were some things in the pass game we had to exploit, especially early on."

The victory came on Rocket John Day when the Rockets honored their late superfan, John Bogadi, with a pregame memorial, a moment of silence and "RJ" decals on their helmets.

"The thing I didn't think about really until the other day, our freshmen and sophomores really didn't get a chance to know him," Galewski said. "The seniors had a good memory of him coming to practice and stuff like that. I think they passed the word along, and we had a little something out here (on the field) Wednesday as a team when we put the decals on our helmets and stuff. I was glad that it was important to them."