Football: Waldvogel's 219 rushing yards and 4 TD leads Wausau West to season opening win at Menomonie.

The Wausau West High School football team got 229 yards rushing and 4 touchdowns from senior running back Miles Waldvogel and beat Menomonie 36-21 in the season opener for both teams on Thursday night in a game broadcast live on Wausau Area Sports.

It was not a great start for the Warriors as Menomonie took the opening kickoff to the West 33 yard line and, on the first play from scrimmage, saw quarterback Aaron Howard throw a lateral to running back D.J. Butler who then fired down field to a wide open Liam Asher for a touchdown. Just 21 seconds into the game it was 7-0 Menonomie.

After the Warriors were stopped on their first offensive series, Menomonie was forced to punt by the West defense. The 4th down snap flew over Punter D.J. Butler's head and was kicked through the back of the end zone as Butler tried to corral the bouncing ball. The safety put West on the board and cut the Mustang lead to 7-2. West was able to quickly take the lead after that. The free kick was returned by Angelo Nieves to the Menomonie 30 and, on the next play, Waldvogel scored his first touchdown of the night to give the Warriors an 8-7 lead.

West threatened to add to their lead in the final seconds of the 2nd quarter but fumbled inside the Mustang 5 and took an 8-7 lead into the half. The Warriors then dominated the third quarter with two scoring drives in two possessions. West took the 2nd half kickoff and scored on a 46 yard touchdown run by Waldvogel to lead 15-7. After a defensive stop, West went back to work on the ground and drove down field again culminating with a 5 yard scoring run by Waldvogel to lead 22-7 after three quarters.

Waldvogel wasn't done as he made it 4 scoring runs on a 4 yard touchdown with 6:08 left in the game to push West to a 29-7 lead. Menomonie then got their offense back on track with a 20 yard touchdown pass from Aaron Howard to Carter Goodman to pull within 29-13 with 4:25 left. However, after West recovered an inside kick at their 49, the Warriors drove to a final score as Marcus Heise ran it in from 8 yards out to make it 36-13 West. Menomonie sophomore running back Sam Smith finished the scoring with an electricfying 85 yard run as the Warriors won 36-21.

Wausau West finished with 284 rushing yards, including 229 in the second half. In addition to Waldvogel's 219 yards on the ground, West got 35 yards on six carries from Luke Saari and 33 yards on six carries with the touchdown from Marcus Heise. The Warrior defense was strong upfront with Dashawn Poulos leading the charge. West will play host to Rice Lake next Friday night at Thom Field at 7 pm. That game will be broadcast live on the Wausau Area Sports YouTube channel starting with the pregame at 6:40 pm.