Former Hillsboro assistant football coach Jeff Koenig led his current Stanley–Boyd team to the WIAA Division 5 football title Thursday at Camp Randall in Madison.
Koenig’s Orioles jumped out to a quick 21–0 lead and held off a late comeback from 10-time state qualifier Lancaster to claim the school’s third state title, but first since 1995, with a 21–16 victory.
Stanley–Boyd (14–0) scored on the game’s opening drive on a 4-yard TD pass from senior quarterback Tyler Sorenson to fellow senior Craig Mason on fourth down.
Mason added a 1-yard touchdown run four minutes later to make it 14–0.
Senior cornerback Dusty Speth jumped a quick out early in the second quarter and returned an interception 26 yards for a 21–0 lead with 7:44 remaining in the second quarter.
Junior halfback Brett Snider got Lancaster (13–1) on the board with a nifty 34-yard TD run with 4:49 left in the opening half.
Lancaster was in position to make it a one-possession game late in the first half, but Koenig’s Oriole defense stopped
Lancaster on 4th-and-6 from the Stanley–Boyd 8 with 17 seconds left.
Lancaster finally found offensive traction in the third quarter feeding junior fullback Tyler Glass.
Glass carried eight straight times and capped a 53-yard dive with a 1-yard TD run that brought the Arrows withing 21–14 with 11:38 left to play.
The Arrows forced a punt and drove to the Stanley–Boyd 10-yard line late in the game, but Glass was stopped short on 4th-and-1 with 1:30 left to play.
Koenig, who is 71–35 in his 10 years at Stanley–Boyd, was an assistant coach at Hillsboro under then coach Drew Ibach from 1996–98.
He left to become a vice principal at Chetek High School where he was an assistant coach for a couple of years.
Koenig left administration and went back into teaching at Stanley–Boyd. He was an assistant there under Jim Brinkner for a couple of years and took over the head coaching job in 2004, when Brinkner retired.
This was Stanley–Boyd’s sixth appearance at state, but first since 1996, and first under Koenig.
The Orioles also won Division 4 state championships in 1991 and 1995. They finished second in 1977, 1986 and 1996.
Koenig teaches Business Education. His wife, Erika, is a high school math teacher. They have three kids, Henry, Ella, and Milo.
