The Cashton football team put on a scoring clinic for the hometown crowd in the Eagles' home opener Friday, August 28.
Cutler Brueggen and Landon Laufenberg each scored twice while Jack Christensen and Graham Hemmersbach each added a singular score of their own in the Eagles' 39-8 victory over the Independence/Gilmanton co-op to move to 2-0 on the season.
Cashton's offensive outburst started early as Christensen plunged into the endzone after an eight yard run near the nine minute mark of the opening quarter. Hudson Nading's kick was good and the home team had its first lead - a lead it would not relinquish.
At the four minute mark, Brueggen capped a drive with a two-yard score. Nearly a minute into the second quarter, Brueggen scampered to paydirt from five yards out.
Independence turned Cashton back from that point on. It wasn't until the two minute mark that CHS would punch in another score. Quarterback Graham Hemmersbach found Trae Gill for a six-yard scoring pass. Nading's kick set up a 26-0 advantage for the home team at halftime.
To start the third quarter, Laufenberg returned the opening kick 75 yards and - with another swing of Nading's leg - Cashton extended its lead to 33. Laufenberg would have a 73-yard kick return in the fourth quarter after the visitors scored on the first play of the final period.
Christensen led Cashton's ground attack with 14 carries that produced 60 total yards and a score. Laufenberg had the most efficient runs of the night, averaging eight yards a carry on two attempts that produced 16 total yards. The junior led the team in receiving yardage after making two catches for 56 yards. Trae Gill had three catches for 37 yards and Todd Dolan had one catch for four yards.
Defensively, Cashton limited Independence to just 75 total rushing yards and 76 passing yards. The Indees' leading rusher was Chase Back with 40 yards on the night.
Rylan Mlsna led the Eagles' efforts with nine total tackles, all solo wrangles. Christensen piled up six tackles and Brueggen four.
The victory allows Cashton to move into conference play with a mark of 2-0 - the best record in the league. Ithaca is the only other unbeaten but did not play its game with Wauzeka-Steuben last week due to a player death due to a farming accident. This is the first time since the 2023 season that the Eagles have began the season 2-0. That year Cashton won a third-straight Scenic Bluffs title and played into the third round of the WIAA playoffs.
UP NEXT
Cashton will travel to Brookwood tonight - September 3 - to start Scenic Bluffs Conference play.
The two teams split a pair of meetings a year ago with Brookwood winning in the regular season as a part of a five-game win streak to end the season while Cashton earned a Level 1 playoff victory.
The rest of the SBC card includes Hillsboro at Bangor, Royall at Necedah and Ithaca at New Lisbon.
Next week Cashton hosts Royall.
