Entering the final week of the 2025 regular season, the Prairie du Chien Blackhawks football team was caught in a three-way tie first place with New Glarus and River Valley. Each team needing a win in the final week to clinch a share of the Southwest Wisconsin Conference Championship.

For the first 18 plus minutes of the first half this past Friday night, it looked like the Hawks’ hopes of repeating as SWC champs would crumble on the grounds of Richland Center High School. PdC trailed the Hornets 22-7 with 5:40 left until halftime.

What followed in the final half of the second quarter was either an incredible series of events if you were a Blackhawk fan or an agonizing series of blunders for the Hornets faithful. 

The Hawks got a 69-yard touchdown pass from Cayden Sutter to Ashton Landt and extra point kick from Garrett DeHart with 5:40 remaining in the second quarter to make the score 22-14 in favor of the Hornets. On the ensuing kickoff return by Richland Center, the Hawks special teams forced and recovered a Hornet fumble on the Richland Center 35-yard line. The Hawks found the end zone just four plays later on the legs of junior running back Darian Jackson. Sutter then found Mason Hird in the end zone for the two-point conversion and the game was now tied 22-22 with 3:12 remaining in the first half.

Prairie du Chien’s defense then forced the Hornets to punt on fourth-and-two from the Richland Center 36-yard line with 1:30 left until halftime. Following a Hird punt return to the PdC 48-yard line, the Hawks ran a series of plays that ended up flipping the momentum away from Prairie du Chien…briefly.

With 50 seconds left until halftime and the ball on Richland Center’s 14-yard line, Sutter threw a pass that was intercepted at least five yards deep in the end zone by the Hornets’ Brenton Baker and returned all the way back to PdC’s 5-yard line before being chased down and tackled by the Hawks’ Westin Marx. However, before Baker even left the Richland Center end zone, flags had already been thrown on the play and defensive pass interference was called on the play, negating the interception and giving the Hawks the ball on the 6-yard line. Jackson took the hand off from Sutter on the very next play and busted into the end zone for yet another touchdown as the Hawks now led 28-22 with 25 seconds left in the first half. DeHart’s extra point attempt was blocked by the Hornets and the game remained a one touchdown game.

That potential 12-point swing in momentum stayed with the Hornets in the second half as the Hawks added a touchdown and two-point conversion in the third quarter to extend their lead to 36-22 heading into the fourth. Prairie du Chien would add two more touchdowns in the fourth quarter to make it 43 unanswered points by the Hawks before the Hornets scored a late touchdown to make the final score 50-30 in favor of Prairie du Chien.

The victory clinched a share of the SWC title for the Hawks for the second straight season, the third time in the last four seasons and the fifth time in the last 10 years. PdC very nearly won the title outright thanks to Dodgeville (1-7) stunning River Valley (7-1) 22-20 and New Glarus needing to break up a Lancaster pass into the end zone as time expired to hold off the Flying Arrows 21-18 and share the championship with the Hawks.

Sutter was 6-of-12 passing for 156 yards and two touchdowns with Ashton Landt catching five of those passes for 147 yards and two touchdowns. Hird had one reception for nine yards to round out the receiving totals.

Jackson was once again the Hawks rushing workhorse as he carried the ball 26 times for 140 yards and five touchdowns (including a 65-yard touchdown run in the first quarter), which is tied for the second most rushing touchdowns in a single-game in program history. The Hawks rushing attack also included Deacon Chesebro (8 carries for 45 yards), Sutter (3 carries for 20 yards), Hird (3 carries for 18 yards) and Landt (1 carry for 6 yards).

Marx led the defense with eight total tackles, while Jack Simmons (seven total, four solo), Hird (six total), Elias Kimbler (six total) and Brady Baumgartner (five total) all had five or more total tackles in the game.  Kimbler and Zach Ross each forced a fumble, while Chesebro and Baumgartner were both credited with a fumble recovery.

The Hawks finished the regular season with a 6-3 overall record and a 6-1 mark in the SWC, which was good enough to earn Prairie du Chien the third seed in D5 section 2. The Hawks will host six seed Westfield in a level one matchup this Friday night in Prairie du Chien.

Westfield is a member of the South Central Conference for most sports but a member of the Trailways Conference for football only. The Pioneers also went 6-3 during the regular season, finishing in a tie for third place at 4-3. The Hawks and Pioneers have faced each other on the gridiron before, with both teams each earning a win on the other team’s home field in 2011 and 2012.

The winner of this game will take on the winner of the game between seventh seed Richland Center and second seed Stratford.