The Belleville Wildcats varsity football team played their home opener on Friday, August 19th against Cambridge. The Wildcats dominated on both offense and defense and scored a win with a score of 44-7 over the Blue Jays.

The Wildcats opened up the scoring early on in the first quarter, with a 24-yard run by Landry Yarbough. Kaden DeSmet's extra point was good. Five minutes later, DeSmet kicked a field goal for another 3 points. With a little over a minute left in the first quarter, Aidan Keyes ran it in from 8 yards out and DeSmet's field goal was good to put the Wildcats up 17-0. Cambridge returned the kickoff for a 90-yard gain and their extra point was good to score 7 points of their own.

Belleville scored four times in the second quarter. First on a 69-yard run by Landry Yarbrough, then just seconds later on a pass from Aidan Keyes to Andrew Ace for a 27-yard gain, the third time on a 27-yard pass from Keyes to DeMarcus Conner and with 21 seconds left in the first half, Keyes tossed a 35-yard pass to Kaden DeSmet for the score.

The halftime, and final, score was Belleville 44, Cambridge 7.

Aidan Keyes had a big night at QB, going 13-22 with 217 passing yards and 3 touchdowns. Sophomore Sam Arndt was 1-4, with 10 passing yards.

Leading rushers for the Wildcats include Landry Yarbough with 117 yards on 6 attempts, Logan Derke with 37 yards, Aidan Keyes with 19 yards, Brennen Keyes with 7 yards and Sam Arndt with 2 yards.

Kaden DeSmet led Belleville in receiving with 84 yards on 4 receptions, while Andrew Ace had 57 yards, DeMarcus Conner had 55 yards, Davis Richter had 21 yards and Caden Myers had 10 yards.

Sue Moen

Kaden DeSmet led the Wildcats in receiving with 84 yards on 4 receptions.

On defense, Logan Derke had 5 tackles, while Brennen Keyes had 4, Aidan Keyes, Landry Yarbough and Brady Durni had 2 and Casey Hagen, Davis Richter, Owen Nemec, DeMarcus Conner, Andrew Ace, Nolan Saeger and Derek Schultz all had 1 each. Kaden DeSmet had 2 interceptions.

The Wildcats take on Highway 69 rivals New Glarus-Monticello on August 26th, in New Glarus. Kickoff is at 7:00 p.m. - but get there early if you want a good seat! If you can't make the game, it may be streamed on either the School District of Belleville or New Glarus Athletics YouTube channel.