The Tomah Timberwolves were deep into Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau territory with less than two minutes left in the fourth quarter and clinging to a six-point lead on fourth down.

Go for it, or kick a field goal?

Timberwolves coach Brad Plueger acknowledged that the field goal was the idea of assistant coach Tim Gnewikow.

“Tim was telling me, ‘Just kick it, and we’ll win,’ and I’m thinking, ‘What if it gets blocked, and they take it 60 yards the other way?’” Plueger said. “Finally, I said, ‘Fine, let’s kick it.’”

Clayton Barrix vindicated the coaching staff by kicking a 27-yard field goal with 1:54 left that clinched Tomah’s 23-14 non-conference victory over Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau Friday at E.J. McKean Field. It was the opening contest for both teams.

Instead of kicking the field goal, Tomah could have tried to convert a fourth-and-five and left Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau with daunting field position had the Timberwolves not made the first down. However, the Redmen had already ripped off running plays of 44 and 34 yards and had a touchdown during a punt return nullified by a penalty.

The coaching staff decided to seize the opportunity to go ahead by two scores, and Barrix, a junior, put the kick right down the middle.

“Clayton came in nice and calm like he always does,” Plueger said. “One of our goals is to get special teams points every game.”

It was Barrix’s first points of the night. His only other kick, an extra point attempt in the first half, went awry when the Redmen burst through the center of the line and forced Barrix’s kick wide left. For the field goal, Plueger beefed up the protection by inserting 280-pound defensive lineman John Van Gundy.

Slow start

In the first quarter, it didn’t look like Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau would be the team with its back to the wall in the fourth quarter. The first play from scrimmage was a 44-yard run by Redmen fullback Jacob Bambenek, and the Redmen scored on their first two possessions en route to a 14-0 lead.

Tomah struck back on its second possession of the contest. After Willie Nicksic returned a well-placed kickoff 15 yards to the Tomah 21-yard line, the Timberwolves launched an eight-play drive that was capped by Joel Sweeney’s five-yard run. The drive was fueled by an 18-yard pass from Dustin Burkwalt to wide receiver Duncan Peterson and an eight-yard pass from Burkwalt to wide receiver Josh Butterfuss.

The conversion kick failed, and Tomah trailed, 14-6.

Neither team scored the rest of the half. Nicksic intercepted a pass from Redmen quarterback Brett Smith on the first half’s final play.

Nicksic returned the opening kickoff of the second half 25 yards to the Tomah 37, and the Timberwolves’ offense went back to work. Tomah launched a 14-play drive -- 13 runs, one pass -- in which no play went for more than eight yards. Sweeney capped the drive with a five-yard touchdown burst. The Redmen stuffed the conversion run, leaving Tomah behind, 14-12, with 4:29 left in the fourth quarter.

Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau’s next drive was a three-and-out, and Redmen punter Dylan Kunz pinned Tomah at its own 8-yard line. Sweeney, however, fixed that problem by sprinting through a hole in the right side opened by linemen Alex Kivimaki and J.J. Johnson and outrunning the secondary 92 yards for a touchdown.

“Some people say (Sweeney) looks a little heavy, but he ran past everyone for that touchdown,” Plueger said.

On the two-point conversion, Burkwalt scrambled before pushing a short pass to tight end Erik Martens for the 2-point conversion. That gave Tomah a 20-14 lead with 1:44 left in the third quarter.

Tomah’s defense allowed just one first down the rest of the way, which meant the Tomah offense only needed to keep possession, run clock and eventually turn things over to the placekicking unit.