Two months ago, Middleton football coach Kurt Gundlach looked at his team and saw a lot of question marks.

Now, it's hard to look at the Cardinals and see anything but exclamation points.

Middleton punctuated an undefeated season by clinching its second Big Eight Conference title in three years with a 35-14 conquest of Madison West Wednesday night at Mansfield Stadium.

Gundlach said at the beginning of the season that he simply hoped to reach the playoffs. But midway through the year, he realized something special was brewing with the Cardinals.

"Great chemistry on this football team,'' Gundlach said. "I think that's what's gotten us to where we're at.''

Where they're at is ranked third in the Associated Press Division 1 poll, with a full head of steam carrying them into the beginning of the WIAA playoffs Tuesday.

The final score suggested an easy win for Middleton; it was anything but. After falling behind by two touchdowns early, West (1-8 overall, 1-7 Big Eight) fought back to make a game of it.

Down, 14-0, the Regents gambled on a fourth-and-goal from the one. The move paid off with Brison Franklin's second-effort lunge across the goal line.

Middleton answered that when sophomore Kyle Brodd took a 7-yard toss from quarterback Jeremy Ziegler into the end zone with just over a minute to go in the first half. Ziegler danced into the end zone himself from 14 yards out in the third quarter, but West responded to that with the game's most exciting sequence.

Junior Sam Jackson, on a halfback option, hooked up with a streaking Mike Gilbertson down the right sideline for a 69-yard score. Still down, 28-14, West launched a pop-fly onside kick and recovered, but the Regents were unable to capitalize.

"West played hard. You can't take anything away from them,'' Gundlach said. "They weren't going to lay down. They really came at us physically all night.''

Middleton iced the game when Brodd galloped 20 yards into the end zone with three minutes left. The sophomore was the Cardinals' leading rusher with 78 yards, as Middleton piled up 234 yards on the ground.

However, the normally dominant Middleton defense was merely excellent against West. The Regents' 14 points were the most the Cardinals had given up all year long.

"This definitely goes into the moral victory column,'' said West coach Jay Redders. "We stood toe to toe with them.''

Middleton jumped to the early lead with a 17-yard Matt Meinholz scamper and a 16-yard touchdown catch by all-conference tight end Casey Cramer. It looked like the rout was on, but West stood its ground, aided by several Middleton mistakes.

"Sometimes when you feel like you're a better football team, you may not have that mental edge to carry you play after play,'' Gundlach said. "I think we lost that for a while. We credit West, because they kept their (mental edge) and kept battling.

"We need to eliminate some of the silly things that keep us out of the end zone. If we do that, we're pretty explosive.''

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