WARNER – Ashton’s Schuchhardt ability to play downhill has made playing against the unbeaten Warner Monarchs an uphill struggle this season.

The senior middle linebacker leads the team in tackles and is the play caller for one of the top football defenses in Class 9A.

While Schuchhardt is also a key member of the offensive line, there’s little doubt which side of the ball is his preference.

“I like defense,” he said. “I like going downhill and making plays on the ball. It’s a lot of fun.”

Schuchhardt began turning heads during the first game of his junior campaign.

“He didn’t even start on our defense last year to start the season. When he did play for us he played a defensive end,” said Warner coach Kerwin Hoellein. “He got into the game in that first game last year and he just started making plays. He got off on the ball so quickly, and was it like, holy cow he needs to be on the field for us.”

An injury opened a spot at middle linebacker and Schuchhardt moved into that position. While Hoellein said it wasn’t success at first snap, the coach soon discovered what Schuchhardt brought to the center of the defense.

“He was always moving in the right direction. He wasn’t backing up,” Hoellein said. “He was always getting downhill.”

And it’s been pretty much downhill ever since, as Schuchhardt has made life miserable for opposing ball carriers on a regular basis.

“Every week we work on doing that in practice and it translates to game time,” Schuchhardt said of the team’s defensive scheme. That game plan means filling the gaps and plugging the holes.

“Our defensive scheme is alignment and assignment,” Hoellein said. “We’re a gap control defense.”

That allows Schuchhardt to zero in on foes and bring traffic to a grinding halt, regardless of the size of opposing blockers that get in his way.

“You keep packing the punch every play,” Schuchhardt said, “they’re going to be a little hesitant to come and hit you and use your hands to get off of them.”

While Schuchhardt is proficient at finishing plays, he is also crucial to starting them, getting the Monarchs into the right position to do their jobs.

“We are a defensive team that needs to identify the other team’s strength. Alignment is huge for us,” Hoellein said. “If we don’t get aligned properly before the ball is even hiked, we don’t have a very good chance of stopping that play. Ashton is the kid that makes the strength call for us, makes sure that we’re lined up.”

Schuchhardt leads Warner with 78 tackles and 7 sacks so far this season. That includes not even playing full games on occasion because of lopsided scores.

He is also serves as the team’s tight end. Last season he caught 10 passes in a playoff loss to De Smet, but he doesn’t get much chance to touch the ball because Warner features so many offensive weapons like Hunter Cramer and Charlie Dulany.

“We need to get the job done and give people holes, so Hunter and Charlie and all those guys can have a great game and do what we need them to do,” Schuchhardt said.

Still, he doesn’t mind those rare occasions when the ball does end up in his hands.

“I do enjoy it,” Schuchhardt said. ‘It’s always fun to catch a pass and turn up field and take off.”

Top-rated Warner opens the playoffs by hosting Burke this evening. Schuchhardt knows the road to an eventual state championship will not be an easy one for the Monarchs who have a target on their backs.

“There’s definitely a lot of good teams that we’re going to have to get through to get there,” he said. “We need to approach every week and put in a good game plan, and watch film and take one game at a time.”

Warner’s defense has proven it can play with anybody in nine-man football as evidenced by an 8-6 win over Class 9AA power Hamlin late last month.

“We went out and beat a great team and played a good game,” Schuchhardt said. “I think a lot of our players felt a lot more confident with our team and their abilities after that game.”

The Monarchs, who lost in the state championship game two years ago, recall last year’s disappointment of losing in the playoffs at De Smet. They want to make sure they don’t come up short again this season.

“We were really young last year and we have a lot of our guys this year that we had last year,” Schuchhardt said. “They know what that feels like. I think that we learned from that and we’re going to do everything we can to not let that happen again.”