Brothers Brody and Jackson Rudolph put a big stamp on every game they play for Wauconda.
They don’t come off the field, and it seems like one of them is always carrying the ball or tackling whoever has it.
“It’s awesome playing with him, and it’s something I love to do — be with him every week,” Jackson Rudolph said. “It’s also nice to have my dad (Shawn) on the staff too. It’s always nice to feel like you have somebody that’s going to have your back no matter what. I know my team will, but I especially know that my brother will too.”
Indeed, the Rudolph brothers play off each other extremely well. On Friday, senior Jackson Rudolph rushed for 138 yards and a touchdown on 28 carries and junior Brody Rudolph scored on a 10-yard run as Wauconda held off visiting Antioch for a 25-20 win to take sole possession of first place in the Northern Lake County Conference with one game left in the regular season.
“I love how he runs his hardest,” Jackson Rudolph said. “He blocks his hardest for me. We’re just able to get it done.”
The Bulldogs (8-0, 6-0) got it done against the Sequoits (6-2, 5-1), who had averaged 56.8 points during a five-game winning streak. The Rudolph brothers, both linebackers, helped limited Antioch to 191 rushing yards and were involved in key fourth-down stops in Wauconda territory.
“Our focus this week was stopping their run,” Jackson Rudolph said. “We’re usually able to run the ball with me, Brody and Cole (Korycanek). Our main goal was to stop their offense, which I’m pretty sure we did a good job at because we won.”
Wauconda’s win wasn’t sealed until the final seconds, when Antioch faced a fourth-and-goal from the 10-yard line. The 6-foot-1, 235-pound Jackson Rudolph put heavy pressure on junior quarterback Ethan Patel, who scanned the endzone and then threw an incompletion.
“It was a straight blitz through the C gap, and they told me to go get the quarterback,” Jackson Rudolph said. “That was my only job. When I was running, I saw his eyes light up and saw the white around his eyes and then knew that he saw me coming. But he was backing up, and I thought I’d go get him.
“When he threw the ball, I thought, ‘Please, just knock it down, hit it down, intercept it, anything.’ I basically got there right when he threw it.”
The Bulldogs have come to expect game-altering plays like that from Jackson Rudolph since he broke into the starting lineup at linebacker as a freshman. He took over primary ball-carrying duties last season and has been dominant as a bruising, straight-ahead fullback. Entering Friday, he ranked third in the state with 22 rushing touchdowns and had churned out 1,115 yards on 127 carries.
“The kid does everything we ask of him and more,” Wauconda coach Chris Prostka said. “He’s a lead-by-example kid, and no one can ever say he’s not doing anything we’re not asking him to do. And who plays as tough as he does and takes the pounding that he does? Every coach should be so lucky to have a kid like him on their team.”
Two from the same household is a bonus. They’ve been a package deal for a long time; the 5-foot-10, 200-pound Brody Rudolph has been playing with his brother since they were young.
Their physical gifts are self-evident as both employ a pounding style on offense and relentlessness on defense. But there are other factors in their success.
“We’ll sit down, us three (including their father), and watch hours of film together and obviously do it individually too,” Brody Rudolph said. “When we come together, we really break down what we need to do and how to stop them.”
Brody Rudolph watches his brother, too, and marvels.
“I don’t try to outdo him but try to keep up with him,” Brody Rudolph said. “Obviously, he’s a tank at fullback. I look up to him as much as I can.
“He’s a great leader on this team. He brings us together — drives our offense, drives our defense, tells us what we’re doing wrong and right, and just keeps it going.”
The Rudolph brothers, who also play baseball, hope Wauconda can keep it going with a conference win against Lakes in the regular-season finale followed by a long playoff run.
But they’ll savor the Bulldogs’ first victory over Antioch since 2022.
“This one was emotional,” Jackson Rudolph said. “This was the game everybody was looking forward to, and I think we put on a show for everybody to watch.”
Steve Reaven is a freelance reporter.