May 2025

Middleton’s boys lacrosse team won two of three games last week.

The Cardinals rolled past Milwaukee Marquette, 17-7, on May 5 and cruised by Mukwonago, 18-9, on May 6.

Middleton then fell to Minnesota power Wayzata, 14-6, on May 9.

The Cardinals are now 11-3 overall this season.

Here’s a recap of Middleton’s week.

• Middleton 17, Marquette 7 — Senior attackman Arjay Johnson broke his own single-game scoring record with nine goals and powered the visiting Cardinals past the Hilltoppers. Junior attacker Roan Johnson added three goals, while senior midfielder Troy Teff and junior attacker Patrick Passini both had two goals.

Freshman FOGO Aksel Chelesvig won 100% of the face-offs in the first and fourth quarters and succeeded in 25 faceoffs over the course of the evening, which set a new single-game MHS record.

Brad Crandell always has a question for candidates that interview for jobs at Middleton High School.

Crandell, the Cardinals’ assistant athletic director since 2022, believes that query tells him a lot about a candidate’s personality, as well as their passion for the job.

“One thing I ask is, ‘If you were to get this job, what’s the first thing you would do?’ ” Crandell said. “Will you celebrate? Will you call your wife or husband? Will you do a dance?

“I love it. I truly think it shows someone’s personality, who you are and if you’re truly passionate about it.”

Interestingly, Crandell found himself on the other end of that question last week.

Crandell was informed on May 8 that he was chosen to be Middleton’s new athletic director. And as Crandell walked from principal Peg Shoemaker’s office back to his own after hearing the good news, the irony of the moment wasn’t lost on him.

Joey Passaglia had a magnificent season as the starting quarterback for the Middleton’s football team last fall, earning first-team all-Big Eight Conference honors and throwing 32 touchdown passes.

Passaglia has been awfully good on the baseball diamond as well this spring.

Passaglia tossed six shutout innings, allowing just two hits and three walks with seven strikeouts to help blank visiting Madison West 7-0 in a Big Eight Conference battle on April 30.

That was just six days after he tossed a three-hit shutout in pitching a complete game 1-0 victory over Big Eight foe Janesville Craig.

“I learned a lot from football with all the pressure I faced, so it’s not as bad this year for baseball,” said Passaglia, a junior right-hander, who threw 93 pitches, including 53 for strikes, against Madison West.

Middleton’s girls soccer team was extremely busy last week.

The Cardinals were also enormously successful.

Middleton played five games in five days, went 3-0-2 and debuted in the Wisconsin Soccer Coaches Association poll at No. 9.

Perhaps the most important game the Cardinals had was a 2-0 win over then fifth-ranked Verona on May 1 that kept them in the hunt for a Big Eight Conference championship.

“This is a match we have been hyped for,” Middleton coach Mary Duffy said. “Verona has dominated the standings against us all four years of the seniors’ time on varsity.”

Not this time, though.

In fact, no one has come close to dominating the Cardinals this year.

After another impressive week, Middleton is now 5-0-5 overall and 2-0-1 in the conference, just ½-game behind league-leading and seventh-ranked Madison West (3-0, 7-1-1). Those teams meet Thursday at Mansfield Stadium at 7 p.m.

Here’s a recap of the Cardinals’ busy week.