Lena/STAA Stays Undefeated With Win Over Wausaukee

The Lena/St. Thomas Aquinas Academy offense ran rampant in a 58-22 win over Wausaukee in eight-man football Friday night.

Lena/STAA ball carriers took 47 carries for a whopping 442 yards and eight touchdowns on the night, with the three-headed monster of Logan Shallow, Sam Marquardt and Lane Whiting at the forefront of the attack.

Marquardt started things off with a one-yard punch in, just 3:27 into the game. Shallow completed the two-point conversion, then scored a three-yard touchdown of his own later in the quarter to make it 14-0.

Wausaukee looked to make it a game early in the second quarter. With 8:48 to go in the quarter, Kamden Stumbris scored a three-yard touchdown to make it 14-6, which started a flurry of touchdowns before halftime.

Lena/STAA got eight points back just 13 seconds later, with Shallow bursting free for a 60-yard touchdown and Marquardt converting the two-point try.

Again, Wausaukee counter-punched. With 8:11 on the clock, just 24 seconds later, Stumbris scored on a 47-yard scamper of his own and found Nathan Shaw for a two-point conversion, bringing the tally to 22-14, a one-score game, once again.

The rest of the second quarter was all Lena/STAA, really putting the game to bed. With six minutes to go until half, Shallow scored on a 30-yard run and converted the two-pointer.

Marquardt added two more touchdown runs before the halftime whistle, with runs of 13 and 15 yards bringing the score to 44-14.

“Our offense came out clicking and we were able to control the ball and had some very nice drives and plays,” Lena/STAA coach Dale Lange said. 

Stumbris found Shaw for a touchdown early in the third, but the Rangers weren’t able to compete with the firepower Lena/STAA was showing, as Whiting and Shallow scored on touchdown runs of 17 and 43 yards, respectively, to stretch the lead back to 58-22 entering the fourth quarter. 

With the game well in hand, neither team scored in the fourth quarter.

Shallow finished with 11 runs for 200 yards, four of which went for touchdowns. Marquardt ran 16 times for 119 yards and three scores and Whiting took 14 carries for 110 yards and a touchdown.

Whiting also caught one pass from Marquardt, a 41-yarder. It was the only pass thrown by a Lena/STAA passer.

For Wausaukee, Stumbris ran 17 times for 86 yards and two touchdowns, also completing 8 of his 18 passing attempts for 102 yards and a touchdown to Shaw, who had six receptions for 61 yards and a touchdown.

Ethan Braley intercepted one pass from Strumbris for Lena/STAA. 

“Defense was pretty good, and when they started to move the ball, we came through with some good adjustments and shut them down,” Lange said, giving credit to the opponents as well. “Wausaukee, they played very hard and never quit. They kept coming back at us, even when we were up a couple of scores.”

 

Panthers Edge 

Wolverines in 

Offensive Shootout

High school football games don’t come much better than the Oconto Falls Panthers’ 38-35 win over the Crivitz Wolverines on Friday.

Both teams came out firing. Oconto Falls scored first when Dylan Thomson scored on an 84-yard run on the first play of the game. Three plays later, Crivitz was in the end zone to take a 7-6 lead after Sean Christensen took a handoff 54 yards to the house and Caleb Allard made the extra point. 

On the next Oconto Falls drive, Crivitz forced a punt, and in turn, got some instant offense when Dillan Gehm blocked the punt and Eli Gruszynski scooped it and scored it for a 14-6 lead following the Allard extra point.

The Panthers answered back immediately, with a nine-play, 60-yard drive on their next possession that ended with a 25-yard touchdown pass from Carter Hill to Skyler Dalton. 

Another failed two-point conversion left Crivitz with the 14-12 lead, and the Wolverines added to it with a touchdown by Karson Bins. Again Allard was pure on the extra point, so Crivitz led 21-18 at the half, even after a Thomson touchdown run before the end of the second quarter.

The Panthers made their move in the third quarter. Two fumbles by Crivitz in the quarter enabled Oconto Falls touchdowns when Isaac Raddatz caught a Hill touchdown pass and Thomson punched in a four-yard run to take a 32-21 lead before the end of the quarter.

“A lot of our pregame this week was we knew they were going to be ground-and-pound, that’s what we want to do, so it was going to come down to mistakes, penalties and turnovers. Battling there in the second half, that was definitely a big one,” Crivitz coach Matt Bernier said of the late fumbles. “We needed to have the ball last in a position to score, and giving them an extra possession is something we couldn’t do.”

Crivitz would score on its next two possessions on runs from Cashton Mertens and Christensen, but the Panthers ran out the clock with one first down on their final drive after taking over with 1:41 on the clock.

“Football is the ultimate team sport. It takes everyone. If 10 guys do their job and one doesn’t, we’re not successful. We had a little bit of that tonight but we rallied, our kids played their tails off and we got it done. We played together when we needed to,” Oconto Falls coach Nick Bohl said.

Crivitz put a big strain on the Oconto Falls defense with its option offensive attack, running for 307 yards, but those two fumbles gave Oconto Falls two extra possessions, which both turned into scores. In total, the Panthers ran 18 more plays than the Wolverines and churned out 120 more yards.

“Crivitz, they’ve got so much speed, and the thing with their offense is they didn’t look good week one, they weren’t flashy, but you could see in week two they got better, in week three they were even better, so we knew when you play an option team like Crivitz, they’re going to be clicking on all cylinders and they did,” Bohl said. “[Tegan Werner] and [Christensen] are terrific backs. They’re fast, and they get into that alley and we missed them. We did enough to win the football game.”

Werner ran 10 times for 87 yards and Christensen took five carries for 111 yards. Mertens carried 10 times for 60 yards.

“We know we have some speed on the edge with those guys. They sold out to take away our inside run game and they did do that, so we switched to some outside runs,” Bernier said. “We did have big games out of those guys and kept it a close game.”

Oconto Falls was led by Thomson’s 25 carries for 227 yards and four touchdowns. Noah Hirst ran 11 times for 82 yards as well.

Hill was 4-for-8 passing for 106 yards and two touchdowns.

 

Maroons Hold Off

Braves Fourth Quarter 

Rally for One Point Win

The Menominee Maroons narrowly edged Gladstone by a 35-34 tally on Friday, holding off a late charge by the Braves.

Trevor Theuerkauf scored the first touchdown of the game for Menominee in the first quarter, with Aidan Bellisle scoring two rushing touchdowns in the quarter and giving Menominee a 21-0 lead after one.

Gladstone would slow down the Menominee offense in the second quarter, with a 21-6 score going into the half.

Menominee’s offense looked to be getting back on track in the third when Kaeden Calcari scored to bring the score to 28-6. Later in the quarter, Theuerkauf scored his second and Menominee looked to be cruising, up 35-12 with 12 minutes to play.

Gladstone wouldn’t go down quite that easy, as the Braves scored early in the fourth, then blocked a punt to set up a score just over a minute later. With under two minutes, the Braves came within a point of tying the game, but Menominee held on to get the close win.

 

Big Fourth Quarter Ices

Algoma Win at Suring

A week after he scored six touchdowns in a big win over Wausaukee, Carter Zimmerman pushed Algoma past Suring on Friday night.

Zimmerman didn’t quite have the magic he had last week, when he scored four rushing touchdowns, threw a touchdown and returned an interception for a score, but he still managed to find the end zone three times.

He started the scoring off when he threw a seven-yard touchdown pass to Kaden Vardon in the first quarter. He also found Grant Vandervest for the two-point conversion.

After neither team scored for the rest of the half, Suring looked to pounce, with Taron Haak scoring on a 15-yard touchdown run, though the two-point conversion was unsuccessful.

With his Wolves up 8-6 entering the fourth quarter, Zimmerman found some space to operate. He scored two rushing touchdowns in the quarter, first from a yard out and then on a 31-yard run. He converted one of the two-point conversions to give the Wolves a 22-6 win.

Zimmerman finished with 25 carries for 120 yards, 7-for-13 passing for 147 yards and a touchdown and 11 tackles.

Vandervest caught five passes for 136 yards for Algoma.

 

Irish Defense Sets

the Tone as Marinette 

Falls to State 

Ranked Freedom

The Marinette Marines had a tough task ahead of them against the state-ranked Freedom Irish on Friday, falling 35-8 in a physically demanding football game.

Freedom was ranked ninth in the most recent AP Medium Division Prep Football Poll, and they showed why their defense has brought them to that level, holding Marinette to just 128 yards of total offense.

In fact, Marinette was the first team to score on Freedom this season when Hayden Treptown scored on a four-yard rushing touchdown with 4:14 to play in the fourth quarter.

When that touchdown was scored, it was 35-0 Freedom, with little doubt remaining about the final outcome, but there were good signs for a Marinette team that’s still seeking its first win of 2021.

“That’s a heck of a team we played. I don’t see them losing a game this year. I think they’re a state-bound team and I think we gave them some fits on defense. Every team they’ve played, they’ve been able to move the ball and do whatever we want, but we got some stops and I thought we gave them some fits. We did some good things there, it’s just that they’re a good team and they’re eventually going to score,” Marinette coach Nate Anderson said. “That’s how it is, but I thought we got better. Their coach told me at the end of the game, we’ve got a physical team and we’re trying to pride ourselves on that. They’re a heck of a team. It was nice to score on them. Obviously you want to win all games, but there’s teams they’ve played this year that couldn’t even get first downs.”

That coach Anderson mentioned is Clint Kriewaldt, a 1999 NFL draft pick by the Detroit Lions and Super Bowl XL champion with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

“We played another physical game. It may not look like it with the score, but when Clint Kriewaldt, who played for the Steelers at linebacker, won a Super Bowl, tells you your team’s a physical team, that means something and I told the kids that,” Anderson said. “I mean, that’s a compliment. So, I’m proud of that, we’re keeping our identity… They’re a superior team and it’s hard to match that every single play.”

It was another Kriewaldt that did the early scoring for the Irish, as Carter Kriewaldt scored on runs of 25 and 10 yards to make it 14-0 in the second quarter. Nate Senso found Cole Jochman for a 20-yard passing touchdown 58 seconds before the half and opened the scoring in the third with a six-yard touchdown pass to Jack Vosters. Tucker Brockman scored on a 20-yard run later in the quarter that made it 35-0.

Brett Whiting ran 16 times for 47 yards to lead Marinette, while Adam Lemery ran 17 times for 22 yards and Darik McMahon took seven carries for 18 yards. Lemery was 2-for-5 passing for 30 yards, with Whiting making both catches.

Marinette (0-4) will take on Denmark this Friday before another top-10 matchup next Friday, Sept. 24, when the Marines take on No. 8 Luxemburg-Casco.

 

Cougars Pound

Papermakers To Stay 

Perfect on the Season

It was the usual story again for the Coleman Cougars on Friday, with a deep stable of rushing options and strong defense leading the way to a 38-6 win over the Nekoosa Papermakers.

Nekoosa actually opened the scoring with a 16-play, 65-yard drive that ended in a one-yard touchdown run by Ethan Hoogesteger. 

Those 65 yards would make up a significant portion of the Papermakers’ 164 total yards, and Coleman would score on its next drive to take the lead, which it never relinquished.

Trailing 6-0, it took Coleman just four plays to score, with Will Bieber doing a lot of the heavy lifting. Bieber took the kickoff 50 yards to the Papermaker 38, then scored the touchdown on a 24-yard reception from quarterback Noah Nosgovitz, who also found Joe Olsen for the two-point conversion.

Coleman moved into a commanding lead in the second quarter, scoring three touchdowns to go into half with a 26-6 lead. Kinziger scored on runs of nine and 11 yards, and Dylan VanErmen scored on a 15-yard touchdown run. 

All three times, Bieber had a big hand in making it happen, though he wasn’t the one finding the end zone.

On Kinziger’s first touchdown, Bieber ran 25 yards to the Papermaker 11 on the play before, a 3rd and 7 conversion. On Kinziger’s second score, Bieber set it up with a 36-yard run to the Nekoosa 13-yard-line.

And on the third touchdown of the quarter, Coleman scored on the first play of the drive after Bieber intercepted a Nekoosa pass and brought the return back to the Nekoosa 15.

Bieber had a big game all around, with six rushes for 125 yards, three catches for 57 yards and a touchdown, a 50-yard kick return and the interception.

Coleman had three interceptions in the game, with Kinziger and Nosgovitz also intercepting passes. The Cougars scored two more second-half touchdowns courtesy of Kinziger and Nosgovitz rushing scores. It was Kinziger’s third touchdown of the game. He ran 14 times for 63 yards in the game.

Nosgovitz ran five times for 16 yards, also throwing more than he did in the first couple weeks. He went 5-for-7 for 80 passing yards and a touchdown.

Coleman (4-0) takes on Tomahawk on Friday night. The Hatchets are 1-3 after picking up their first win of the season, a 19-14 triumph over Crandon, last week.