Thursday, September 19, 2024
WRIGHTSTOWN – The Oconto Falls High football team put the finishing touches on its preseason preparations by participating in a four-team scrimmage at Wrightstown on Friday, Aug. 16.
With the Tigers playing host, the Panthers, along with Kewaunee and New London, split the varsity playing field for three sessions of 40-minutes worth of scrimmaging, 20 minutes of the defense on the field, then 20 minutes of offense before switching opponents.
After a somewhat slow start to things against Wrightstown in the first session, Oconto Falls got on track against New London and, by the time the clock had run out on its battle with Kewaunee, the Panthers were playing like a team ready for its season opener this Friday in Oconto.
“That first session, you’re knocking the cobwebs off a little bit,” said Panthers head coach Nick Bohl. “You haven’t hit anybody other than your own teammate and then you get a different colored jersey in front of you, there’s an adjustment period that the kids needed to go through.”
After consistently putting pressure on the Wrightstown signal caller in the first round of live action on Friday, the OF defense had a hiccup on the first play of its session against New London that saw a handful of missed tackles result in a trip across the goal line for a Bulldog runner.
From there though, the defensive unit buckled down and played toe-to-toe with the New London offense the rest of the way.
The Oconto Falls offense really really hit its stride in the middle session against New London. The Panthers, for a good stretch of their 20-minutes on offense, seemed to be able to score almost at will.
A run up the middle from about 40-yards out by Isaac Bramer got it started, followed by another 40-yard run across the goal line by Ethan Hill.
A goal line score on fourth and one by Wyatt Laughrin was next, then a 20-yard run for a touchdown by Jake Sconzert capped off the running game’s success against the Bulldogs. The passing game got some shine late in the session when Emerich Skarban connected with Alec Krejcarek from 15-yards out for a score.
“That’s the design of our offense,” Coach Bohl said of his team’s success in the running game on Friday. “We’re a four-back offense and we want to pound away, we want to run the ball. Being in year seven now of our double wing, the kids are coming through having run that in fourth, fifth and sixth grade. They know the expectations and the nuances of the offense. It’s really starting to come to life, I think.”
