Thursday, September 19, 2024
WAUSAUKEE – With its first play of the year on offense, the Wausaukee High football team got 69 rushing yards and a touchdown from Luke Smith at quarterback, setting the tone for what the team hopes to do all season long as it was the start of a well-rounded performance for a 48-6 victory over Suring in week one of the new 8-man season.
Not content to rest on the (very) early 7-0 advantage, the Rangers’ special teams unit attempted an onside kick after the Smith score and pulled it off to set the Wausaukee offense up with prime field position for its second drive.
A couple of run plays and a Smith pass to Kayden Suennen got the Rangers down to the seven-yard line where Smith would eventually run it in on third down to put the home team up 12-0 after a second failed attempt at the two-point conversion.
“We played well on all facets tonight,” said coach Justin Forst, who leads the Rangers’ defense. “We definitely wanted to come out and put an exclamation point on this game and I think we did that. We’re hungry. For the whole season, we’re hungry and we’re ready to roll. We’ve got a good team, heavy at the top end with juniors and seniors, They’re aggressive and we’re ready to make a run.”
The Wausaukee defense would force a fumble on Suring’s first drive to set up a Gavin Thomson rush across the goal line from a yard out for an 18-0 advantage.
The home team put the Eagles further behind the 8-ball later in the opening quarter when Smith hit Jimmy Kanzenbach on 2nd-and-20 with a pass play that went 88 yards for a score to make it 26-0.
Suring did manage to land a punch on Wausaukee’s defense very late in the game. With about two minutes to go, Michael Pecanas put together a nice punt return that, coupled with a Wausaukee penalty, set the Eagles up at the enemy’s 15-yard line.
On 3rd-and-8, quarterback Taylor Booth-Stoffregen lofted a nice pass to the left corner of the end zone for Pecanas, who bobbled the ball for a second before getting both hands on it as he fell, giving his team a late-game score to stave off the shutout.
Statistically, Suring was able to get a few things done in its first effort of the year. The Eagles picked up eight first downs, next to 10 for Wausaukee. They picked up 139 yards on the ground, including 77 from Kroix Kempka and 35 from Grant Thomson, and 49 yards through the air on six passing plays.
“We run kind of a hybrid defense with four linebackers and it’s built to stop…everything,” said coach Forst on Wausaukee’s defensive presence in the opener. “We’re very aggressive. We do a lot of blitzing and a lot of stunts. We do a good job of studying film the week before a game and we kind of set up our defense to stop whatever they like to run on a regular basis.”
