By John Kemmeter

The Stevens Point Area Senior High School (SPASH), Pacelli Catholic High School and Rosholt High School football teams will each look to earn a playoff berth in the final week of the high school football regular season.

Senior nose tackle/center Cole Wright (70) and the Stevens Point Area Senior High School (SPASH) football team need a win over fourth-ranked Fond du Lac at Community Stadium at Goerke Field Friday, Oct. 13, in order to become playoff eligible.
(John Kemmeter photo)

Pacelli (4-4, 2-4) is set to host Shiocton (4-4, 2-4) at 7 p.m. at Community Stadium at Goerke Field Thursday, Oct. 12, SPASH (4-4, 3-4) will host fourth-ranked Fond du Lac (7-1, 6-1) at Community Stadium at Goerke Field at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 13, and Rosholt (2-6, 2-3) is set to play at Tri-County (3-5, 2-3) at 7 p.m. Friday.

Division 5 top-ranked Amherst (7-1, 6-0) will look to claim the Central Wisconsin Conference (CWC) Large Title outright when it hosts Wittenberg-Birnamwood (6-2, 4-2) at 7 p.m. Friday, while Almond-Bancroft (6-3, 3-2) is playoff eligible and will look to guarantee a playoff spot when it travels to Marion to play Tigerton/Marion (1-7, 1-4) at 7 p.m. Friday.

Pacelli

While high school football teams need a .500 record in conference to become playoff eligible, it appears that this season multiple teams with 4-5 or 3-4 conference records will be among the 224 teams to receive a playoff bid when the postseason field is announced late Friday night.

With Pacelli and Shiocton each 2-4 in the CWC Large, a playoff berth may be at stake when the teams square off Thursday night.

Senior running back Daniel Mitch (5) and the Pacelli Catholic High School football team will try to keep their playoff hopes alive when they host Shiocton in the regular-season finale at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 12.
(John Kemmeter photo)

“Obviously our playoffs start Week 9 of the regular season here,” said Pacelli football head coach Drew Nelson. “We have to take care of business on Thursday.

“If they win I believe they’re in, and if we win and a couple of other things happen, I think we’re in,” he said. “So, it should be a good one.”

Shiocton bounced back from a 50-7 loss at Division 6 fourth-ranked Iola-Scandinavia (5-2, 4-2) with a 35-12 win over Weyauwega-Fremont (0-8, 0-6) last week, and is led this season by junior quarterback Sam Bloch (53-of-99 for 721 yards, with six touchdowns and three interceptions), and senior running back Matt Peterson (294 yards rushing and four touchdowns on 45 carries).

“They run a lot of misdirection stuff out of the backfield, and their quarterback’s a pretty talented runner,” said Nelson. “Defensively, they play in that old school 5-2 defense, kind of like we switched to here recently, and just line up and make sure that the other team can’t beat you with the run.

“So, we’ll have to look at some other options,” he said.

Pacelli last reached the playoffs in 2012, and went 7-29 over the four seasons that followed, before it improved to 4-4 overall so far this season.

“We’ve got to obviously play to the best of our abilities, limit turnovers, and try to limit the penalty exposure as well,” said Nelson. “And obviously if we can hold their rushing yards down and make them throw the ball, I think we’ll be in a good position to be successful on Thursday.”

SPASH

After rallying in the second half to win 21-17 at Wisconsin Rapids last week, SPASH needs to win at home over fourth-ranked Fond du Lac Friday night to become playoff eligible.

“We’re excited to be practicing this week, knowing that it means something,” said SPASH football head coach Pete McAdams. “For this group, this is going to be their last time playing on Goerke Field, so they’ve got to go out there and play with everything they have.

“And we talked about that at halftime of the last game, that they had to play every play as if it was their last play,” he said. “And right now, that’s how they have to focus on this.”

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