High school football playoffs set to open Friday
Portage County Gazette
By John Kemmeter
The WIAA high school football playoffs open this week, with Amherst and Almond-Bancroft at home, and Rosholt on the road.
Third-ranked Amherst (7-2, 6-1) received the third-seed in its eight-team Division 5 group and will host sixth-seeded New Holstein (6-3) in a Level 1 Playoff Game at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 19, while 10th-ranked and top-seeded Almond (8-1, 5-0) will host eighth-seeded Wabeno/Laona (3-5) in the Division 7 Level 1 Playoffs at 7 p.m. Friday, and seventh-seeded Rosholt (3-6, 3-2) will travel to face fourth-ranked and second-seeded Hilbert (8-1) in the Division 7 Level 1 Playoffs at 7 pm. Friday.
Amherst
Three-time defending WIAA Division 5 State Champion Amherst received the third seed in Division 5 Group D behind defending WIAA Division 6 State Champion and top-ranked Fond du Lac Saint Mary’s Springs (9-0) and sixth-ranked Cedar Grove-Belgium (8-1), and will open the playoffs against New Holstein.
“I told the guys on Sunday when we met, ‘nobody cares about what you did in the past, it’s a new season,’” said Amherst football head coach Mark Lusic. “And it’s the old cliche, ‘one game at a time.’
“There’s 32 teams left in Division 5, and our goal is to be one of 16 after Friday night,” he said. “So we’re excited.”
New Holstein advanced to the Level 2 Playoffs last year, and has been led again by a pair of returning starters in 245-pound senior fullback Tyler McCoy (1,132 yards rushing and 15 touchdowns on 177 carries) and senior quarterback Teddy Schnell (47-of-73 for 687 yards, with five touchdowns and two interceptions, 452 yards rushing and six touchdowns on 82 carries).
“We scrimmage them every year in the four-team scrimmage we’re part of,” said Lusic. “They’re big up front, they’ve got two big offensive tackles, they’ve got to be 6-foot-plus, 275-plus.
“Their quarterback’s pretty athletic, he can do a lot of good things, and their fullback’s a big guy, he can definitely pound the rock inside,” he said. “And defensively, they’ve got some pretty decent team speed, so we’re going to have our work cut out for us.”
New Holstein is 2-3 in its last five games, with losses to Two Rivers (29-7), Valders (34-33) and Kiel (21-0), while it lost at Amherst 49-12 in Level 1 of the 2015 playoffs. The winner Friday night will advance to Level 2 to play at second-seeded Cedar Grove-Belgium or host seventh-seeded Howards Grove (6-3) next week.
“Don’t give up the big play,” said Lusic. “And I’ve been saying it all year; we’ve got to be able to capitalize on opportunities.
“(Last) Friday night was missed opportunities, and we’ve just got to make plays,” he said.
Almond-Bancroft
After winning the Central Wisconsin Conference (CWC)-Small Title outright last week, Almond received the top seed in its group, and will be at home to face eighth-seeded Wabeno/Laona Friday.
“It was big getting the No. 1 seed,” said Almond-Bancroft football head coach Andrew Bradley. “There are some good teams in our bracket, but it shows the respect that people have for us, and now we just have to do our part as a team and go ahead and take care of business each week.
“We talked about one game at a time, and it is good to be home,” he said.
Wabeno/Laona finished 3-3 in the MONLPC-Small to receive a playoff berth and has been led this season by senior running back Derek Moravec (242 yards rushing and three touchdowns on 65 carries) and senior quarterback Jake Christianson (38-of-82 for 670 yards, with five touchdowns and eight interceptions).
“They like to throw the ball around a little bit, and they have some athletes,” said Bradley. “And defensively, they have kids that do a nice job for them.
“It’s a team we’re not familiar with, but at the same time they’re not familiar with us,” he said. “That’s the playoffs, we get to face somebody we haven’t seen before.”
The top seed would give Almond home-field advantage in the first three rounds of the playoffs, while the winner Friday night will advance to take on either fourth-seeded Pittsville (8-1) or fifth-seeded Wisconsin Rapids Assumption (4-5) in Level 2 next week.
“We have to do what we’ve been doing and execute offensively, and then slow down their passing game and their quarterback defensively,” said Bradley. “We’ve been playing well, and we just need to continue that.
“And like I said, the focus is on one game at a time, so it’s taking care of business this week,” he said.
Rosholt
The Hornets advanced to the playoffs for the first time since 2014 with a 45-0 win at home over Tri-County last week to finish 3-2 in the CWC-Small, and will be on the road Friday at Hilbert.
“It was our goal to get there,” said Rosholt football co-head coach Mark McHugh. “We’re very excited, and the kids are excited.”
Hilbert lost to Division 5 sixth-ranked Cedar Grove-Belgium 28-21 in overtime Oct. 5 to finish second in the Big East Conference, and has been led by junior running back/linebacker Evan Lau (1,070 yards rushing and 20 touchdowns on 138 carries, 102 tackles on defense), senior quarterback Grant Popson (520 yards rushing and eight touchdowns on 113 carries, 11-of-33 for 257 yards passing, with five touchdowns and one interception), and sophomore running back Dylan Dohr (509 yards rushing and nine touchdowns on 72 carries).
“We know we’re going against one of the state’s top D7 programs in Hilbert,” said McHugh. “They’ve been up there for years, and they are a power football team.
“They will run it and they challenge you to stop them, and we definitely have a daunting task in front of us,” he said. “But we love the kids’ attitudes this week, and they’re looking forward to that challenge.”
Hilbert won 56-13 at Almond in the Level 1 Playoffs last year before it fell 19-0 at Wild Rose in Level 2, while with the winner Friday night will play either ninth-ranked and third-seeded Reedsville (8-1) or sixth-seeded Suring (3-6) in Level 2 next week.
“We can’t beat ourselves, we’ve got to virtually eliminate our mistakes,” said McHugh. “We’ve just got to execute, and it’s all going to start on the line of scrimmage.
“If we can execute on the line of scrimmage, specifically offensively, that’s going to be our success,” he said. “If not, then we’re in for a long night.”