SPASH junior running back Joe Pecore (32) fights through a tackle attempt during the Panthers’ 42-7 loss to third-ranked Fond du Lac at Community Stadium at Goerke Field Friday, Aug. 30. (John Kemmeter photo)

Portage County Gazette

By John Kemmeter

Each of the five area high school football teams will be away from home for Week 3 of the season Friday, Sept. 6, as Amherst, Pacelli and Almond-Bancroft begin the conference season.

Amherst will play Wittenberg-Birnamwood at Community Stadium at Goerke Field, Pacelli is set to visit Pittsville and Almond-Bancroft will be on the road at Menominee Indian, while Rosholt will travel to Hurley and Stevens Point Area Senior High School (SPASH) is set to play at Neenah.

Amherst

Coming off a 14-7 win in overtime at back-to-back defending State Champion Fond du Lac St. Mary’s Springs, the second-ranked Falcons (2-0) will open the Central Wisconsin Conference (CWC) Large season against Wittenberg-Birnamwood (2-0) in Stevens Point at 7 p.m. Friday.

“It’s nice to be 2-0, but truthfully our season starts right now with conference,” said Amherst football head coach Mark Lusic. “This is where you’ve got to punch your ticket to the playoffs, and try to go chase conference.

“And that’s what we’re working on right now,” he said.

Amherst moved up from fourth to second in Division 5 behind top-ranked Stratford in the WisSports.net Coaches Poll this week following the win over now seventh-ranked Springs, while Wittenberg won 34-0 over Northland Pines in Week 1 and 49-6 at Crandon last week.

“Wittenberg’s got a nice team,” said Lusic, whose team won 42-0 at Wittenberg last year. “They’re 2-0, they’ve only given up one touchdown, and they’ve scored a bunch of points.

“They’ve got an attacking defense and they’ve got some nice talent on offense, they’ve got some players that can make some plays,” he said. “So we’ve got to come off this win from last week and put everything back together and just move forward, and take our next game one at a time. And that would be Wittenberg.”

Almond-Bancroft

After a pair of nonconference wins to start the season, 10th-ranked Almond will open the CWC Small season at Menominee Indian a 4 p.m. Friday.

“It’s good to be off to a 2-0 start, and now it’s the start of this season here, heading into the conference,” said Almond-Bancroft football head coach Andrew Bradley. “It’s kind of someone new, so it will be a little bit different, not knowing exactly what to expect.

“But we have film on each other, and we’re just focused on not making the mistakes we’ve made the last couple of weeks, and trying to take care of business on our end and see what that does for us,” he said.

Menominee Indian is back in the CWC Small this season after it played eight-man football from 2015 through 2018, and lost 59-0 at Rosholt last week.

“We’ve had too many penalties and turnovers in the first two games, against good football teams,” said Bradley. “That’s something that we’ve really focused on this week, being much more mistake free and playing a much more sound and more disciplined football game, and that’s where our focus is going into this week.”

Pacelli

The Cardinals (1-1) will play its first game in the CWC Small when it travels to take on Pittsville at 7 p.m. Friday.

“Pittsville’s a quality team,” said Pacelli football head coach Drew Nelson. “They had a tough game against Auburndale, and then bounced back pretty nice against Rib Lake/Prentice last Friday.

“They’ve got talent pretty much all over the field, so hopefully we can give them a little bit of a run on Friday,” he said.

Pittsville was 4-1 in the CWC Small last season to finish second in the conference behind Almond, and went on to advance to the WIAA Division 7 State Quarterfinals, while it opened this season with a 38-0 loss at Division 6 eighth-ranked Auburndale, then won 50-0 over Rib Lake/Prentice last week.

“We’ve got to see more effort and more tenacity,” said Nelson. “We’ve got to see the want and the drive to finish drives and finish the game out.

“If we can do that, and we come out enthusiastic, with high energy and a lot of focus, hopefully we can be in a position to be successful,” he said.

Rosholt

Off to a 2-0 start following a 59-0 win over Menominee Indian in its CWC Small opener last week, Rosholt will hit the road for a nonconference game at Hurley at 7 p.m. Friday.

“We’ve got a three-hour bus ride to Hurley to play a team that on film looks pretty solid,” said Rosholt football co-head coach Mark McHugh. “They’re a running team, they more or less pack it in tight and ask you to try and stop them.

“They show good size, and we think that’s going to be a pretty good challenge for us, especially from a run defense side,” he said.

Hurley (1-1) went 5-5 last year and reached the Division 7 Playoffs, while it is 1-1 so far this season, after it lost 44-16 at Turtle Lake in Week 1 and won 22-0 at Ashland last week.

“They’re a good running team, so we’re going to have to maintain the gaps and keep them under control,” said McHugh. “And if we can do that, we feel we can be in the game.

“It’s nice to have that (2-0) start, as far as momentum, and we hope to carry that on to Hurley,” he said. “It’s not going to get any easier, and we know that, and we’re going to have to continue to work hard to maintain that.”

SPASH

Following a 42-7 loss to third-ranked Fond du Lac (2-0) last week, SPASH (0-2) will play the third of its four Valley Football Association (VFA) crossover games to start the season when it travels to take on Neenah (1-1) at 7 p.m. Friday.

“One of the things I said to the guys right at the end of the (Fond du Lac) game is, ‘I really don’t care who we play next week, and it really doesn’t matter,’” said SPASH football head coach Pete McAdams. “We’ve just got to come out and play better football.”

Neenah opened this season with a 45-7 win at Wisconsin Rapids Lincoln, then lost 17-7 to Appleton East last week, while it won 24-6 over SPASH in last year’s season opener on the way to an 8-3 finish and a trip to the Division 1 Level 2 Playoffs.

“We’ve got to continue to work on our running game, from the standpoint of having some backs, other than the quarterback, that’s going to be able to break that long one,” said McAdams. “We’ve got to work on that balance, and these are the players we have, they’re going to give us everything they have, there’s no doubt, and we’re going to keep fighting for them and we’ll continue to do that day in and day out, week in and week out.

“But right now I think they’re going to get challenged more and more, not only just about effort and the execution on the field and during practice, but any time you have adversity, it’s real easy to start pointing fingers,” he said. “And I think that we’ve got the character necessary to stay together right now and keep staying the course and trusting in our process.”