Pacelli Catholic High School sophomore running back Brycen Cashin leaps over a defender and breaks the tackle attempt from another during the Cardinals’ 40-14 loss to Rosholt at Community Stadium at Goerke Field Friday, Sept. 27. (John Kemmeter photo)

Portage County Gazette

By John Kemmeter

The second-ranked Amherst High School football team will have a chance to clinch a share of the Central Wisconsin Conference (CWC) Large Title when it hosts Division 6 seventh-ranked Manawa, while Division 7 sixth-ranked Almond-Bancroft can wrap up a share of the CWC Small Title when it visits Wild Rose at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 4.

Rosholt will battle for second place in the CWC Small when it plays at home against Pittsville, Stevens Point Area Senior High School (SPASH) will battle for the Ol’ River Jug when it visits Wisconsin Rapids Lincoln, and Pacelli will be at home to take on Menominee Indian in Week 7 of the high school football season.

Amherst

Amherst (6-0, 4-0) clinched a spot in the playoffs with a 35-7 win at Bonduel last week, and will look to wrap up at least a share of the CWC Large Title when it hosts Manawa (5-1, 3-0) in its Homecoming Game Friday night.

“Homecoming week’s always exciting,” said Amherst football head coach Mark Lusic. “The kids always enjoy it, there are a lot of things going on, but we’ll be ready to go Friday night.

“Manawa’s a very good team, they’ve got a lot of talent, a lot of speed, and their quarterback makes them go,” he said. “So we’re going to have our hands full.”

Sophomore Jake Hoffman (2), junior Noah Ostrowski (51), junior Kaden Oleson (78), senior Nic Dombrowski (50), junior Eugene Gregorich (52) and the Amherst defense will look to slow down a Manawa team that is averaging 34.5 points per game this season. (John Kemmeter photo)

The Falcons won 40-21 last year at Manawa, which finished 6-4 last season and advanced to Level 1 of the Division 6 Playoffs. This season, Manawa lost 36-30 to Division 5 10th-ranked Kewaunee in Week 2, but rolled 55-6 over reigning WIAA Division 6 State Champion Iola-Scandinavia (1-5, 1-3) at home last week for its fourth consecutive victory.

“They’re kind of like us, they don’t run the same stuff, but they want to spread teams out, and they’re 50/50 run-pass,” said Lusic. “Defensively, they want to get after you and put a lot of pressure on the quarterback and make you make plays.

“They’re playing at a high level, and the winner of this game is in control of their own destiny for the Conference Title,” he said. “And that’s what’s fun about it.”

Almond-Bancroft

With a playoff berth already secured, Almond (6-0, 3-0) will look to clinch at least a share of the CWC Small Title when it travels to face Wild Rose (0-6, 0-2) Friday.

“It’s definitely a rivalry with Wild Rose, and most importantly, we need to continue winning games here in the conference to get that Conference Championship,” said Almond-Bancroft football head coach Andrew Bradley. “It’s an important one to say the least, if we want the Conference Championship.”

The Eagles won 41-0 last year over Wild Rose, which fell 47-8 to Weyauwega-Fremont (1-5) at home last week and has scored a total of 26 points in six games this season.

“They lost some skill kids from last year and they’ve kind of been struggling a little bit, but you can see improvement in them each week, and being a rivalry game, I can guarantee they’ll be ready for us,” said Bradley. “Rivalry games, you can kind of throw the records out the window, and you just have to be ready to play right away.

“We’ve really come out on fire the last couple of weeks and played well right away in the first quarter, that’s what we’re looking for, and then we need to do a better job in the middle of the game,” he said. “I’m still looking for that first game of the year yet when we can play a solid four quarters.”

SPASH

SPASH (0-6, 0-5) will battle for the Ol’ River Jug when it hits the road to take on rival Wisconsin Rapids Lincoln (2-4, 2-4) Friday night.

“This is always a great rivalry, and in the past it hasn’t mattered what the records are of either team, you’re going to get an outstanding effort from both ballclubs,” said SPASH football head coach Pete McAdams. “Right now Wisconsin Rapids is clawing and doing everything they can to keep their playoff hopes alive, and I think we know that we’re definitely the underdog in the situation that we’re in right now, and our goal is to keep that jug.

“It’s one of the longest rivalries in the state for high school sports, and part of our responsibility as coaches is also sharing that history with these kids and making them have a true appreciation for what alumni have done years ago,” he said. “For a long, long time, everything’s been a little bit heightened with emotions and with the passion that kids play with for this game.”

The Panthers won 55-7 over Rapids last season to take home the Ol’ River Jug for the second year in a row, while Rapids lost 37-7 at Marshfield last week, and has wins this season over Oshkosh North (27-9) and Appleton West (28-12).

“I want to see them keep their chins up,” said McAdams of his team. “It’s hard because we’ve had very little success right now, so I understand where they might be coming from, but the fact is, if their heads go down, nothing good is going to come from that.

“So I want to see resiliency out of these young men,” he said. “And playing hard and playing together like we’ve preached about for the last three years.”

Rosholt

Coming off a 40-14 win over Pacelli last week, Rosholt (3-3, 2-1) will be able to secure a spot in the playoffs when it hosts Pittsville (3-3, 2-1) for Homecoming Friday night.

The Hornets are tied for second place in the CWC Small with Pittsville, which won 41-0 at home over Rosholt last year, and fell 14-0 at Potosi/Cassville (4-2) in a nonconference game last week.

Pacelli

Pacelli (1-5, 0-2) will be at home for the third week in a row when its hosts Menominee Indian (2-4, 1-2) in a CWC Small matchup Friday night.

“It’s always nice to be at home at Goerke on Friday nights,” said Pacelli football head coach Drew Nelson. “It’s one of the better fields in the state, and it’s a special place to play.

“Menominee Indian’s going to present a different challenge that we haven’t seen this year,” he said. “They’re going to try and throw the ball a little bit more, their quarterback (Tiger Dixon) just eclipsed 1,000 yards for this season, and they’ve got a pretty talented wide receiver (Andre Corn).”

Menominee Indian lost 34-14 to Deerfield (1-5) last week, and earlier this season won 36-2 at home over Wild Rose in Week 4, for its first win in the CWC Small since it returned to the conference after it played eight-man football from 2015 through 2018.

“Hopefully we can throw some stuff at them defensively, give them some wrinkles, and then we’ve got to obviously shore up our offense,” said Nelson. “Going through the stats this week, we’ve had nine drives of 14 or more plays, so we’ve had some really long drives, and we just haven’t been able to put the ball in the end zone due to self-inflicted penalties, or something to that effect.

“We’ve just got to do a better job of getting the ball into the end zone,” he said.