RHINELANDER – The Wrightstown football team has earned the chance to take care of some unfinished business in Madison.
After losing in the WIAA Division 5 state championship game last season, the Tigers are headed back after rolling to a 47-16 victory over Northwestern in a state semifinal game Friday night at Mike Webster Stadium.
The Tigers improve to 12-1 overall and will play Stratford (13-0) in the championship game at 4 p.m. Thursday at Camp Randall Stadium.
“You’re always a little disappointed when you don’t win that last game, but this group of guys really dedicated themselves in the offseason and we talked about making a run again this year and they’re holding up their end so far,” Tigers coach Steve Klister said.
Senior quarterback Trevor Vande Hey accounted for five touchdowns for the Tigers. He had touchdown passes of 7 yards to Jaeden Kittoe, 12 yards to Kaden Colwell and 39 yards to Bennett Theunis.
The touchdown pass to Kittoe came after Northwestern fumbled on a kickoff return in the first quarter and Isaac Hendricks recovered. The scoring toss to Colwell came with 8 seconds remaining in the first half to give Wrightstown a 28-8 halftime edge, and the pass to Theunis came after Vande Hey avoided a sack, then took a big hit while delivering a perfect pass downfield to Theunis near the goal line.
Vande Hey’s 3-yard touchdown run had given the Tigers a 6-0 lead in the opening quarter and he added an 87-yard touchdown run in the third quarter, one play after Northwestern had scored to pull within 28-16.
“Trevor’s a D-I athlete. He’s going to go to Iowa and play baseball and he showed why tonight. He’s that caliber of athlete,” Klister said.
In addition to the fumble recovery by Hendricks in the first quarter, the Tigers got another turnover when Riley Feldkamp forced a fumble on a sack that was recovered by Bennett Hermann early in the second quarter, leading to a 31-yard touchdown run by Daniel Buntin.
“Those huge momentum swings really helped us tonight,” said Aiden Humphreys, who added an interception in the third quarter. “Honestly, I think it changed the game for us coming out and getting all those turnovers, especially that fumble recovery on the kickoff. It was great.”
Now the Tigers are headed back to Camp Randall Stadium, hoping to finish the job after losing to Aquinas 32-13 in last year’s title game.
It will be the fifth trip to the state finals for Wrightstown, which won the Division 5 title in 1998 and Division 4 titles in 2006 and 2011.
“It feels amazing,” Vande Hey said. “Our team’s been working their butts off this whole year. We knew we could do it again this year and it turned out we could, and I just feel amazing about it.”
MEDFORD – Fighting uphill by a significant margin is probably the last scenario any playoff football team wants to face with a trip to Madison on the line.
That’s the situation Winneconne found itself in after a slow first quarter in its 40-16 defeat to Baldwin-Woodville in a Division 4 state semifinal.
Baldwin-Woodville raced ahead 22-0, scoring 14 points in the first quarter and another touchdown to start the second. The Blackhawks’ powerful run game was as advertised, with 5-foot-10, 180-pound senior running back Taden Holldorf finishing with 197 yards on 27 carries and three touchdowns.
“It was a big hole and we hadn’t been down that much,” Winneconne coach Nate Ryf said. “But some nights it’s not your night. And it felt like it wasn’t our night.”
Holldorf eclipsed the 2,000-yard barrier for the season during the game and has 2,102 yards and 29 touchdowns heading into Thursday’s final against Racine St. Catherine’s. Baldwin-Woodville has 4,449 yards rushing and 62 touchdowns for the season.
Blackhawks quarterback Gavin Sell had a pair of short touchdown runs as well, and he totaled 136 yards on the ground. He also made several big pass plays during the game, with Baldwin-Woodville finishing with 470 yards of total offense.
Winneconne (12-1) pulled to within 28-16 late in the first half. Junior quarterback Brody Schaffer hit Kaden Hawthorne on a 49-yard touchdown pass on a fake punt with 9:21 left in the second quarter. Schaffer then connected with Ryan Quigley on an 8-yard scoring toss with 3:13 left in the half.
The Wolves got the ball back with under a minute left in the first half and moved the ball to the Baldwin-Woodville 2-yard line before time ran out. That turned out to be the closest Winneconne would get to making it a one-score game.
Baldwin-Woodville (12-1) rode the shoulders of Holldorf most of the second half, as he had a 28-yard touchdown in the third quarter and an 8-yard score in the fourth.
Winneconne’s program has risen significantly the past few years under Ryf. The team was 7-4 last season with a playoff victory and took another step this fall, winning the Bay Conference title with a perfect record and advancing to within one game of Madison.
“This was a special season,” Ryf said. “When you look at us from the start and pencil us into playing in the state semifinal tonight, I don’t think we would have dreamt of it really. The body of work that these boys did was amazing, the journey we’ve been on. But we played a really good team tonight in Baldwin-Woodville. That team is a great team.”
Winneconne senior receiver Jack Quigley said it was maybe a surprise that the team ended up one game from Madison.
“To be completely honest, I don’t think myself or anybody expected that we would be here,” he said. “Everybody put in the work and I’m glad we were able to make it happen. Definitely something special and definitely something I’ll remember.
“I’m glad I was able to surround myself with a great group of guys. I know we left it all on the field. Obviously, I wish we had won but I wouldn’t want it any other way. It’s been a hell of a season and I’m thankful for everything I’ve had this year.”
The team returns a sizable nucleus of its top players for next season, highlighted by Schaffer, Ryan Quigley, Hawthorne, leading tackler Trey Zemke, top lineman Hudson Samolinski and another key defender Jesse Michaud.
Schaffer, in particular, is one of the top weapons in the state and finished his junior campaign with 1,759 yards rushing on 185 attempts with 31 touchdowns. He also passed for 1,791 yards and 17 touchdowns.
“(Baldwin-Woodville) is a great team over there and we knew we came out slow and we can’t do that,” Schaffer said. “That’s something as a team that we have to bring into next year and have to work on. We can’t come out slow and we know that. We kind of shot ourselves in the foot.”
