Sevastopol pulls away from Blazers
The Sevastopol football team ended a 40-year drought without a conference title last season by winning a share of one as part of a three-way tie.
The Pioneers aren’t interested in sharing again this year.
The Pioneers took another step towards winning an outright championship Saturday with a 50-14 victory at N.E.W. Lutheran.
Sevastopol scored 48 points in the second half to separate itself and remain the lone unbeaten team in MONLPC-8-man play.
If the Pioneers can keep up this pace, they’ll claim the program’s first outright conference title since going undefeated in 1960.
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“This was huge,” Sevastopol coach Ron Frank said. “This was going to be a big stumbling block for us. We beat them last year, but it was a really tight game up at our place.”
After going into halftime tied 8-8, the Pioneers (4-1, 4-0) forced three turnovers in ultimately pulling away from the Blazers on the scoreboard.
Junior Ethan Kroll rushed for 153 yards and a touchdown in addition to throwing for another score, while senior Jacob Welsing rushed for 61 yards and a TD and threw for 65 yards and a TD in the win.
Senior Hunter Evenson added 98 yards on the ground and a score as the Pioneers compiled 423 rushing yards on the day.
Junior Jeremy Jorns made 10 tackles and junior Max Krohn added eight stops with a sack. Junior Nathan Stenzel made two interceptions, including his first at the end of the third quarter that led to a Kroll 22-yard TD scamper to put Sevastopol up 36-14 in the opening minute of the fourth quarter.
“The seniors wanted it and got it done,” Frank said. “Jacob put the offense on his shoulders and made some pretty big plays.”
This is the Pioneers’ fifth year playing as an 8-player team and the transition has helped the program rebuild its numbers.
“It’s huge for our school,” Frank said. “I remember when we were 260 or 265 (students). Now, we’re 160 or I think 175. The last 11-man game I coached in 2012 we had 24 (players). We went 2-7 that last year. We have 24 out this year, and I’m hoping to get 30 out next year because we have a really good middle school program. Winning breeds winning, so the kids want to be a part of it.”
Senior Bennett Reisler scored N.E.W. Lutheran’s first touchdown in the first quarter and junior Luke Bukowski tied the game by rushing in the 2-point conversion attempt.
Bukowski connected with junior Christian Cornell for a 17-yard scoring strike midway through the third quarter to close the gap to 22-14 as the Blazers hung with a deeper Sevastopol team for the better part of three quarters.
“Obviously, we played them toe-to-toe the first half,” N.E.W. Lutheran football coach Dick Hasseler said. “Really what happened is we just ran out of gas. We played with nine guys (rotation). We played 10 guys when we had to, but we just ran out of gas and they kept bringing it.”
The Blazers have seen great success as an 8-player team since making the transition in 2012. They have gone 41-8 the previous five years, advancing to the WIAA Jamboree each time.
While its hopes of winning a fifth straight conference title took a big hit Saturday, N.E.W. Lutheran (3-2, 3-2) is aiming to put together another winning year in what is the school’s 10th season of play for the football team.
“We play each game as hard as we can,” Hasseler said. “We don’t have a lot of numbers, but we have guys with heart that are just going to keep bringing it. We had a great leadership class with our captains, and I know they’ll keep this team pumped up. They’ll keep the attitudes good, and we’ll just keep battling.”
Sevastopol defeated N.E.W. Lutheran on Sept. 16, 2017 in a MONLPC-8-man football game.
Posted by Preps Agenda on Sunday, September 17, 2017
Sevastopol 8 0 20 22 – 50
N.E.W. Lutheran 8 0 6 0 – 14
First quarter
SEV – Jeremy Jorns 11 pass from Ethan Kroll (Charlie Carmody run)
NEW – Bennett Reisler 11 run (Luke Bukowski run)
Third quarter
SEV – Spencer Evenson run (Run failed)
SEV – Hunter Evenson 34 run (H. Evenson run)
NEW – Christian Cornell 17 pass from Bukowski (Run failed)
SEV – Alex Krause 26 pass from Jacob Welsing (Run failed)
Fourth quarter
SEV – Ethan Kroll 22 run (Carmody run)
SEV – Zach Christiansen 3 run (Run failed)
SEV – Welsing 52 run (Pass good)