West De Pere wins slugfest over Seymour
Nobody would have thought one of the warmest days of the year in Northeastern Wisconsin would come at the beginning of fall.
West De Pere and Seymour both weren’t expecting their offenses to cool off when they met Friday, either.
The Bay Conference rivals played to the tone of an old-fashioned, defensive slugfest instead.
The Phantoms held on for a 13-6 victory in it to remain undefeated and officially clinch a WIAA playoff berth for a 14th straight year.
“I didn’t think they were going to hold us to six,” Seymour coach Matt Molle said, “And I didn’t know if we could hold them to 13. It ended up a little different than I thought it was going to be.”
Each team was held to a season-low point total and failed to produce any points in the second half.
West De Pere (6-0, 5-0), which was averaging 40.8 points per game entering the contest, was limited to a season-low 231 rushing yards after it had previously gained over 300 yards on the ground through its first five wins of the season.
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“We’ve been struggling in pass coverage, and we’ve been struggling to throw the football,” West De Pere coach Jack Batten said. “So, who would have thought that our pass coverage and our passing game would have actually won us a football game? That’s kind of the way things went tonight.”
The final points of the game came when freshman Josh Blount found junior Garrett Kempen in the back of the end zone for a 20-yard touchdown with 1 minute, 21 seconds remaining in the first half. Kempen overcame being interfered with on the play to get his feet in bounds for an amazing catch.
Kempen started off the second half by collecting one of West De Pere’s two interceptions on the night, which ended with him breaking up a fourth-down pass attempt in the closing seconds when Seymour had moved to the Phantoms’ 38.
“Our coverage was awesome today and that could get us to the quarterback,” said West De Pere junior Jake Karchinski, who accounted for one of the Phantoms’ three sacks.
Karchinski was playing through shoulder and legs injuries. Meanwhile, the Thunder (3-3, 3-2) was playing through multiple injuries on its offensive line, including missing senior Adam Smith and having senior center Mason Hebb not be able to finish the game.
“Mason has gutted it out,” Molle said. “The guy that came in for him, Wyatt Daub, has been dealing with a sprained AC joint. It’s unfortunate, but when you get to Week 6 that’s football. I give Mason credit for going at it because he’s not 100 percent when he’s going. This is a tough defensive line to have to go in front of. That’s kind of how that stuff works out unfortunately.”
After winning shootouts the previous two weeks against Luxemburg-Casco and Appleton Xavier, Batten was happy to see his defense step up in limiting Seymour to 208 yards of offense.
“James Daanen and Clayton Ott did a good job of getting pressure,” Batten said. “And then our big guy in the middle, Dylan Danforth, did a good job with their trap and belly stuff by anchoring our defensive line.
“I think you have to be able to win football games in a myriad of ways. In the previous five weeks, we put up 35 points and made teams chase us. Tonight, we only scored 13 and our defense had to be stout. I’m a little frustrated with our offensive impotence you could call it, but (Seymour’s) Todd VanDeHei does a real good job with their defense. But I’m really pleased with how our defense responded from the previous two weeks and how we played.”
Daanen, a senior, had a sack and forced fumble, while junior Alex Spitzer had a sack and two tackles for loss overall in totaling a team-high eight tackles.
Senior Tristan Jindra’s interception with 8:16 remaining in the game gave West De Pere the football at the Seymour 34 and a chance to seal things, but the Thunder held tough at its goal line and limited the Phantoms’ to a missed field goal with less than 3 minutes remaining.
Seymour took a 6-0 lead by marching 60 yards in eight plays and scoring on a Hunter Clark 12-yard touchdown on its first drive of the game.
It found it difficult to get much going after that with its remaining possessions resulting in five punts, two turnovers and a stop on downs as it had an average starting field position as its own 23-yard line for the game.
Senior Devin VerVoort completed 9-of-21 passes for 114 yards, while Clark, a junior, rushed for a team-high 51 yards to lead Seymour.
Senior John Rydzewski had a monster game for the Thunder defense by making 11 tackles, including 10 solo stops and three tackles for loss.
“We haven’t put together and offensive and defensive game where we complemented each other yet,” Molle said. “I thought our defense has gotten better the last two weeks. Offensively, I think you have to give West De Pere a lot of credit because they did some good things. We had too many penalties and turnovers. We have to clean that up. Field position, penalties and turnovers was the difference in a one-score game tonight.”
West De Pere had an average starting field position at its own 42. The Phantoms took the lead early in the second quarter by capping a 20-play, 88-yard drive with a 5-yard TD run by senior Austin Beaumier on third-and-1. It was one of 10 third-down conversions West De Pere made in the game.
Beaumier put up his usual numbers with another heavy workload, totaling 143 rushing yards on 32 carries.
Blount was held to 63 rushing yards on 26 carries and completed 3-of-4 passes for 37 yards with the TD to Kempen.
The Thunder will have to pick up at least one win in its remaining games to become playoff eligible and win two of its final three games to guarantee a trip to the playoffs for a ninth straight year.
West De Pere can secure a share of its first Bay title since 2012 next week with a win against Menasha.
“Every single week we try to improve as a blocking team and a tackling football team,” Batten said. “This week, we dramatically improved as a tackling football team, but did not block very well. Monday, I guarantee you we’re going to be going through blocking progression and staying on our blocks so we can get to linebackers. It’s just a matter of being fundamentally sound. We don’t trick people. We just want to play good, sound fundamental football.”
West De Pere beat Seymour 13-6 on Sept. 22, 2017 in a Bay Conference football game.
Posted by Preps Agenda on Saturday, September 23, 2017
Seymour 6 0 0 0 – 6
West De Pere 0 13 0 0 – 13
First quarter
SEY – Hunter Clark 12 run (Kick failed)
Second quarter
WDP – Austin Beaumier 5 run (Sawyer Grovogel kick)
WDP – Garrett Kempen 20 pass from Josh Blount (Kick failed)
Individual statistics
Rushing – SEY: Hunter Clark 8-51, Jamison Sassman 7-18, Tyler VanDeHei 3-10, Jack Schuh 5-9, Devin VerVoort 7-6; WDP: Austin Beaumier 32-143, Josh Blount 26-63, Cody Cavil 4-24, Emmit Herrsher 1-2.
Passing – SEY: Devin VerVoort 9-21-2-114; WDP: Josh Blount 3-4-0-37.
Receiving – SEY: Josh Krause 2-34, Jamison Sassman 3-27, Hunter Clark 2-13, Peyton Dorn 1-27, Cayden Waller 1-13; WDP: Garrett Kempen 1-20, Cal Jensen 1-15, Emmit Herrsher 1-2.