O-line lifts Notre Dame past L-C
Michael Rader has been waiting patiently to see this.
The Green Bay Notre Dame football coach finally got to watch his offensive line take over a game.
The Tritons totaled 237 yards in the second half and scored on all four of their possessions over the final 24 minutes of play to topple Luxemburg-Casco for a 33-13 victory Friday in a WIAA Division 3 first-round game at Ted Fritsch Field.
Notre Dame (8-2) advances to face undefeated Kewaskum (10-0) next week on the road.
If its offensive line can continue to play the way it did Friday, the Tritons just might able to pave a path to a third straight state appearance.
“They’ve struggled and struggled a lot in the games that we’ve lost it was particularly a challenge because we couldn’t run the ball at all,” Rader said. “Then we couldn’t pass because Wes (Glime) is having to run around and trying not to do bad things.
“Today, he was pretty good from the quarterback spot because we gave him time. Mike (Gregoire) was able to find a couple of holes here and there and kickoff the big run we’ve been waiting for him to do really the last five or six games. It was by far their best performance.”
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The offensive line of sophomore Joel Meglic, senior Cole Peters, junior Fuzz French, senior Andrew Gruesen and senior Chris Kapic along with tight ends senior Matthew Rader and junior Josh Cribben cleared the way for the Tritons to record 373 yards of offense.
The group didn’t allow a sack, as Glime picked apart L-C’s defense to complete 17-of-24 passes for 255 yards with a pair of touchdowns.
Gregoire rushed for 103 yards on 23 carries with a pair of scores, including a 45-yard run in the fourth quarter to seal the game, which was a 10-7 contest at the half.
“We were feeling pretty good,” Gruesen said. “We figured if we could keep doing the same stuff that we were going with it would be OK. Sure enough, we came out with some points in the second half and got the win.”
The one thing the Tritons didn’t get a lot of in the first half was time.
L-C controlled the clock for 17 minutes, 12 seconds in the opening 24 minutes of play, including 10:19 in the first quarter.
The Spartans took a 7-0 lead with 42 seconds remaining in the first quarter on a 21-yard TD run by Nathan Coisman, who took several direct snaps behind an unbalanced line that L-C had success with.
However, the Spartans couldn’t convert their control of the clock into points. Their opening 15-play, 65-yard drive resulted in a lost fumble at the Notre Dame 7.
In the second quarter, L-C had a 12-play, 55-yard drive come to a halt on a stop on downs at the Tritons’ 13.
“I thought the offense played phenomenal in the first half and controlled the tempo of the game,” said L-C coach Dillon Maney, whose team totaled 182 of its 306 yards of offense in the first half. “I think that was one of the keys that we wanted to try to keep their offense off the field and we did a really good job of that because time of possession was definitely in our favor. But those were two key possessions that we had to come out with points in those. That’s part of it. When you play a good football team, you have to make those plays. If you don’t, they’ll come back and haunt you.”
Notre Dame defeated L-C 33-13 on Oct. 20, 2017 in a WIAA Division 3 first-round playoff game.
Posted by Preps Agenda on Saturday, October 21, 2017
Notre Dame put together a nine-play, 60-yard drive that culminated with Glime finding senior Jack Allen for a 28-yard TD to open the second half.
The Tritons followed with two more touchdowns drives of 64 and 55 yards in addition to getting a 41-yard field goal by Gruesen.
“They’re super tough to defend because they run the ball well,” Maney said. “Like last year, they throw the ball well because they always have a nice quarterback and a couple of nice receivers. It’s hard to match up.”
Notre Dame’s defense had another strong outing. It was the seventh time this season the Tritons allowed 14 points or less.
Senior Nate Gille made a game-high 14 tackles, while Allen recorded 11 tackles. Senior Isaac Sidon and sophomore Hunter Soletski each came up with sacks.
The Spartans (6-4) came up short against Notre Dame in the playoffs for a second straight year. L-C will have to replace 18 seniors, many of whom were major contributors since last year when it won the North Eastern Conference title.
However, the Spartans will have much of their lineup returning.
Junior Colton Worachek made a team-high 12 tackles Friday. Fellow junior Garrit Aissen completed 14-of-28 passes for 179 yards and a touchdown to junior Anthony Otradovec, who caught four passes for 110 yards.
Junior Ian Doell also made five catches for 56 yards, while Coisman, another junior, had a team-high 78 rushing yards on 15 carries.
“There are a lot of juniors on this team,” Maney said. “We’re going to expect big things out of them and continue to grow and keep pushing this program forward.”
Meanwhile, Notre Dame knows what it will have to do to keep moving forward in the postseason.
“We have to control our stuff,” Rader said. “We can’t control where we play. We can’t control what they do. We still have a lot of improvement to do, especially in that line. But they have to take care of their business.”
Luxemburg-Casco 7 0 6 0 – 13
G.B. Notre Dame 0 10 14 9 – 33
First quarter
L-C – Nathan Coisman 21 run (Will Derenne kick)
Second quarter
ND – Cade Vanhout 41 pass from Wes Glime (Andrew Gruesen kick)
ND – Gruesen 34 field goal
Third quarter
ND – Jack Allen 28 pass from Glime (Gruesen kick)
L-C – Anthony Otradovec 60 pass from Garrit Aissen (Kick failed)
ND – Mike Gregoire 2 run (Gruesen kick)
Fourth quarter
ND – Gruesen 41 field goal
ND – Gregoire 45 run (Kick failed)
Individual statistics
Rushing – L-C: Nathan Coisman 15-78, Austin Tlachac 9-7, Dakota Robinson 5-23, Colton Worachek 5-19, Garrit Aissen 4-3, Anthony Otradovec 1- -3; ND: Mike Gregoire 23-103, Max Pallini 2-5, Grant Shilbauer 1-4, Wes Glime 1-4, Brandon Limoni 1-2.
Passing – L-C: Garrit Aissen 14-28-0-179; ND: Wes Glime 17-24-0-255.
Receiving – L-C: Ian Doell 5-56, Anthony Otradovec 4-110, Austin Tlachac 3-18, Dakota Robinson 1-0, Colton Worachek 1- -5; ND: Mike Gregoire 5-47, Jack Allen 3-28, Avery Lyons 3-11, Max Pallini 2-39, Matthew Rader 2-13, Cade Vanhout 1-41, Mitch Chosa 1-5.